Billy Talent preview
Billy Talent
Congress Theatre, Chicago
Thursday, April 17, 2008
You know the old saying, “They’re huge in Japan,” right? Well, we don’t know how popular Billy Talent actually are in Japan, but they’re apparently pretty damn popular in England and Germany.
That’s where the Canadian punk group recorded the material that comprises their excellent Billy Talent Live 666 (Warner Canada) CD/DVD package. The visual portion was culled from three different 2007 gigs (six songs from each of the three stops, if you were wondering where the 666 came from), one at the esteemed Brixton Academy in London, and one each from Dusseldorf and Nuremberg Germany. The 17-track CD is the whole Dusseldorf set. Obviously, it isn’t unusual for an act to find big-time success overseas before they do in the States, or if they do in the States. Robbie Williams is fuckin’ Elvis in the U.K. for cryin’ out loud, and the Backstreet Boys were stars in Germany long before they became the daydreams of every teenage girl in America. Nobody feels sorry for Robbie Williams, but you can’t help feel Billy Talent are getting the shaft when you see them playing in front of seas of people in Europe.
Especially when their two records (2003’s self-titled and 2006’s Billy Talent II) thus far have been very good and prove Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks-ish spirit was actually still alive during the ridiculous tenure of Simple Plan, Good Charlotte, and Blink-182. Plus, it’s not often you hear a guitarist in punk as good as Ian D’Sa.
Yet here they are, opening for My Chemical Romance at the Congress Theatre. Certainly not a bad gig, and probably a damn good one depending on how you look at it. Just don’t think about the fact the Spice Girls can sell out the fucking United Center or that some Diddy reality-show product called Danity Kane recently sold 236,000 copies of their record in one week. Stupid Americans.
Billy Talent, along with Drive By, open for My Chemical Romance.
– Trevor Fisher
Click here for streaming Billy Talent songs.
Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly
