PUP (Stefan Babcock)

At the start of August, the Light House Arts Centre hosted PUP,  one of the most exciting punk-rock bands to emerge from the Canadian Music Scene.  The four-piece outfit returned after a lengthy absence, last gracing a Halifax stage in 2019 as part of the (now-defunct) Halifax Pop Explosion, and in 2016 before that.   On those two prior visits, the Toronto-based act entertained their voracious fan base up the hill at 2037 Gottingen on the Marquee Ballroom stage.

My first PUP experience was back at that 2016 show at the Marquee as a relatively new concert photographer and I didn’t fully understand what I was about to experience.  Fellow Toronto Punk act Pkew Pkew Pkew kicked off the proceedings, but throughout their set, the masses streamed into the Marquee Ballroom ahead of PUP’s headlining set.  There was a palpable tension that had built in the packed room,  the room exploded in excitement when they finally hit the stage. The packed room rolled like a violent sea, every so often ejecting another patron, who would then ride across the waves of outstretched hands eventually to be ejected into the photo pit where we (the photographers) dodged bodies and limbs as these folks were guided back down to earth, only to return to the crowd to do it all over again.  The night crackled with an intensity and excitement that few bands can generate over an entire set.    It was that initial show, that steered me away from the 2019 show that I had heard was equally intense.

PUP (Nestor Chumak)

In the 8 years since that first PUP experience, I figured it might be time to get back into the pit for another kick at the PUP can.   That same verve and energy is still intact in the band’s current sound, but it’s not as raw or visceral as that first show.  That can be easily chalked up to the band’s relentless road work, having spent much time on the road crisscrossing North America and having worn down those sharp edges of a newly minted band.  On this night, the band’s punk aesthetic wasn’t hitting the mark for me, as they sounded fine and had the rest of the Halifax patrons revved up.    Upon entering the room at the start of the night, I chuckled at the No Moshing, No Crowd Surfing signs, thinking to myself, “Good Luck in curtailing that”.  All in all, the show whipped by in a blink of an eye and before you knew it, the applause faded away and we all headed out into the streets of Halifax, some in preparation for the following night’s all-ages show back in this very room.

All in all, this was a far more subdued PUP experience than my first show, and while I had a firm understanding of what this could devolve into, I was far more ready for my 2nd PUP show.   There wasn’t a constant threat of having an overzealous crowd surfer crashing down on your head and camera gear, for better or worse.  The energy did pick up a bit as the show wore on, but it never eclipsed the chaos of that Marquee Ballroom show back in 2016.  Here’s hoping PUP returns sooner than later and that third show might indeed be the charm.

PUP

June Body