Cartel
W/ Cobra Starship, Boys Like Girls & New Atlantic
Mar. 14, 2007
The Phoenix Concert Theatre

March 14th wasn’t the best night to attend a concert at the Phoenix. Even though the show wasn’t highly priced, it had a hard time living up to expectations.

New Atlantic kicked off the show and did a great job for an opening act. Most of the crowd had never heard of them and it was most likely because this was their first show in Canada. The best way to describe their music would be pop-punk music in the background of a movie scene that people talk over. Being very non-descript is often a plight of bands that are newer to touring and it really showed during their set. They do have potential to move up the ranks with time though. The most entertaining part of their set turned out to be when their guitarist, in an attempt to stand on the stage speakers and get closer to the crowd, stood up too quickly and hit his head on the overhanging side speakers. Thankfully, he was ok.

Next up was Boys Like Girls who played on a talent level of the headliners. They garnered some great reaction and thrived off of it. Most notably, there was a teenager with a Mohawk who must have confused this concert for something of a punk show. It’s sad that kids these days think that bands like this one and Cartel are punk. There were a few issues with feedback and sound off of the guitars that were noticeable but Boys Like Girls still put on a fairly enjoyable set.

The band that truly should have been headlining the night was Cobra Starship. Their incredible energy and supreme stage presence have come off big at every concert I’ve seen of theirs. Lead singer Gabe Saporta even endured a bloody lip after hitting himself in the mouth with the mike stand while talking to the crowd. They played every song they could off of their lone album and got the crowd moving; even when he was singing in Spanish. To close their set, they played their hit “Snakes On A Plane” and since Gabe isn’t actually able to pull off the rap portion of the song, he went to the crowd for help. The only problem was that he couldn’t get someone who knew the verse until his third try reaching in. Gabe closed their set by diving into the crowd while screaming, “Don’t touch my shirt. It’s my New Kids On The Block shirt. I love this shirt. I love New Kids On The Block.”

Cartel opened with one of their few highly recognizable songs “Say Anything (Else)” off of the Madden 07 soundtrack. Singer Will Pugh should get due credit for his vocals which while average most of the time, come through strong on their softer songs. It should also be mentioned that he has a haircut that highly resembles that of comedian Dave Foley. A few songs into their set, they unveiled a new song which they described as “hard” but only turned out to be that way if you consider Yellowcard’s “Lights And Sounds” hard. The undisputed highlight of their set was their surprisingly good rendition of Oasis’s “Wonderwall.” It can be hard to play a really good version of that classic but Cartel pulled it off nicely.

About mid-way through their headlining set, it became fairly apparent to me and most of the crowd the Cartel has no business headlining a show and even less business a tour. Their pop-punk stylings were comparable to a band that would normally be third on the billing and were hardly better than average. It wasn’t too hard for their supporting acts to come off better in comparison to them.

Towards the end of the night, the crowd was obviously dissipating and barely moving or giving a reaction to them. It became obvious they had lost the audience when people started filing out before their set had come to a close. To end the night, they thanked the crowd and played “Honestly.”

A few lessons were learned at the show but none were more apparent than not to invest much into bands that have no business headlining. Your night will end in disappointment.

- Dan Bilicki




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