Billy Talent, Sum 41 kick off trans-Canadian adventure in Vancouver

Sum 41's Deryck Whibley rocks out at a Vancouver concert date on March 15, 2013. (Special to CTV British Columbia)

You can’t argue with the numbers. Sum 41 has 3.6-million global Facebook fans to Billy Talent’s 1.2-million.

Here in Canada though, it’s Billy Talent that’s the bigger band. It’s one of those weird Canadian anomalies, like preferring football with three downs rather than four, or tolerating Don Cherry.

Both bands’ cross-continent tours kicked off Thursday night at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum. Billy Talent won’t be dipping south of the border. Why would they? In Canada, at least, they remain punk rock superstars.

That’s not to say Sum 41 were comfortable playing the role of musical bridesmaids, hitting the stage after fellow support bands Hollerado and Indian Handcrafts. Far from it.

Although their chosen genre of pop punk remains toxic to anyone attempting to impress potential sexual partners with their music collection, Sum 41 is a band whose output, on last night’s form anyway, deserves re-evaluating. They only played eight songs, but every one was jammed with hooks and harmonies, delivered by a razor tight band, highlighted by the sensational Steve Jocz on drums.

Critics could easily accuse Sum 41 of not having matured. They’d be missing the point. Timeless party anthems like “In Too Deep” and “Fat Lip” were too catchy to dismiss as throwaway pop. While the high speed melancholy of “We’re All To Blame” and “Walking Disaster” revealed a song writing craft that belied Deryck Whibley’s still youthful looks and decidedly dated haircut. Multiple sing-alongs and a radical reworking of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” demonstrated that for all the punk affectations, Sum 41 are actually a finely-honed arena rock band. Albeit one in disguise.

Billy Talent began like they were taking performance risks too, singer Ben Kowalewicz and guitarist Ian D’Sa beginning their set at the front of the stage for a two-man rendition of “Lonely Road to Absolution” that morphed into “Viking Death March” once the curtain dropped and the rhythm section kicked in. They stuck to the punk playbook after that, D’Sa and bassist Jon Gallant holding their ground and banging away earnestly as Kowalewicz yelped his lyrics with one foot permanently perched up on his monitor.

If universally accepted rock and roll party-starters were the signature moves for Sum 41, Billy Talent’s appeal laid a little closer to home.

“We are proudly Canadian,” stated Kowalewicz as the big screens focussed on the Maple Leaf on D’Sa Stratocaster. “No matter where we are, we always tell people where were from. We’d like to dedicate this song to Stompin’ Tom Connors!”

The song in question, “Rusted From The Rain,” was one of the best of the night, and was followed by a succession of pedal-to-the-floor belters; “Runnin’ Across The Tracks” (featuring one of the best of countless D’Sa riffs), “This Suffering” (cheekily dedicated to Canucks fans) and an intense “Try Honesty” that climaxed with Kowalewicz on his knees screaming his guts out.

By the time the encore of “Red Flag,” “Fallen Leaves” and “Surprise Surprise” rolled around, Billy Talent’s back to basics approach to the power of punk rock, in terms of audience energy and appreciation, was rivalling Sum 41’s hit appeal and showmanship. Not that it was ever a competition, as Kowalewicz made clear, giving a cheerful assessment of the night’s four-band, all-Canadian line-up.

“F**k you rest of the world,” he smiled, his tongue only slightly in his cheek, “We’re the best!”