At the end of 2021, fans thought they were done. They thought they were done.
USS performed what everyone thought was their final show in Victoria at The Royal Theatre December 9, 2021 on their ‘Final Frequency Tour’ before disbanding after Toronto shows in June of 2022.
Fast forward a little more than four years, Ash and Human Kebab were back, much to the delight of their legion of fans in the capital city.
The crowd was on their feet from the moment USS took the stage kicking of the show with ‘Yo Hello Hooray (Everyday)’. It was a fitting opening song for the audience to celebrate the band’s return.
It was like the USS had never gone away. The band was as energetic and engaging on stage as ever with lead singer Ash Buchholz aggressively strumming his guitar and Human Kebab bounding around stage and leaping in the air multiple times.
Prior to performing their breakout hit ‘Hollow Point Sniper Hyperbole’ Human Kebab gave a shoutout to the Victoria radio station that launched the fandom for USS in the city.
“We started coming out here in August of 2008,” said Human Kebab. “We did a show out in the pouring rain on Broad Street in front of the television station. And it was all because of the little indie rock/alternative, cool as shit radio station on planet earth The [email protected].”
It’s no secret that USS has always loved performing in Victoria. Human Kebab later reemphasized that telling the crowd that when they arrived on the ferry it felt like they were back home. He also told the audience that as long we keep having them, they’ll keep coming back.
Throughout their set I did find that the vocal mics sounded quite low in the mix from where I was standing to the point it was difficult to hear the words of the songs. Though, with so many hardcore USS fans in the room, they were were all belting out the lyrics to compensate.
Buchholz dedicated their song ‘Alien’ to Mother Mother’s Ryan Guldemond recalling the time they opened for Mother Mother fore three dates at The Royal Theatre in 2014. Buchholz was backstage rehearsing a portion of the song when Guldemond walked passed him saying “That’s cool, man,” which drew laughs from the crowd.
“Let me give some context,” said Buchholz. “For me, that would be the same thing as if Kurt Cobain walked by and said, ‘Hey that’s cool man.'”
During the encore, one woman near me yelled for “Pornostartrek” multiple times hoping for that song to be performed. A couple others in the theatre also yelled out song titles. Thinking that the band would somehow pivot to a song request when their show is heavily tied to tracks on DJ equipment felt like a stretch. Performing that deeper cut of their debut EP seemed even more unlikely.
After 18 years as a band and reuniting to perform a packed Royal Theatre, the only question is will there be new music the next time they come back?
Opening the show was Hollerado’s Menno Versteeg performing his solo music. Versteeg took the stage with a white solo cup decorated with a “No Ice” symbol.
His stage set up had two chairs. One for himself and another that was draped with blue fabric with the words “Free Luigi Mangione” on it.
Between songs in Versteeg’s 30 minute acoustic set he told funny stories about juvenile antics Hollerado had in their hey day including how he had to write apology letters to both Coca-Cola and Pepsi after performing corporate events and taking hotel bathrobes one year at Rifflandia. He also told a humorous story about how his grandparents met.
