Beartooth Montreal Concert Review and Photos

Sheila

Concerts

2 minute read

As the house lights dimmed, anticipation filled MTELUS. A single spotlight revealed Beartooth's frontman, Caleb Shomo, standing in silence. The chants of "Beartooth! Beartooth!" reached a climax as Caleb launched into the electrifying intro of "Sunshine!" from their latest album, The Surface.

Mixing the old and the new, up next were “The Past is Dead”, and “Bad Listener”, followed by another new track, “The Better Me”. The setlist was a rollercoaster of emotion, seamlessly blending heavy breakdowns with melodic interludes. The next two songs, "Disease" and “Hated”, ignited mosh pits that seemed to have a life of their own.

Things calmed down a bit during the intro of the next song, "Might Love Myself", but the energy in the building didn’t wane. At the tail end of the song, Caleb left the stage leaving the band, Oshie Bichar (bass), Connor Denis (drums), Zach Huston (guitar), and Will Deely (guitar) to have their own jam session.

As they exited the stage, the rear screen unveiled Caleb's whereabouts— on a smaller stage in the crowd with his guitar. Surprising everyone, he treated the audience to a cover of The Killers' “Mr. Brightside,” seamlessly transitioning into the emotionally charged “Look The Other Way,” before the band returned to the main stage to join him.

Two more of their heavier songs, "The Lines", and "Devastation" followed. "Doubt Me" was next, and as the song ended, the fire alarm in the venue started going off, but no one really seemed to notice which was a bit disconcerting. A few headed outside (I hovered near the exit), but it was a false alarm for a fire, although someone did need medical attention. During all of this, Caleb introduced the band to the Montreal crowd before playing the beautifully written, "I Was Alive".

Coming back for an encore, they played "Riptide", the first single released off of The Surface. Now this wouldn’t be a Beartooth show if fans didn’t get to sing along to one of their biggest hits, "In Between". And sing they did!

The band's versatility and ability to connect on a personal level with the audience was evident throughout the night. The crowd, a sea of pumping fists and headbanging enthusiasts, mirrored the band's unbridled passion.

Now the MTELUS is a great venue, however, it just wasn’t big enough for their stage production. Prior to this show, I watched some videos to prepare for shooting; unfortunately Montreal missed out on some pyro, but hey, at least we got confetti and some CO2 shots. We also got some crowd surfing bananas and unicorns, so did we really miss out?