Faith No More | Heavy Montreal - August 8th 2015

Updated: Mar 16

Faith No More's North American tour in support of Sol Invictus was five years ago.

FNM began their Sol Invictus tour in Japan and Australia, they returned to the USA for the first time since October 1997 in April 2015. After this they toured in Europe and the UK before returning to the USA and Canada for a second leg. The eleventh date was on Saturday August 8th at Heavy Montreal Quebec, Canada.

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Of course, they are no longer twenty. And that the singer no longer runs on stage like a madman. However, the guys from Faith No More always have a great deal of energy to offer a concert that meets the expectations in such a festival. Very dynamic on the boards Saturday evening, Mike Patton did what it took to stir up the cage of metalheads, somewhat sleepy by beer and / or other substances… The day is long in this kind of festival!

Patton got the ball rolling with Motherfucker, a track from the most recent album. Obviously, the spectators could not explode with joy following a still very fresh play. But hey, the introduction was nevertheless successful. The beast woke up quietly. What drew attention then, in fact, was the setting: a huge white curtain behind the musicians; white clothes; white keyboard and flower boxes everywhere… an original setting which contrasts enormously with the rather dark music of Faith No More.

To the song From Out of Nowhere (from the famous album The Real Thing, released in 1989 / Faith No More's third album, but first record with Mike Patton on vocals), people really woke up. The first bomb had fallen on the site. Already, we could see that Patton has lost none of his impressive vocal range. What an elastic voice! It can go from a very serious tone (bordering on guttural) to nasal and fairly high-pitched interpretations.

Passed the songs Caffeine and Evidence (the latter was perhaps a little less successful) before arriving at another very popular piece that marked the band's career: Epic (another monument of the record The Real Thing) definitely produced a shock wave in this crowd of several thousand festival-goers. A lot more aggressive interpretation than the original song, but the catchy bass groove has remained intact. Of course, we were also treated to this pretty melody on the keyboard. Success.

"Monrrrrrréal, do you really like heavy metal or this festival is overrated?" Was fun then asked Patton at the hearing. The response was quite convincing… Especially near the stage. Because even if the event is devoted to a generally very muscular musical genre, the participants were surprisingly peaceful and relaxed on the site on Saturday evening. So much the better, they did not seem to be sulking their pleasure so far. At least, for the majority. Because some fans of hard music, arms crossed, appeared in analysis mode… Like "I like or don't like what I see and hear?" "

Boom! The very lively and metal Midlife Crisis (from the band's other big album, Angel Dust, released in 1992) arrived with its catchy chorus. We should not forget this short passage in which the singer proposed certain words from the piece The Power of Love, by Celine Dion. Funny.

However, it was at The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (released on the album King for a Day… Fool for a Lifetime, in 1995) that we could really confirm that Patton's band still knows how to deliver weight. Good dose of aggression. Right after, Easy (a cover of the Commodores soul-funk song) relaxed the atmosphere… Manly charm, let's say.

A little later, the group offered some pieces of Sol Invictus, including Separation Anxiety (with some good screams that can indeed illustrate anxiety, even alienation!), Matador (Patton delivered this song while seated, like a yoga master) and Superhero. This turned out to be another pretty angry performance. From the last notes, Patton finished the song in the audience. A dive of a few meters, anyway.

On a promotional poster for the Sol Invictus Album, keyboardist Roddy Bottom leashed a strange beast dressed in leather. The animal is quiet, but for how long? All the members of the group are smartly dressed, a glass of sparkling wine in hand. Contrasts, irony and wild energy are predominant themes. This image is a good illustration of Faith No More's concert…

Exclaim

We've all seen photos of the current Faith No More tour, weaving and wending its way across the continent: the stage festooned with flowers, the band members all in white, the ecstatic lighting design that makes the set feel somewhere between a sermon in a oligarchical mega-church and an orgy. But being present for it, being swept up into it, is an entirely different experience altogether, one that is impossible to prepare for.

It's hard to conjure the beatific command that Roddy Bottum holds, standing over his keyboard like a preacher at his pulpit. It's difficult to explain the chemistry between Jon Hudson and Mike Bordin and Billy Gould, tossing the focal point of a song between them effortlessly. And it's fully impossible to explain what it is like to watch Mike Patton howl, shriek and contort on stage, his slicked-back dark hair becoming wilder and more sweat-soaked with every song. Patton was in a mean mood: "Motherfucker," which they opened with, sounded like even more of a threat than usual, and there was something pointed, even cruel, about his delivery of the bit of "Power of Love" by Celine Dion that served as an intro do "Midlife Crisis."

He seemed to warm to the roaring, ravenous crowd eventually, however, diving into the pit at the end of "Ashes to Ashes" (and theatrically hobbling back to the stage afterwards), and seeming to genuinely mean it when he sang Burt Bacharach's "This Guy's in Love With You" as part of the encore. Faith No More have been doing this for a long time, but their longevity has only made them meaner, more cruel and decadent, with every passing year. Lucky us.