The Constantines By Tim Hildred

Waterloo, Ontario

Its not every day that you’re good friend andrew turns 23. in fact, it is a once in a life time occasion, unless you’ve got a lot of friends named andrew. in which case, very little of what i’m about to say applies to you. at any rate,my friend andrew and i decided that there were two things we needed to celebrate properly: 1, Rock, and 2, 3 litres of wine. lets be honest, pretty much any wine would do, however, andrew and i, we hold our rock to a higher standard. i own a leather jacket, him, a surplus army one. obviously we have taste.

It was our good fortune that The Constantines were playing on the very eve of Andrew’s birthday… roughly. It was on a cold and recent saturday night that we donned our wine and stylish jackets, and set off at a pace that i would describe as a march to The Starlight Club, a venue in Waterloo, Ontario whose only problem is that its up two flights of stairs. Its big enough to hold about 250 people, and small enough to make you feel like you are an important part of the crowd. Two bars make for easy acess do drink. Clearly labelled toilets make for quick, easy evacuation of urine for bladder and return to the show. Which i think brings us to the music.

We hit the top of the stairs, caught our breath. Rested for a little while, checked our sexy coats, and got expensive shots. Waited for a little while for the opening act to finish, and then finally, the lights dimmed, and out came The (unassuming) Constantines. The Constantines are an Ontario band, and the hometown support was palpable. From the first chord, it was on Yer man the singer has a voice that sounds like jagged smoked chocolate. He doesn’t have a huge range or anything, but you can feel the words he sings. Even when you can’t quite understand them. The quick, oft changing drums grabbed on to my wine addled brain, and the guitar shook me. There is something undeniable about electric guitar, something that makes me move my head. There was something even more undeniable about The Constantines electric guitar, complex and thoughtful, something that shook me to my very soul. It was uplifting alot of the time, like holding on to a million helium ballons and looking down on a world that has some good bits after all.

As drink and exuberant wandering about sapped the energy out of Andrew and I, we sat back to watch the show go on. And on, with this constant intensity, feuled by the crowd and the bands obvious love for making music. When they finally left the stage, I for one was left with that warm tired feeling I get after watching Homeward Bound. We left the club for a bottle of whiskey about 4 hours before my bus back to Toronto left, Andrew happily 23 and the both of us happily rocked out