Photo by John Ordean
When Vancouver rock duo Japandroids went into the studio to record their last album–2017’s Near To The Wild Heart Of Life–they set out to shift gears from their typically minimal, live-inspired sound. It was a sensible move for a maturing band with two solid, critically acclaimed LP’s under their belt, looking for their next direction. In a post-COVID, pre-vaccine, gig-free world, though, there’s a new sense of novelty in the basic facts of performance–of two people in a room, playing together, in real time, for an audience.
Their new live album, Massey Fucking Hall (ANTI-), is a time capsule of simpler days. It was recorded in 2017 at the eponymous 2752-seat Toronto venue, which has hosted the likes of Bob Dylan, Van Halen, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gilespie. (They originally planned to release it last week, but rescheduled in recognition of the Juneteenth holiday). Lead singer Brian King gives the record its title early on in the set: “Wow. Massey Fucking Hall. Wow,” he announces to the cheering crowd, with equal parts triumph and disbelief. “Thanks for being part of this.”
It may be just the right-sized room for Japandroids’ brand of soaring arena rock sentimentality, built on King’s guitar, drummer David Prowse’s coursing rhythms, and their combined talents as a two-man gang vocal section, yelling like hell to the heavens. It gives a sense of grandiosity to their deeply earnest lyrics, which culminate with an interstitial track where King beseeches: “I hope if you take away one thing from the set, one thing from this whole performance, even from this whole band, it’s from this next song.” That’s how he tees up “No Known Drink Or Drug,” the duo’s most heartfelt, sober-eyed love song, and a rare break from the shredding of their vocal cords.
Then they’re back to going all out, wearing down to a rasp by the time they close with “The House That Heaven Built,” as the two scream and thrash and laugh until there’s nothing left. The biggest distinction from the studio records is that sense of passing time and the dynamic flow of energy, with tracks like “Heart Sweats” drawn out for effect. Personally, if I’m not in the room, that kind of thing can drag a bit. Then again, they hold for guitar feedback and applause before the last chorus of “Near To The Wild Heart Of Life,” and even second-hand, the suspense is thrilling.
If you’ve never listened to a band before, a record full of noise from already-in-the-know fans is rarely the definitive starting point (though it does happen–Cheap Trick at Budokan comes to mind). For Japandroids, that honor still goes to their sophomore LP, Celebration Rock, which features most heavily in the tracklist of Massey Fucking Hall. But if you need a shot of the optimism and togetherness that live music offers like nothing else, you can’t do much better than this.
There’s maybe no more concentrated dose of that feeling than the live version of the surging, Springsteen-ian “Fire’s Highway,” with the duo at their catchiest and most anthemic (the lyrical use of “gypsy” being the unfortunate fly in that ointment). It makes the best case for the album as a whole–for the particular fun of Japandroids, and the life-affirming fun of live music in general.
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