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Moneen. Hot. Rockit.
Toronto
July 2, 2003
Few performers are as joyfully alive as Moneen's Kenny Bridges, but after half an hour of playing the infernally hot Rockit club, the frontman swears he's about to die.
"Seriously guys," Bridges tells the crowd as he clutches the mic, "I think I'm dying."
Pack four punk-rock bands and hundreds of kids in hoodies into a venue the size of your parents' rec room and things are bound to get uncomfortable. Last Friday night, it seemed someone had cranked up the heat inside the Rockit from toasty to blast furnace to depths of hell.
But the Moneen live experience is all about pushing limits - musical and physical - and Bridges pushed hard to carry the band through an electrifying show. This was the last stop on the Brampton foursome's Canadian tour for their new CD, Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now?, and that end-of-the-line euphoria was enough to keep them going.
Stripped down to his cargo shorts and drinking gallons of water, Bridges lived up to his hyperkinetic reputation. One of the show's high points came during the anthemic "The Passing of America", when the frontman climbed from speaker to balcony railing and sang while dangling over the steamy mosh pit. If someone could harness this guy's energy, the Rockit could power a much-needed ventilation system for years to come.
Bridges' bandmates, bassist Eric Hughes and dreadlocked guitarist "Hippie" Hughes, kept their clothes on and rocked hard before collapsing around the one hour mark. Drummer Peter Krpan kept the controlled chaos together, even when Bridges ran off stage and out the door ("to take a leak") early in the show.
For all their raw punk-rock energy, Moneen songs are actually complex, vocally demanding, melodic affairs. This is what sets them apart from other bands - like tourmates Counterfit and SelfMadeMan - who follow the stop-start, quiet-loud, yell-yell louder formula.
You wouldn't think a humble band of self-proclaimed "losers" from the suburbs would have such a rabid following in Toronto, but Moneen fans are hardcore. Every song, including the ones from the band's new CD, seemed to demand full-throated audience participation and an elaborate system of hand-clapping I never quite figured out.
The show's big finale - an anarchic cover of a Refused song featuring members of all the bands on the bill - ended with dozens of fans climbing on stage and taking their turn shouting into the mic. True to the spirit of punk-rock, there was no boundary between audience and performer, no sense that Moneen and friends were any different from the sweaty kids with their mohawks and ripped T-shirts. In the words of a fan after the show, it was totally punk-tastic.
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