Your Pal Bill, Coach Bombay and Thirsty Camel @ Taco Pica

by Elijah Chamberlain

When I stepped into Taco Pica that night, I was not expecting the show that I witnessed. Despite a late start, Your Pal Bill, hailing from Milton, Ontario, opened the show up with extremely energetic punk-rock tunes that had me headbanging and moving my legs with gusto. The band as a whole brought their A-game, and it showed with the crowd’s reaction.

Not one soul in the place was still for their set. The pit opened up quite a few times throughout, and the set was extremely energetic and the set gave me some strong Midwest emo vibes. It definitely piqued my interest and led me to pay attention to the set a lot more. Bill himself is a very enthusiastic frontman, and brought a lot of the energy by himself. Obviously not to discredit the rest of the band, who were all extremely talented and energetic in their own right. I definitely recommend anyone reading to check out Your Pal Bill on Bandcamp, as every tune on there is a banger. Their set was a good length, yet I was still yearning for more tracks by this extremely solid outfit.

https://yourpalbill.bandcamp.com

Next up on the setlist was Coach Bombay, a pop-punk outfit from Oshawa, Ontario. Let me tell you, as a band named after the legendary icon who coached the Mighty Ducks, the set they played lived up to the man himself. CB had three different vocalists, all with different ways of belting out their lyrics. What caught me off guard, but was a pleasant surprise, was the incorporation of gang vocals throughout many of the tracks they played. Regardless of my music tastes being mostly metal, even in the more pop-punk or punk-rock stuff I listen to doesn’t often include them, so the gang vocals were a refreshing component to their set. Once again, energy was the name of the game that night, as the guitars rang out in their pop-punk/punk-rock symphony, nobody was sitting easy. The pit opened once more, and was even rowdier than before. Coach Bombay surprised me the most that night. They also have a very solid back catalog off stuff that’s thoroughly enjoyable.

https://coachbombayband.bandcamp.com/

Last up that night was Thirsty Camel from our hometown, Saint John, New Brunswick. A big change of pace from the other two bands, as TC is much more fuzzy rock band than pop-punk. With low bass and guitar lines chugging along throughout the set, a heavier vibe was present for the tail end of the night, which I feel was a nice note to end the night off with. Being a local band, the crowd knew many of the band’s catalog, and for the vast majority of the show, all you could hear from many crowd members was one single word chanted like it was their dying breath; “Fuck.” The hype for TC to play this absolute banger of a track tells you the impact they left that night. The mast standout part of this band for me though, is the beast that is Alec Martin on drums. Most of my attention was drawn to him throughout the set, as the man did not stop for one second. He brought the hellfire on those drums, sometimes even looking in pain with how much effort he was putting in. If you take away anything from this portion of the article, know that Thirsty Camel are a local force to be reckoned with.

https://thirstycamel.bandcamp.com/

The overall theme of that night was pure energy. Not one band lost the crowd for one second, whether it was Bill’s wholesome chords, Coach Bombay’s gang vocals and electrified presence, or Thirsty Camel bringing it all home with a taste of the local flavour, the show was a night to remember. As I have mentioned many times throughout, you have to make it a point to check all three of these magnificent bands out. Taco Pica shows are a great time and this show was one to remember.

by @1UPCLUB on Instagram