Shout Out Out Out Out's Reintegration Show

Shout Out Out Out Out appear to authentically love Waterloo - likely because the city's inhabitants authentically love their live show. Rather than using Run, the natural opener from the recently released Reintegration Time, SO4 were already on stage and built up How Do I Maintain (Pt.2) to a compact but rabid bunch of fans at the Starlight Lounge in Waterloo. The sextet carried on their tradition of all out dance parties with their crushing double percussion, and danceable synths, deep bass lines and vocoded lyrics. Most of the new material doesn't require the quadruple bass guitar (yes, you read that correctly, 4!) as on their previous effort Not Saying/Just Saying, but instead relies on the keys/synths/samplers and a lot of mixing on the fly. Does the band ever pull it off! It's hard to remember it all through the haze of beer, bouncing, beats and beads of sweat, but there definitely were a whackload of high kicks - another Shout Out Out Out Out staple. Sticking with mostly new material they ripped their way through Bad Choices and Guilt Trips Sink Ships before tossing in a throwback to Dude, You Feel Electrical and then a strobe-lighted-to-perfection version of the Procrastinator's Fight Song. I believe it was around Remind Me in Dark Times that the PDA couple next to me really got going hot and heavy, disguised by the rest of the pulsating dance floor that was just red hot. However next up was the title track from the latest release, which I suspect was purposely placed to give everyone a moment to catch their breath, because in finale there was a wild rendition of Chicken Soup for the F*ck You the hilariously-titled and potentially never-ending set closer. After winding down the song using the regular album ending, 'the kid' drummer stood up and raised the roof (literally in the squat Starlight) while we cheered ourselves hoarse and drummer #2 kept the beat barely alive, until the band joined back in for another go-round of the song. Eventually it did end, much to the chagrin of the crowd who wouldn't let SO4 off that easily and hollered them back out.
The encore was a phenomenal blowout of hits, as the now rabid crowd jostled and danced (and half the PDA couple shouted at the other half "I told you to get your hands outta there!") to Forever Indebted, and their go-to show closer In the End it's Your Friends.. Having toured this album a bit more they have improved since last time around - building the song up to ridiculous heights, whipping the crowd into a frenzy where they were just begging for the song to break - to climax - and when it did, it went off! In fact, these Edmontonians had pumped the half-filled Starlight crowd up to such levels that even the end of the song wouldn't calm them down. What was meant to be the end of the show was filled with the pulsing claps and shouts of the band's most chantable name. Based on excitement and goaded on by the cameras that had been taping the entire show, the crowd would not cease, and so, with a few shrugs, Shout Out Out Out Out kicked into one last tune for an authentic encore. Despite a couple warnings about the unpolished state of the song they played us a new track that sounded great, finally closing the set down for real. It was another pumping, fun, high-energy, amazing show from the guys who are renowned for just that.

The Cansecos opened with a decent set that relied on their synths, and also incorporated some electronic drums into the normal drumset, which interestingly worked out. It seemed completely different than the Halloween set with the Russian Futurists from a few years back - so much so that I didn't believe the merch girl when she told me that was who was on stage. In fact, I still didn't believe it until they played Raised by Wolves, the "Best Song in the Whole Wide World (caveat: about wolves)".

Small Town DJs spun a set between the two bands which helped to set the stage for the SO4 dance party to come.