Voivod at Call The Office (Concert Review)

Show Review: Voivod – Call The Office June 21, 2016

Finally, I have seen Voivod. This may surprise you, for all my ramblings regarding my taste of pop-sensible, hook-oriented hard rock that is more along the vein of sleaze and glam. I do have a love of heavy metal music. Such as Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax and the other of the “big four”. Throw in Suicidal Tendencies and D.R.I, I am a skater after all, and I am good. Voivod is not a band I want to categorize as metal. With their awesome time changes, non-standard metal vocals, amazing guitar work, and blistering drumming. As a teen in Montreal, I was too young even in that liberal city to get into the clubs such as Foufounes Electrique to see the band in the 80’s. I could not even get their records or tapes as I was yet old enough to venture downtown to the seedy record stores such as MARS or Rock En Stock. Nothing in the suburbs carried Voivod. How did I come across them? Thanks to MusiquePlus, the French equivalent to MuchMusic and MTV. I also had a buddy that had all their early vinyl. So after all this waiting they were coming to London, ON. My wife surprised me with tickets for both of us, have I mentioned how lucky I am?

The band took the stage promptly at 10:30; Call The Office was fairly packed for a Tuesday night. Right away they ripped into “Ripping Headaches”. Snake sounds amazing on vocals, Chewie on guitar is a phenom and as sad as it is that Piggy is no longer with us it was amazing to watch and hear him play. I also appreciated the numerous references from Snake to their lost brother bandmate. Away on drums is one of the best, he plays a single bass kit like it is double bass, unbelievable. Their set was tight, song for song, the crowd was right into it with plenty of “hey hey heys” throughout. This was the last of the above-mentioned metal bands I had yet to see and I am thankful I finally did. I managed to grab a few quick words with both Away and Snake after the show. Being the last on the tour they were in no rush to hit the road and gracious in my approach to extend my appreciation for coming to London, ON and their great music over the decades. While they did not play one of my faves as a teen, “Fuck Off & Die” (what teen doesn’t gravitate to a song such as this?) they did play “The Unknown Knows” which was not always played during this tour. They concluded with the Pink Floyd cover “Astronomy Domine”, although I like to think they really make it their song. I love the original, yet Voivod puts their style stamp on it to make it theirs. I wish they would have played “Clouds in My House”, but I know diehard fans were not big on that song, or the record it came from. I personally love it.

A true pioneering band, similar to Diamond Head, that the big names out there often reference as a major influence and love of. As do I.

Merci mon Amis!

• Blair De Abreu

BUY: Music

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