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Mad Caddies / Choke / Pulley

live in Winnipeg
2004
live show

Review by: lee dawson
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Published on March 19th 2004

The Frostbite Tour used to be called SnoJam, however, the name was changed to avoid confusion with the popular Sno Job Tour.

Anyway, Friday night, the west end cultural centre, Winnipeg. This venue used to be a church and is done up now as a cool venue. It's pretty small and this show was sold out a month before it rolled into town.

I missed Irish Car Bomb because last time they were here with No Use and weren't that great.

Next up was Closet Monster - a band I have not heard before but they seemed pretty solid. I liked their vocals and they seemed to alternate between two guys, one with a more melodic the other with a gruffier voice. They were OK, but nothing worth getting excited about.

Pulley, one of my favorite bands came next. These guys are awesome, releasing great album after great album. They played a fair mix, including runaway, gone, the ocean song and working class whore. I really enjoyed it and the singer was funny, he kinda looked like a punk rock version of snow (of informer fame).

Choke came next after a really short wait, just enough time to grab a beer. They were amazing. I was not a huge fan until tonight. I own "foreword" and "a story to this moral:, both of which they drew from heavily. Their new songs kick ass and they sounded really close to their albums - a good sign. Check out Choke if you can, they are an amazing band.

Lastly, but far from least the kings themselves - The Mad Caddies graced the stage. I love these guys. After seeing them 7 times I still come back for more. I do have to say, however, before reviewing their performance that they seemed a liitle tired, not quite as electric as usual, yet still worth the price of admission on their own. They played stuff off everything, including a really cool reggae medley which included all their reggae songs of their four albums merged into one long, chilling tune. Chuck was his usual beer swilling, spitting, swaggering self. that guy has real charisma and an incredible voice. the horn section was tight as always and bass, guitar and drums were all tight.

There was little banter with the crowd and they did seem a little jaded, however, Chuck seemed to get into more as the show went on and he drank more beer. It seems like they would be a cool bunch of guys to hang out with and party.

They played(in no particular order):

Just One More:

Drinking for Eleven
Contraband
Last Breath
Leavin'
Silence
Villains
10 West

Rock the Plank:

Mary Melody
B-Side
Days away
Weird Beard
All-American Badass

Duck and Cover:

Road Rash
Gentleman
No Hope
Macho Nachos
Monkeys

Quality Soft Core:

Goleta
Crew Cut Chuck
Big Brother

as you can see a really varied set. Their new album "Just One More" is great. Unfortunately they didn't play preppie girl or wet dog, but hey, it was still a really good time.

Check out this tour if you can. If not, definitely make your way to a mad caddies, choke or pulley show.

0 - Irish Car Bomb(missed them, sorry)
6/10 - Closet Monster
8/10- Pulley
8/10 - Choke
9/10 - Mad Caddies

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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 at 4:22 PM (EST)
My Score:

"Pulley, Ten Foot Pole, No Use, and Strung Out should join forces and create a superband. They should call it No Use for a Strung Out Ten Foot Pulley. Lame? Yeah. But I think it's a good idea.

Josh"

I think just taking strung out alone is more talented than all combined. Sorry, or at least close to it. Take the most talented guitarist(s), drummer and singer of those and probably the most talented bassist and you get everyone from strung out. So i say keep it how it is.

Now saying how would strung out sound with the horn section from the caddies? That would be something cool to think about.

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, March 31, 2004 at 4:18 PM (EST)
My Score:

Rock the Plank isn't slow. There are some slow songs but most of it is fast punk. The horns are almost gone on this cd. but they come back (just one more) so its all good.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 26, 2004 at 3:19 AM (EST)
My Score:

The only time I saw the Mad Caddies live they were opening for Strung Out at this eargazm show at the palace in Hollywood and to me they seemed really slow and boring......I wonder why??

Since then after hearing the song "leavin" on the fat wreck chords comp i've been in love with these guys and by no means are they a slow band.

Are most of the songs on Rock the Plank slow? I don't have that cd and it came out right before I saw them live so maybe that explains the slow set.

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 at 7:49 PM (EST)
My Score:

sorry i fucked up all the italics and bolds.

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 at 7:48 PM (EST)
My Score:

"There's no reason why Pulley shouldn't be headlining in tours with the Madd Caddies?! Are you kidding me? They're twice as talented, and their records are 10x better. "

Theres a new award to be given out on this site. It's called the dumbest most unthought of comment of the day award. Today it goes to this moron. Congradulations. I'm not going to go into which band is more talented but the Mad Caddies could be considered the most talented ska band out there, with the most talented horns without a doubt. Think about it.

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 at 9:01 AM (EST)
My Score:

Isn't choke from winnepeg or something?
maybe some place in midwest Canada. im pretty damn sure of this, Edmonton possibly?

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 at 11:50 AM (EST)
My Score:

mad caddies are awesome, if you live in texas come to the march 31 show at sin 13!

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, March 22, 2004 at 10:22 AM (EST)
My Score:

Hehe I say the show on Saturday night at the metropolis downtown montreal and it was fuckin awesome.... Pulley will always be one of my favourite; ! the mosh pits were hardcore!

Anyways thanks to all the bands, Closet monster were great as well, so was Choke and Mad Caddies of Course.
Jay-Es

Posted by bleachy on 2004-03-22 09:29:36
My Score:

saw this show in banff! pulley kick ass and were the highlight of the night! mad caddies was pretty good too! choke was so annoying... icb and closet monster, well no one give a fuck about them.
by the way, Molson bought the name SnoJam for their tour... that's the reason why it's the frostbite tour now for everyone that didn't know that yet!

Posted by mikeinflames on 2004-03-22 07:19:58
My Score:

bbwwwhahahahahaha!
that's hillarious
they probablly get that so much

Posted by Anonymous on Monday, March 22, 2004 at 4:38 AM (EST)
My Score:

Saw this show in Victoria. I thought the Caddies and ICB were the highlight, with Pulley being okay, Choke as annoying as ever (sorry, but it's true) and Closet Monster trying way to hard to pretend they're hardcore.

Funny store, well sorta... After the show we noticed a couple of the guys from Closet Monster walking down the street. My drunkass friend proceeds to casually ask them "How come you guys didn't play Skater Boi tonight?" They immediatly turned and walked away, clearly quite pissed off and not wanting to talk to us anymore. "Why you gotta be so complicated?" He shouts after them. Pretty funny I thought. True story...

...evildeadalive

Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 21, 2004 at 9:48 PM (EST)
My Score:

Ha, that's because Pulley is mostly Ex. TFP.

Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 21, 2004 at 1:51 AM (EST)
My Score:

Mad caddies...but no 'Shaving Your Life','Falling Down','SOS','Easy Cheese','Rockupation','Day By Day',etc??? wtf

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, March 20, 2004 at 5:49 PM (EST)
My Score:

There's no reason why Pulley shouldn't be headlining in tours with the Madd Caddies?! Are you kidding me? They're twice as talented, and their records are 10x better.

I wouldn't practice my songs either if I was second on the bill.

Posted by sleepy on 2004-03-19 23:39:13
My Score:

I was at this show, but I'm not much of a caddies fan, so I was pretty much just there to see pulley and choke. The crowd response for pulley was a lot smaller than I expected it to be, as well as a lot smaller than it should have been. That said, they put on a decent show, but didn't seem all that into it. Scott seemed kinda bored. I think most of the crowd was their for the caddies and weren't really familiar with pulley and choke (who ripped it up.) I give the show a seven.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 19, 2004 at 10:10 PM (EST)
My Score:

Pulley plays the same songs over and over at their shows....and in almost the same order every time....I asked Scott before one of their shows a few years ago why they don't play more and he said it's because they don't practice the other songs....uh ok.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 19, 2004 at 10:10 PM (EST)
My Score:

Pulley, Ten Foot Pole, No Use, and Strung Out should join forces and create a superband. They should call it No Use for a Strung Out Ten Foot Pulley. Lame? Yeah. But I think it's a good idea.

Josh

Posted by silentstorms on 2004-03-19 18:57:20
My Score:

Pulley and Mad Caddies kind of bore me now...but Choke will always fucking own!!!

Posted by FortyMinutesWest on 2004-03-19 17:14:12
My Score:

Choke never comes to Pittsburgh. I think there's some kind of law.

Posted by ilikebandssuchasopivy on 2004-03-19 14:47:09
My Score:

My review for the Toronto show, which they recorded for a live album on Saint Paddys Day, will be up on Tuesday (hopefully). Personally, I thought all the openers with the exception of ICB and Choke were garbage.. and ICB mightve been trash too, i dont remember much of them.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 19, 2004 at 1:43 PM (EST)
My Score:

They played big brother, eh? Sweet.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 19, 2004 at 1:38 PM (EST)
My Score:

closet monster are awesome, I've been loving them for years.
Did snojam split into two? One half being Frostbite and the other being Grind? I think i was told that before

Posted by kirbypuckett on 2004-03-19 13:31:20
My Score:

Choke better be here in Pittsburgh.

- Kirby

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 19, 2004 at 12:44 PM (EST)
My Score:

this review is awesome because it made reference to snow. I occasionally play "informer" really loud to annoy and confuse my roommates.

Posted by mikeinflames on 2004-03-19 11:31:44
My Score:

*side note*
Greenland, the company that puts Frostbite together actually sold the name Snowjam to Molson

Posted by mikeinflames on 2004-03-19 10:57:16
My Score:

i saw this show the other night in Guelph
ICB, Closet Monster and Choke all blew ass
they were 3 of the worst bands i have ever seen live
but Pulley and The Caddies more than made up for it
i love both of them because they are such fun bands to see
you can really tell they love what they are doing

Posted by notfeelingcreative on 2004-03-19 10:42:13
My Score:

Sounds like a good show, wish I could see this lineup.

Posted by poopypants on 2004-03-19 09:23:29
My Score:

i'm goin to the pittsburgh show! wow 20 songs its pretty nice to see a small band play that long, i'm sick of bands like brand new and thrice and shit, thinking that 14 songs is enough to headline. there should be a minimum of 18 songs for a headliner.

i can' twait to see the caddies, but i must disagree w/ their song selection off of quality softcore. no bell tower? no no se?

Posted by irish_joo on 2004-03-19 03:22:27
My Score:

road rash is one of my favorite songs.
and scott from pulley's curveball will eat you alive.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, March 19, 2004 at 3:05 AM (EST)
My Score:

yeah. i saw this in Calgary. anyone going to Ten Foot Pole on april 2nd in peg?

intersting fact. Pulley is touring with Choke right now. Ten Foot Pole with Ghosts of Modern Man.

last april i saw Choke play with Ghosts of Modern Man!

the 10FP/pulley connection is obvious