Epitaph Tour
The Matches
W/ I Am Ghost, The Higher and Vanna
February 24, 2007
El Mocambo

It started to snow hard pretty much as soon as the line up started outside the venue which made the extremely slow moving line up going into the El Mo seem that much longer. A lot of the crowd was still standing outside when Vanna hit the stage, but even from there you could hear how loud they were. Once we got inside, they were even louder. It’s amazing how much sound can come out of their pint sized singer.

The Higher were up next. As the most recent addition to the Epitaph team, not too many people know who they are yet. They played most of their debut disc, On Fire, during their set and their Fall Out Boy-esque brand of pop punk got a lot of the people moving regardless of not knowing the words. The singer has got good energy that is going to get better as they get more experience, but the boy needs a haircut desperately. It became clear from this point that every band on this tour was good friends as Jon Devoto ran out on stage to do some back up vocals and Brian Telestai of I Am Ghost came out for their finale and beat boxed for a cover of Usher’s “Nice & Slow.”

I Am Ghost burst out on stage next and ripped it up for their entire set with crazy amounts of energy. Right from their opener of “Our Friend Lazarus Sleeps,” it was clear the crowd loved them. Singer Steve Juliano spent more time in the crowd then he did on stage handing the microphone off to various fans to sing along. The rest of the band crammed on to the tiny El Mo stage, but looked happy to do so. Violinist and singer Kerith Telestai had a smile almost permanently stuck to her face, despite the fact that her mic was so low you could barely hear her singing (a shame since she has an amazing voice). They mixed up the set well between new and old stuff since this was their first visit to Toronto and the crowd went crazy for every second. A lot of people probably haven’t heard of I Am Ghost yet, but if that set is any indication they will soon.

About half of the crowd dispersed once I Am Ghost’s set finished, but those remaining were ready for The Matches. This was their first headlining tour and after playing on some big stages with some big bands they were ready for it. The came out fairly modestly with “Shoot Me In The Smile,” but didn’t remain modest. If you have ever seen Matches singer Shawn Harris on stage, you know the man has got some kind of energy. If he was five years old right now, his parents would probably fill him with Ritalin. Luckily he’s the front man of a band; therefore the spastic movements and odd faces only keep your eyes glued to the stage. The set consisted mainly of stuff off of their latest disc, Decomposer (they played almost every song on the disc), but they did add about four old songs.

If the oddities of Harris aren’t your style then his slightly saner sidekick, guitarist Jon Devoto, also kept all entertained. Their set was practically flawless in the end and the crowd returned the favour by singing along. When Harris asked for a ‘melody pit’ to assist then during “Salty Eyes” they got it and the crowds’ singing clearly surprised the band, as Harris looked a little emotional by the end. A one point or another you could see members of all of the other bands playing the tour watching and singing along backstage. Their roadie (I assume it was their roadie) took care of playing the triangle and guitars when Harris dove into the crowd head first. The came back for one encore of “Papercut Skin” before taking their leave and sending us back out into the snow.

- Stephanie Joudrey 










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