BLAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!
Now that I have your attention, here's my review of Soul Glo's Le Festif! show on Friday night.
Le Festif! is known for promoting and championing Québécois(e) artists on their bill, but when they book international ones, they get some of the wildest they can find. Philadelphia's Soul Glo fit that bill emphatically.
Walking on to an epic orchestral string number, the hardcore punk quartet jumped right into a Fugazi-meets-Minor Threat-meets-Rage Against the Machine number with frontman Pierce Jordan screaming and yelping like tomorrow ain't happening. The band pulls plenty of influence from punk and hardcore, but also from industrial electronic music and metal — specifically, the kind of thrash metal guitars you expect from Slayer and early Metallica with the super fast tempos and breakdowns to match.
Wearing a shirt of Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album cover, Jordan commanded the stage with authority and plenty of gusto, the kind you expect from a band known for their raw energy and musical firepower which come through even more in a live setting. The mosh pits in the centre of the crowd seemed pretty tame to start, but the pushing and shoving only intensified from there.
The band's interactions with fans were limited (they would often just get right to the next song after finishing one), but whenever they happened, they could range from politically outspoken ("I don't care what anyone else is talking about. Free Palestine!") to hilariously nondescript ("We are Soul Glo from Philadelphia… I actually don't have shit else to say. Thank you so much for having us!").
Jordan — who lit up a joint and smoked it at one point during the set — can scream like the wind (and let out a few death growls while he's at it), and his delivery can make him sound like he's rapping and screaming all at once. But those in attendance also saw guitarist GG Guerra being a robust yelper in his own right. Toward the end, the members also swapped instruments, with Jordan on bass and Guerra on lead vocals. During the final song "Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?)," Jordan dialled back the screaming a little bit and simply said "merci" before he and the rest of the band walked off stage.
They were one of the heaviest acts on this year's bill (they were certainly the heaviest band I saw all weekend), and Soul Glo gave a hell of a performance that left quite the impression on those watching, showing a small Quebec town how fresh and invigorating their take on some very heavy genres can be.