The Saint Alvia Cartel
W/ The Reason, Little Millionaires
February 7, 2008
Mod Club

If you live in Toronto and like rock and/or punk music chances are you’ve seen Saint Alvia Cartel or The Reason at least once in the past year. And apparently the right people have heard Saint Alvia’s self titled debut because a few days before this concert it was announced that they were nominated for a Juno in the Best Rock Album category. With this in mind it made going out to see them again even more interesting. As a Torontonian, we tend to not think about how well our bands our received elsewhere in the country, and ok, they’re from Burlington, but we’ll adopt them anyway. And even though most of us spent the day dragging ourselves through piles of snow, the trek to the Mod Club for an early show (ending before 10pm) was well worth the effort.

Opening band, Little Millionaires (consisting of some members from the now defunct Bombs Over Providence) started off the night with a raw, punky set that would be worth catching again. The best description I could think of was that they sounded like a cross between Attack In Black and Hostage Life. The high energy set had some downtime in between songs, but any guitarist that can keep going after breaking what must’ve been at least 3 strings during the set without stopping is one to watch.

The Reason are one of Ontario’s best live bands right now. With their blend of dance rock that has a little punk mixed in their songs seem to come alive onstage. Enigmatic singer/keyboardist/tambourine player, Adam White has no qualms about dancing around the stage and it just adds to the experience. Songs off their nearly year old release, Things Couldn’t Be Better, like lead single “All I Ever Wanted,” “This Is Taking Forever,” and “Unquestionable” all got good responses, but it was the recent single “We’re So Beyond This,” recorded with Sara Quin that got the biggest reaction. That the band can not only pull of the song without Quin but that they do it well is a testament to the talent in this band. By the time The Reason left the stage everyone was ready for Saint Alvia.

As great as Saint Alvia Cartel can be, their live show, at least when I’ve seen them, has been hit or miss. Well clearly getting nominated for a Juno (not that they mentioned it) was good for them because this was by far the best set I’ve ever seen them play. With 6 band members (all do some kind of vocals with Ben Rispin, Greg Taylor and Rob Pasalic switching off on lead) they have the advantage of giving the crowd something to watch at all times. With their mashed up punk/ska/reggae/rock sound they make you want to dance or at least bounce around with every song. “Try To Forget,” “Unspoken Bond,” and second single “Time To Go,” all had the near perfect energy that the crowd responded to. The band’s biggest single “Don’t Wanna Wait Forever,” was obviously the most popular, with it’s sunny tones (give it a good remix and some steel drums and you have the potential for a Caribana theme song), but it was when the band invited members of The Reason along with a few others onstage for “Stones On The Road,” that made the set. The amount these guys enjoy playing with each other was evident and just made me love them more. Whether or not they win the Juno almost doesn’t matter. After roughly a year in the Canadian music spotlight, Saint Alvia have hit their stride and should be seen whenever possible.

- Alyssa Caplin