Words: Miljan Milekić
Winters in Saskatchewan are harsh. With temperatures going down to -30ºC or -40ºC quite regularly, it’s no wonder that most events and festivals are happening over the Summer. Enter Winterruption, a week-long festival bringing concerts, movie screening, dance performances, comedy shows, and much more to several venues across the city, along with a bunch of outdoor activities, both for kids and adults. One of them being was the show headlined by Toronto’s punk rock heroes Pkew Pkew Pkew at the Black Cat Tavern.
Originally, this event was supposed to be headlined by another Southern Ontario band – Single Mothers, who unfortunately had bow out, meaning that Pkew Pkew Pkew were bumped into the headlining slot, with local Driveway Legends added to the bill. And it was the Saskatoon trio to hit the stage first. Bringing skate park in its purest form, with a dash of metal influences, Driveway Legends were perfect to set the tone for the night. Melodic, and energetic, with a few anthemic choruses they quickly connected with the crowd, including quite a few friends in it. In the proper punk rock fashion, they shared jokes and stories between the songs, including one about the broken elbow – of a skateboard of course, which ended up on a video, and, in its sonic form, on the band’s 2021 debut album ‘Things Could Be Worse.’
After a short change, it was time for the Toronto mob to bring out their own version of punk rock. Pkew Pkew Pkew are one of the bands that I instantly fell in love with when I first heard them. I don’t remember where or how, but I stumbled on their video for ‘Mid 20’s Skateboarder’ and ‘Blood Clot,’ and there was no coming back. I was instantly hooked to their big melodies, but even more so, I resonated with their lyrics, and the clever humor, both of which they delivered this night. Kicking this off with tracks like ‘Still Hangin’ Out After All These Years’ and ‘Hot Tub or Bust,’ they quickly got the crowd going.
They also took the time to share stories about their own song, making them even more relatable, whether they were about riding public transport like ’65 Nickels,’ or “Reading someone’s message on accident, but now they know you’ve read it” like ‘Read Receipts.’ And it’s moments like those that make this band so fun. They are fun and simple, but not banal, clever, but not pretentious. Following up, just like in the video that got me into them, they delivered ‘Mid 20’s Skateboarder’ and ‘Blood Clot,’ back to back, before sliding into ‘Passed Out’ and ‘Asshole Pandemic.’
The late stages of the set were reserved for more crowd-favourites such as ‘Before We Go Out Drinking,’ ‘Glory Days,‘ and ‘Let’s Order A Pizza,’ with a noticeable absence of ‘The Dumbest Thing I Ever Done.’ They also got a short, kinda-sorta encore, but instead of leaving the stage, they were borrowing some band-aid from the crowd so the drummer could patch up her bloody finger. Punk rock in its purest form. And hopefully, it won’t be another six years before they come back and do it all over again.
