Beautiful Nothing w/Live How You Live @ The Horseshoe Tavern

On a Friday night just over a week ago, the Juliette Lewis / Band of Skulls show ended early enough that I had plenty of time to grab a late night veggie burger and head on back to the west side of town to catch an old favourite at The Horseshoe. As far as local(ish), under the radar indie bands go, there probably is no band that I've been following longer than Burlington's Beautiful Nothing. It had been several years since I'd seen them last perform, and I was curious to see how much they've progressed since the days when they were a bunch of high school kids competing with other young 'uns at Burlington's Annual Sound of Music Festival during one of those teenage battle of the band competitions.

When I arrived at The Horseshoe, a band from Hamilton called Live How You Live had just started their set. Vocalist Carm Milioto honed his talent in a band called The Feels who I'm pretty sure I saw at a place called The Underground in Hamilton about 6 or 7 years ago. Although I don't remember too much about them (or even if it was, in fact, them) I do remember thinking that they were pretty good (again, if it was them, which I'm not positively sure it was. Yes, this is professional journalism at its finest!) In any case, LHYL were quite talented even if they failed to resonate with me in any lasting way. It's not that they weren't good, just a little run of the mill, sounding to me like a fairly typical bluesy bar band. The fact that I had just come from seeing such a dynamic performer a mere half hour earlier at The Opera House probably didn't aid in my watching this band with a less than critical eye. Personal feelings aside though, they've obviously done a good job at establishing a name for themselves, as the crowd was singing and dancing along with them and generally having a great time. In fact, when the time came to wrap things up, the crowd literally demanded an encore, proving that my personal thoughts have yet to coincide with popular opinion. At least in this case.

Photos: My shots of Live How You Live @ The Horseshoe are on flickr
Myspace: Live How You Live

Beautiful Nothing took to the stage hot on the heels of the release of their latest CD entitled The Fruits of Youth. While their earlier recordings were steeped in an atmospheric drone of doom and gloom, I've noticed that their latter works seem to advertise a more tongue in cheek approach to angst. This attitude extends to their live show as frontman Anthony Ludgate performs with a mild theatricality wherein you get the sense that he's sort of making fun of you, although you really can't pinpoint exactly what it is he's mocking. It's hard not to be mesmerized by the band's dynamic showmanship coupled with the crazed look in Ludgate's eyes. They blasted through a set of all newer numbers that probably explained their obvious enthusiasm for the material. There was a real savagery to their performance which caused the crowd to erupt into a frenzy of moshy insanity. Although the actual number of attendees had diminished slightly, they displayed a zeal that was ten times greater, which enabled the band to feed off of that raw energy. It's hard to pinpoint exactly where their sound fits in, as it displays enough hooks to be considered pop but it also oozes enough genuine punk attitude that sliding them into the lame MTV driven power punk category simply would not do them justice. Unlike other bands given the pop-punk tag, their only schtick is to poke fun at the idea of schtick itself, and their particular brand of manic was a perfect way to end an evening that can only be described as intense.

Photos: My shots of Beautiful Nothing @ The Horseshoe are on flickr.
Myspace: Beautiful Nothing