Audio, 30th August

As the sweat dripped off the low ceiling at Audio and a heavily-tattooed Wade MacNeil ordered his band to strip to the waist, it was clear Black Lungs were in no mood to mess around. A side project from his usual role as guitarist and backing vocalist with Ontario’s post-hardcore emo-screamos Alexisonfire, Wade was in the UK to showcase music from his recently released album ‘Send Flowers’.

Featuring Moneen’s Haris Cehajic on keyboards, Alexisonfire bassist George Pettit and on drums, Liam Cormier from Cancer Bats, the core sound of this ‘supergroup’ differs considerably from the full-on aural assault of AOF, which counterpoints emotive vocals with ear-bleeding screams. Instead, Wade opts for a more conventional stripped-down approach, blending basic punk progressions with elements of rock, folk (and even a hint of psychobilly), over simpler piano and guitar lines.

As he powered through a ferocious set of blistering tunes, it soon became evident that this was very much an introspective and personal project, dealing with subjects close to his heart: death, suffering and religion. On ‘In Memory’, a fiercely heartfelt cancer ballad about his relationship with, and death of his grandfather, Wade snarls: “chemo doesn’t work, radiation was a sin”. And on the sonically explosive Queens of the Stone Age-esque ‘Fire and Brimstone’, he takes an incisive swipe at religious hypocrisy – a gritty, angst-fuelled attack full of bristling guitar chops over Wade’s gruff, 40-a-day, whiskey-soured wail.

Although dealing with weighty themes, the band’s sheer onstage energy and vitality ensures the music is never depressing. A dark humour also pervades Wade’s finely crafted lyrics, negating any element of self-indulgence. On recent single ‘Hold Fast (Sink or Swim)’, which the bassist promises is ‘sweatier than Ricky Gervais’, Wade comes closest to his other band’s trademark high-octane noise-core. Yet Wade’s refined voice and intricate guitar melodies raise it above any discordance. The raw intensity of ‘A Blessing and A Curse’ comes on like Foo Fighters at their most frenetic, whereas the upbeat ‘For Her’ flags a bit with its fuzzy melodies and pub-rock singalong sound – although that may be down to Audio’s rough acoustic.

Black Lungs create a big sound far in excess of the small stage on which they play. Wade’s simple, stark songs have a gritty feel to them, conveying a depth of emotion about everyday life that is devoid in many other bands – something that the support act The Loyalties could learn from, whose rasping vocals, familiar punk riffs and Clash/Generation X karaoke pastiches seemed trite and hackneyed in comparison.

Die-hard Alexisonfire purists would probably think this gig too light and fluffy, and the small crowd of about 50 people belied what was an excellent, tight set on the last leg of their UK tour. Broken Social Scene and Holy Fuck aside, there has been a real paucity of musical talent to come out of Canada over the past few years, but Black Lungs have coughed up an estimable frontman in Wade MacNeil and created music that is intelligent, honest and cliché-free.

 

Words by David Gallienne
Photographs by David Stock