No Cause for Concern? Issue #3 | June 1982 | Page 8 | T.S.O.L. gig review

T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty)
The YOUNG LIONS
YOUTH YOUTH YOUTH

The following is a brief review of the T.S.O.L., Youth Youth Youth, and the Young Lions gig at the Ottawa Curling Club on Friday, May 27th. I will not, however, say anything about the bullshit that went on after the show.

The YOUNG LIONS took the stage at around 10:00 pm and played a strong, powerful set. These guys are really good. I had never seen them before but had heard a lot about them. They had the crowd on their feet for most of the set with such "crowd pleasers" as "Freedom Fighter", "United", and "Royal Killers". They came back and encored with "Gutter Rat Blues". I can't wait until they come back (supposedly in October).

YOUTH YOUTH YOUTH came on next and totally blew me away. I was very impressed. Their lead singer (I forget his name) was onto the dance floor within seconds after the first song started. Someone remarked that they felt Ottawa wasn't ready for hardcore because hardly anyone was dancing. THIS IS TOTAL BULLSHIT!!! The only reason people weren't up dancing was because they had never seen anything like it before. Well, get ready because you're going to see more of this music in the near future. Their set included "Don't Wanna Fight", "Union Jackass", "Part-time Punk" and a cover of Flipper's "Brainwashed". Come Back Soon!

The headliners were T.S.O.L. and they went through seventeen songs in about thirty minutes. They were highly energetic but again few people were up dancing but I guess that's your fucking problem if you don't have the energy to get off your asses and dance. T.S.O.L. is one of L.A.'s better hardcore bands and proved it in Ottawa with a short but fast set. They did songs from all their recorded material and ended the show with Jamies and my favorite song "Code Blue". I hope they keep their promise and come back in September.

- D.C.

Comment from Janine:

T.S.O.L. was "highly energetic"?!? BULLSHIT! What a wimpy review, D.C. The energy level of T.S.O.L.'s performance in no way compares to the amount of energy put out by the Young Lions or Youth Youth Youth. Face it, T.S.O.L. couldn't be bothered to give us -- with our small turnout -- the kind of show they'd perhaps have given a larger crowd. To put it bluntly: their show was a let-down after watching the two Toronto bands give us their all. That's not to say that their music was poor, they played quite well (as did The Young Lions and YYY) but it would probably have been just as exciting as going home and listening to their records. For five bucks (advance) it was a good show but only because The Young Lions and YYY made it one.