Shit, no shows for Ottawa kids for over a month now, who to come along and save the day, leave it up to doughty locals District 7 with headliners, the formally (but not then) ‘Sewing With Nancie’ now ‘The Reason’ skate punks to get the craved ones out for a chaotic festive show. (Sorry, missed the opening bands because I was off doing an interview.)

First up, District 7’s speed and screams once again sounded melodious, live, they have yet to disappoint me. Opening strong with ‘All Time Low’ they got everyone who wasn’t feeling lame in the shithouse going. Kids were throwing up their fists, showing their support screaming out D7’s lyrics like an anthem it was amazing to see my favorite locals come so far. They also included in their set-list ‘Price of Perfection’, ‘Believe’ and lots of catchy breakdowns and jumps. Nothing vapid about them that night, they’re aggressive lyrics and unrelenting qualities, if unhitched have made D7 a growing marvel to watch. They highlighted and finished up their full sail set with their tragedian dulcet ‘East River Revolution’ winning over afresh more hearts and minds in the crowd.

I’ll still refer to them as ‘Sewing With Nancie’, since the transformation hadn’t yet occurred but regardless of their name, SWN played a wicked ass, hour long set that blew me away. The name change was a good call since live, they sounded heavier and different than on their albums, almost like SWN meets ‘Atreyu’ VS ‘Grade’. Pioneering their own genre, even their old songs were sang and played harder, now with more shouted lyrics and added energy. Starting off their set with ‘Fake Girl’ things kept getting better including ‘Downsview’ and ‘On Your Mark’. They also accepted requests, which didn’t include ‘Dave Steib’ but without doubt ‘Starbucks Sucks’ and their ‘Time After Time’ cover were out of the chosen to be performed. They also played two unreleased ‘The Reason’ tracks from their upcoming ‘Problems Associated With Running’ February release titled, ‘Sweet Clichés’ and ‘Tortoise’, both were salient and catchy as hell. You could tell special pride was taken in their new style when these songs were sung and they were very receptive as to how their fans reacted to the changes, most were extremely open. Definitely a step in the right direction, adjust or be dust, this mature melodic transformation was needed, no more songs about High School and parents, SWN now ‘The Reason’ have grown up, converged forces, struggling to break from the disenfranchising abyss of this industry to finally play their music the way they intend it to be, in a direction they’re choosing for themselves.