The Motorleague rocks out at House of Targ

When I saw The Motorleague live for the first time at House of Targ three years ago, it was love at first sight. The band had just released their third studio album, and the songs on it just instantly resonated with me and the cd was being played at my car and my house non stop.

The Motorleague has since released two new singles, ‘Everyone is Digital’ and ‘Alone in the Universe’, from the upcoming album ‘No Dead Horses’, which have been getting regular radio play across Canada for the past few months. Both songs prove that after a decade, the band is still at its peak and the punk rock anthems they keep pushing out will be hopefully playing at even bigger venues in the near future.

Rock shows in Ottawa during the week can be challenging in drawing people in, but a fair amount of people had crawled out of their homes to to rock out on a Thursday night. Opening the show were the local ska band Taco Bandits, who we sadly narrowly missed. Next up were Ottawa hard rockers Quiet Crimes, who have been actively gigging over the summer, and whose single ‘Out of View’ is getting a decent amount of radio play on the local rock station Rebel 101.7. The three man band finished their set with the Queens of the Stone Age Cover ‘The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret’.

The Moncton boys took the headliner spot shortly after, the singer Don Levandier frequently addressing the crowd to join in singing with the band, and to the audience’s amusement, even got an eager audience member to tie his shoe laces in between the songs.

The band started with older tunes including ‘Every Man Needs Cape Breton’ from the band’s 2013 album ‘Acknowledge, Acknowledge’, and played their current big radio hit ‘Everyone is Digital’ , which addresses and criticizes the modern society’s dependancy on technology.

The sound guy seemed to be snoozing behind the soundboard most of the show as Levandier’s voice seemed to drown in once in a while, and the guitar solos could have been a little louder, but the overall vibe of the show was energetic and enthusiastic, so the audience did not let that bother.

Blaring riffs and catchy choruses of 2015’s Holding Pattern’s ‘The Boards’, ‘A Little Too Obvious, and ‘Wounded Animal’ were all played almost back to back and just prove the phenomenal songwriting skills of Levandier and guitarist Nathan Jones. It is obvious the band has a love affair with Canadian punk rockers Propagandhi, as lots of influences can be heard especially on the band’s older material.

The Motorleague has so much more potential the band has been given credit for, as the general feel is that they are (unfortunately) underrated. Regardless of the several changes in the band’s lineup over the years, The Motorleague has kept its relevance, and always keeps finding extremely talented musicians moving forward.

We hope the band will get its big break in the new year, and that we will be seeing these guys on the big stages soon!

By Laura Collins.