PROTOMARTYR w/ WEIRD NIGHTMARE
@ THE HORSESHOE TAVERN, TORONTO
JUNE 13, 2023
Protomartyr may be the greatest post-punk band of this generation. The Detroit group was formed in the early 2010’s by Joe Casey who needed an outlet after his father tragically passed away. The band’s music lives within the darkest corners of grief, inequality, and political misdoings. They commenced their 2023 tour on June 13 and brought The Breeders member Kelley Deal along with them for the ride.
Weird Nightmare, The Metz side-project fronted by Alex Edkins kicked off the night with an energetic set of really fun punk music. There were lots of people in the crowd who were quite curious and excited to hear this band live. Edkins’ new project has lots of the same characteristics as Metz, but simplifies things in a very catchy way. The audience loved it.
Protomartyr took to the stage about 30 minutes later. In classic fashion, Casey walked out with a glass of whiskey in his hand and a bottle of beer stashed in his suit jacket pocket. They opened with “Make Way” and then quickly dived into “3800 Tigers”, which draws parallels between the number of tigers left on earth and Casey’s favourite sports team The Detroit Tigers. A lot of the audience members were wearing Toronto and Detroit sports gear, a somewhat rare occurrence for punk shows, and an obvious homage to the frontman’s known admiration for his hometown sports team.
Kelley Deal’s backing vocals on “Pontiac 87” and “A Private Understanding” were hauntingly chill-inducing and her guitar on “Processed By The Boys” fit perfectly in place of the bass clarinet heard on the studio recording.
Casey’s wailing was distinctly loud and vulgar during the entire performance, especially during “Windsor Hum” where he sang with a belligerent and sarcastic drawl. For those that don’t know, the hum is a real phenomenon in Windsor, ON where some locals are tormented by a mysterious low-frequency buzzing noise. This noise originates across the river from a Detroit steel factory. Casey updated the audience, to some cheering, that the dreadful hum no longer exists as the factory closed down during the pandemic “Hey, you don’t like American workers? What the fuck!” he joked before playing more songs off their latest album, Formal Growth in the Desert.
The band treated their fans to an encore and played old classics “Jumbo’s”, “The Devil In His Youth” and “Why Does It Shake?” to a crowd that was now even more riled up than during the original set of songs. It was a show for the books.
(Photography by Cory Barter)
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