This has been a year for bands out of Canada to be reunited; The Tea Party, Wide Mouth Mason, and maybe the biggest of them all, The Headstones. The Headstones started out in Kingston, Ontario and eventually became a huge touring act in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, but were disbanded until earlier this year, when the band reunited to do some sporadic dates throughout 2012. The band still consists of original members Dale Harrison on drums, Tim White on bass, Trent Carr on guitar and Hugh Dillon on vocals. This show was the only U.S. date they played on their 2012 schedule. It’s no wonder that this show was an easy sell out.
The band took the stage at approximately 10pm and played a very smooth hour and half set. Dillon, who is now better known for his TV role in the series “Flashpoint,” still showed he has the charisma and balls to front the Headstones. He grabbed the crowd’s attention right from the opening chords of “Tweeter and the Monkey Man,” and never let it go throughout the evening’s performance. This is what made Dillon one of the more visual front men to come out of the Great White North in a long time. Together with a great rhythm section in White and Harrison, and the effortless playing of Carr, these are the things that garnered huge respect from Canadian and U.S. Border States alike when the band was active.
Dillon who is now clean and sober is also now sporting a shaved head. He showed much love to the Niagara Falls crowd at various points, like letting them sing versus at times to even going over and talking to a young fan (an 11-year-old) named Valkris. He ended up giving her the harmonica after he got done with it at the end of “Fuck You.” It seemed like Valkris was his little buddy for the rest of the evening’s performance. Headstones staples like “When Something Stands for Nothing,” “Cubically Contained,’ and “Absolutely” were all covered. There is a real connection between the Buffalo/Niagara region and the Headstones even after 9 years have passed since the band last played in the area.
The only miscue (if you can even call it that) was doing an ABBA cover called “S.O.S.” Otherwise the band seemed to be getting along great, for as few shows they have done it sounded very tight as well. Let’s all hope that Dillon will make the commitment with the guys to make some new music and then we can all be smiling and waving!!
Set List:
Tweeter and the Monkey Man (Traveling Wilbury’s cover)
Pinned you Down
Been this Way for Years
Settle
When Something Stands for Nothing
Where Does it Go?
Cut Me Up
Cut
Mystery to Me
Losing Control
Cubically Contained
Blonde and Blue
Fuck You
Smile & Wave
Unsound
O My God
Encore:
Absolutely
Burnin/Judy/Reframed (Every Single Failure) medley
Take It
S.O.S (ABBA cover)
Cemetery
We would like to thank Courtney Yuchtman from Bernie Breen Management for allowing Backstageaxxess to review the show.
