Photographs by Sean Chin.
It’s it!
What is it?
The call and response segment of Faith No More‘s hit Epic sounds like their meeting that brought the band together. Someone somewhere must have had a damn good reason to bring the gang back (their fixed line up from the mid nineties until they disbanded), because there was a show at the Sony Centre in Toronto that was performed by a band who was tight and at it for years (not a band who have reunited after over a decade of not being together). There’s a new album due this month, but this most certainly was not a promotional show for said release. This was an entertaining work of near-fantasy that truly brought creativity and talent to the forefront.
Opening the night was Mexican garage punk group Le Butcherettes. Led by front woman Teri Gender Bender, the trio dawned blood red robes and pranced around the stage. Their set was surprisingly fitting for Faith No More.
Then it was time. The set was caked in layers of bright white. This pure icing was cloaked underneath dark shadows and black lights, and thus everything glowed with a neon blue haze. There were pastel coloured bouquets of flowers planted everywhere on the stage. We were stuck looking at this bizarre-but-calming display for a while before the band came on. Luckily, Faith No More fans have to be some of the most entertaining out of any group I have ever witnessed. Some people were so drunk before the show even began that they sat in the wrong seats and had to be forced out, they cheered on the Blue Jays (not the right venue or time) and they were stumbling all over the aisles. There was a wide range of people young and old cling wrapped in their band t-shirts. Clearly, Faith No More have affected many and their reunion was a huge cause for a celebration.
The band came out in all white, and they were engulfed by the lights that dominated the white sets as well. Whatever colour the set had projected onto it, so did the band members. There were moments where the band was shut out in the dark but their coloured clothes remained with the tinted sets. It was a surreal set that clearly had much thought put into it. The band played a huge array of hits, from old material and even from their new album. Songs transitioned nicely into each other, and this is not an easy accomplishment when you’re a part of any Mike Patton band (there’s a reason he’s known as the man with a thousand voices, and he almost always brings that variety into his bands). There was a large sense of professionalism.
That is with the exception of Patton’s upsetting banter, which either made you cry of laughter or cry out his name in anger. Given that Faith No More’s show was a part of Canadian Music Week, it was perhaps this factor that made Patton feel the need to poke fun at Canada. If you’re a fan of Patton, it’s clear that almost anything he does outside of his actual music is in jest. That still didn’t prevent some people from jeering. Well, this writer was having the time of his life. I will rank the Patton-isms of the night that are worth noting:
5: The moment where Mike Patton pointed to the balcony, yelled “this goes out to those of you in the cheap seats” and proceeded to sway his arm and dance in a Backstreet Boy way while people reacted with anger.
4: After a well known cover of Easy Like Sunday Morning by Lionel Richie, Patton quickly squashed the mood by saying this moment made the evening feel like some “high school dance shit”.
3: Once Patton noticed a fan in a green shirt air drumming, he pointed him out and said he was worth checking out. That fan proceeded to take off his shirt, which had Patton quickly suggesting that the fan put his shirt back on. A while later, Patton pointed out that man again and ordered him to take off his shirt. This resulted in what seemed like a spur-of-the-moment song where Patton repeated to scream “suck my dick” into the microphone.
2: Patton expressed his surprise that anyone was still here, as he felt we had some “hockey shit” to attend to. He then asked if it was curling that we were interested in, instead. He proceeded to repeat the word “curling” with an antagonizing curl of the noun to prod us even more.
1: Once a discussion of doing cocaine at prom commenced, Patton asked us Canadians what we did at prom instead: “Do you have incest at prom?”. The crowd’s reaction was so harsh that Patton had to calm us down by reminding us that he was “just kidding”.
Nobody was too hurt, though. Many fans kept trying to rush to the front of the theater to see the band as close as possible. They even tried to encourage me, by tapping my shoulder and trying to pull me along. I don’t blame them, as everything about this set was noteworthy. Everyone was on top of their game musically, the set was stunning, the banter was definitely memorable and the song selection was a breathing greatest hits record. Faith No More got back together only when they knew how they would continue as a band with power, and they most certainly showed that last night.
