cornershopstudios » Hollywood Undead @ Metropolis

Whatever the masks are for, it’s not because the Hollywood Undead are hiding from anything. It was undeniable the second all seven of the members ran out and took over the Metropolis stage on Tuesday that this band has attitude and confidence in abundance. Within a crowd packed with a veritable cult-like following, who brought them out with chants of “Undead”, you felt the presence of the band before they screamed the first word. Lyrically and musically this band attacked the audience with every word hitting you right in the face and every beat of the double percussions pounding into your chest. Their composite brand of heavy rhythm, rapping and screaming left me unsure about whether to head-bang or bust a move. With the eerie masks, the ‘heartbeat’ strobes and the shadow play on the background banner, the audience was placed in the middle of a performance approaching a horror movie, and they loved every second of it. The sort-of twisted production unfolding on staged coupled with the many shout-outs by band members on how much they loved Montreal and how we had the best crowd on tour, and even some butchered attempts at French (“J’ai faim!”) had the mob in a furor. And in standard Montreal style, the band was brought back out for an encore to a chorus of ‘Olé’. From the opening song Undead to the crowd favorite encore Young, these screaming lyricists battered out a power performance for their fans.

Evan LePage