Wednesday October 16, 2002

LIVE: Danko Jones with Andrew W.K.
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
The Docks
Toronto, Ontario
October 12, 2002
by Darrin Keene

Andrew W.K. loves his fans.
How else to explain the steady throng of people joining A.W.K. and his band onstage throughout his opening set at Toronto's Docks? They came in all varieties. The beer guzzling jocks. The nerdy punks in their "Ready To Die" T-shirts. The buxom, loose-shirted rocker grrls, one of whom ended up on A.W.K.'s shoulders for a brief, clumsy second. The scrawny indie rock kids, complete with thrift store duds and trucker caps. The balding middle-aged dude practicing his "Sweatin' To The Oldies" moves. The Jeff Spicoli surfer-dude wannabes. There was even a burly kid decked out like Public Enemy's Flavor Flav. They came, they bum rushed the stage, they conquered.
Andrew W.K.'s music combines Ministry's blistering electronic death metal with the Ramones's primal punk urge, adding a dose of Springsteen-inspired melodicism for good measure. With such a mutant hybrid sound, it was no surprise that he would attract such a wide array of fans. "This is awesome!" he said after each song, as frustrated Docks staff tried to corral people off the stage. No matter - like the cat that came back, the fans were soon back onstage with A.W.K. and his band, who were giving them ample microphone time.
Even those not versed in the ways of A.W.K. were catching onto his lyrics. He tore through material from his I Get Wet album, including "Party Hard," "Party 'Til You Puke" and "It's Time to Party." At times, all you had to do was get up to mike, chant "Party, party, party" and you would've sounded in sync with the lyrics. A.W.K. also belted out gems like "She Is Beautiful," "Ready To Die" (which had those T-shirt kids pumped up) and "I Love NYC." In between his Dick and Jane rhyme schemes, A.W.K. would drop behind the three-guitar attack and lay into his keyboard like a metalhead version of Jerry Lee Lewis.
Come the finale, A.W.K and band were lost in a swell of fans. This reviewer can't remember the last time he saw crowd-surfing on the stage. As the last power chord resounded, A.W.K. stuck around to chat up some of the onstage faithful. In all, the show hearkened back to the vintage days of rock 'n' roll, when crowd participation both on and offstage was integral to the performance.
It was a tough opener for Danko Jones to trounce, although they put on their usual high-octane performance. What can one say about the meticulously-clad Caramel Kid, bassist JC and drummer Damon Richardson? This band is rock-solid and consistent. "How's home doing tonight?" asked Danko early in the show, a clear nod to the familiar faces in the crowd.
Danko mixed up the new and old, setting his pace with the trademark "Samuel Sin" and the stellar opener from his Born A Lion album, "Play The Blues." "Sugar Chocolate" had him proclaiming that you can "have a little bit of Andrew with your Danko," a clear shout-out to his opener. Things slowed a bit with the obligatory radio singles, "Sound Of Love" and "Bounce," which seemed too pedestrian for this seasoned audience. The pace thankfully picked up with "Word Is Bond," "Papa" and "Cadillac," all of which served as nitro injections into the band's fast and furious set.
Throughout these songs, Danko was his usual tongue-wagging, head-banging devil child. Richardson had built up a healthy lather behind the skins and JC was his usual solid foundation. The diminutive bassist was actually getting a healthy dose of shout-outs from the audience, which led Danko to protest at one point that "I am a jealous man!"
The encore brought out standard fare like "Mango Kid" before Danko exploded with fire and brimstone tale of his trials, tribulations and transcendence into his current-day persona. It made for an intense audio-visual spectacle, albeit quite different from the keg-party atmosphere of A.W.K.'s finale.
Who was the real headliner? Some chat groups later claimed that a significant number of people left after A.W.K.'s performance, but Danko was fuelled by a strong crowd. Both acts were worthy headliner material on this evening, but A.W.K.'s crowd-rousing finish admittedly would've made for a better closing moment than a mid-show climax.

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