The Headstones: Rock n' Roll and Comic Books and Bubble Gum

Happy Christmas Eve! Pearl Jam Heather's been bugging me to see a Headstones concert for years--so yesterday she took me to see me them at Sound Academy, which is easily my least favourite live music venue in Toronto. It was a good show; I don't think the Headstones are about to become a favourite band of mine, but it was worth going just to see Hugh Dillon in all his terrifying glory (I hadn't seen him on stage since the short-lived Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir played Across the Causeway in Kingston seven years ago). The setlist, courtesy setlist.fm:

• Tweeter and the Monkey Man (now that's how you open a show!)
• Pinned You Down
• Binthiswayforyears
• Settle (I hate this song)
• Where Does It Go?
• When Something Stands for Nothing
• Cut Me Up
• Cut
• Mystery to Me
• Losing Control
• Cubically Contained
• Blonde and Blue
• Fuck You (I have never--never--seen a singer who fetishizes the "f" word quite like Hugh Dillon. Wow.)
• Smile and Wave (I hate this song, too, and therein lies the explanation as to why I didn't like the Headstones' music till fairly recently: all I knew were their singles, most of which I disliked. Their other stuff's way better.)
• Unsound
• Oh My God
• Sympathy for the Devil [The Rolling Stones...but you knew that, right?]
• Heart of Darkness (encore)
• Take It (encore)
• Three Angels (encore)
• S.O.S. [ABBA] (encore)
• Cemetery (encore)

Again: it was a good show. It wasn't transcendent; it won't make my list of top five favourite concerts from 2011. But I'm glad I went--and sometimes, that's all that really matters.