If you happened to be among the sold-out crowd at Avalon on Saturday night, you may have felt like you were in some sort of strange, parallel universe. To many fans' astonishment, the order in which the groups appeared seemed to be intentionally backwards. Opening with a short, 30-minute set, k-os put on the best show by far, followed by P.O.S., then the mediocre RX Bandits, leaving the headliners, the Gym Class Heroes, who everyone came to see, as the worst performance of the night.
It was certainly an interesting spectacle to see Gym Class Heroes parade around on stage in their white and green attire, which made it seem more like a fashion show than a concert. Perhaps the outfits worked in the band's favor, though, as their music sounded just like it does on their albums: anticlimactic.
Gym Class Heroes has only put out two major albums, both in the last two years, and their sound is almost as boring as their lyrics. When a band follows up a song like "Taxi Driver," which just rattles off a list of emo bands, with a new song about how hard it is to write a song, it seems to fit the definition of uninspired writing. As excruciating as these songs were, later in the set was the even worse "New Friend Request," a nonsense song about, you guessed it, Myspace.com.
Though some might find this goofy, juvenile approach appealing, it certainly had no place appearing with such talented opening acts who, using different styles, shocked and motivated the crowd with inspiring lyrics. While P.O.S. got the crowd moving with his literally in-your-face, abrasive rap style and the Bandits performed their loud, fast reggae rock, k-os, a pseudonym meaning "knowledge of self," proved right at the beginning that he was capable of anything.
Americans may finally begin to notice k-os, who enjoys celebrity status in his home country of Canada, especially in the face of his best record to date, "Atlantis - Hymns for Disco" which was released internationally on Tuesday. The iconoclastic performer has a mixed reaction about the inevitability of fame: "I've experienced the rock star thing in Canada for a while, so I'm pretty prepared. I'm actually bored with it, but I'm interested to see what it means being that over here," he said.
Although the tragically short set could not possibly do justice to the wide range of k-os' styles, the opening slot is something he is used to, despite his fame. He explained, "It's kind of cool because there's not a lot of pressure on me ... In my home country I'm used to playing like an hour or hour and a half on tours." So, faced with no recognition and no expectations, k-os took the stage in front of a handful of die-hard fans among the sea of high school kids who had staked out the front row just to get a good look at the Gym Class Heroes a few hours later.
Such an environment seemed to be perfect for seeing k-os at his best. Needing to earn the crowd's respect, he put forth everything he had all at once, jumping around the stage, switching between singing, rapping and literally conducting his five-man band like it was the most common thing in the world. The band is what really makes a k-os show so special - they are more than just musicians for hire, as all but one have been playing and recording with k-os since his first album in the early 2000s.
"They all write their own music ... instead of reading someone else's line or playing someone else's stuff," k-os said, which gives his performance all the energy and spectacle of a rock concert.
In the midst of such a high energy, musically dynamic performance rests the brilliance of the truly poetic, inspirational lyrics that have always been at the core of k-os' style. His newer material, though, is less explicit in its message and leaves some room for interpretation, bringing the musical aspect to the forefront.
Asked whether this would reinforce the sad trend of overlooking brilliant lyrics, k-os said, "Yeah, but that's okay because I think I have other records where the message is right in your face and I think that sometimes when people just depend on the sound they forget about the lyrics ... they might hear the song when they are driving home one day or they are dancing to it or it comes on their iPod and they really check the lyrics and they've already had experience with it ... it's a cool way of reaching people."
After the Heroes' mediocre performance, it is likely that k-os will be the most lasting memory in concertgoers' minds. Perhaps next time he comes through the United States, he will be the one under all those lights, and all will be right with the universe.
