Review: Storming the Crobar V2

This post was written by fan Stephy G since no one else in the band had bothered to update this thing.

Last July 30^th, the Koalas performed at Crowbar in Montreal. There seems to be a recurring theme to all the Koalas show; awesome music, free beer and lots of MOISTNESS! It was REAL sweaty in the small venue, but the band loves being close to their crowd. After a rocky beginning due to technical difficulties, the show got on its way into awesomedome!

To keep us coming back for more, the Koalas decided to spice up this show by having a poll asking the fans what song they wanted them to cover. Fan input is extremely important to the band; as much as the guys want to have fun, it’s even more important that we, the fans, have a great time. For the show that night, “Joker and the Thief” by Wolfmother won out.

The band members seem to continuously outperform themselves. To compensate for the lack of cowbell, drummer Chris Analytis added some cool drumstick moves which entertained the crowd. Singer Ben Bernier demonstrated his many music skills by doubling on Pete Daigles bass. Pat Renaud made all the girls swoon with his keyboarding skills. Guitarist Dan Verucci switched it up by playing with different guitars in order to give certain songs a different feel. This seemed to have peaked the interest of Kaioken (the opening bands) guitarist as he was unable to pull himself away from Dan during the bands set.

They even outperformed themselves on a birthday song to their good friend, Nads. If some of you remember the god-awful song they sang for their friend, Steve, at the Playhouse show, this version was SO much worse. It must take some sort of skill to write a song THAT bad.

All in all, the night was unforgettable, moist and filled with great music enjoyed by all.

-Stephy G

Update

 Hey everyone, Pat logging in !
it's been a while since i've done so and since there's a lot to talk about, i figured it was a great occasion to pollute the internet.

so thursday night, we had our first gig of the summer. it was at l'Alizé on Ontario Est. A very nice place, very friendly in a not-always-so-friendly-neighborhood. We were playing with two other bands, Inhale The Fire and Wide Mouth Mason. I had to leave early after our performance but from what i heard from Inhale The Fire, they were awesome! You guys should def. check them out on facebook. We had an awesome time and a pretty good amount of people showed up. We covered for the first time the legendary GoldDigger (WHICH WAS SO FUN). We did however get cut on time because of some fuck-up during the soundcheck period. Result: we had to cut two songs....hey, nothing perfect!

So yeah, next show, pretty soon: SATURDAY JULY 30TH AT CROBAR on Crescent. If you want tickets, text, call, message, morse code one of the band members. ps: there's gonna be beer. be there.

Talking about greatness, for those who don't remember, we recorded a couple of months back one of our shows at Clydes. Well, guess what! The CDs for that are ready! we had some to sell on thursday and we'll have some also on july 30th. They're 5$ each (pretty cheap for awesomeness) ANNNND when we'll get our real CD debut, if you hold on to that live CD, you'll get 5$ off to get the new cd. Pretty good deal, no?

Also, we have koalas' t-shirts! we have different colored logos (you can see them on our facebook page). you just have to tell one of the band members your order, we'll do our own order and you'll get it in no time.

OHHH i was gonna forget something important and urgent: we've got a poll going on on our facebook page. We invite you to vote for a song that you'd like us to cover on the july 30th's show. right now, i'm pretty sure Bruno Mars ''grenade'' is winning. so if you don't like the sound of that, GO VOTE! if you do, then still vote to ensure that we do play that song.

anyways, i'm out to hockey

Peace,

Patrick

Breaks and New Ventures

Hey everyone!!

Dan, here, updating this long overdue blog. So, as some of you may or may not know, Pete has gone to Mexico or something to cook for some underprivileged mermaids. So, we’ve decided to take a break until he gets back. We have some shows organized for July, one on Saturday, July 30 at Crobar. Don’t worry; we’ll remind y’all when the date gets closer.

The live record is being mixed as we speak and we’ll be going within a week to listen to it before we give the go for the final mastering. We know you’ve been waiting a long time but, trust me, there’s nobody more anxious than we are for this! Until then...

So, since the band is on break, I’ve decided to try to use my time to pursue other music endeavors. Last weekend, I got together with the fine ladies of Line Spectra and a new friend, Chris from Luther Higgs. The girls called me up and wanted to know if I was willing to play keys for this little side project they were thinking of putting into motion, a Bon Jovi cover band. Being a recent graduate and, obviously, unemployed, I had nothing better to do with my time, so I agreed. To make a long story short, it was all kinds of awesome! I’m not a hug Bon Jovi fan but I can say that I had a blast with these maniacs.

My second adventure came just this Thursday. Lana, an old high school friend of mine, needed a guitarist for the WISTA rendition of the musical, Hairspray. Seeing this as an opportunity to learn some different styles of music and jam with new people, I said yes. I just came back from a rehearsal and I had a lot of fun. I definitely have quite a bit of work to do (I got the music yesterday and, sadly, that wasn’t enough time to learn 25 songs) if I want to be ready but I think it’s going to be really cool. I’ll be performing this Friday and twice on Saturday at LPHS in Pointe-Claire, if anyone is interested.

As I come closer to the end of this blog, I come closer to the end of my beer and I realize that I’m drinking on a Sunday night…and that’s sad.

Peace out,
Daniel

New song, recording and bacon spheres.

YO.

Despite being in the exam rush (everyone else, not me, I'm done. nice.), we've been pretty productive lately.

First off, we're just polishing off a new song that'll be ready for our show next Saturday (Underworld on the 30th) and I must say, it's sounding awesome. REALLY looking forward to the show/MY BIRTHDAY. WUUUUUT. That's right, it's gonna be real good times pre-during-post show so come out, bring everyone. Seriously.

Second, we got the chance to listen to an almost complete version of our recording from Clydes a few weeks ago and it sounds great. We didn't hear the complete finish product yet, but already, crazy props to our friends for doing such a good job already. The second it's done, you'll hear it.

FINALLY. Bacon Spheres. Glad you asked. This is the brain child of The Koalas and Line Spectra, and Martin.  Martin is not in a band, nor is he a band, but he's a pretty cool guy.
So, Bacon Spheres are jalapeño peppers, cheese, egg and bacon, wrapped in spicy Italian sausage. We then take the cores and pop them in the oven to make sure they get real cooked. Once that's done, we wrap them in baconweave and put them back in the oven. Now I know what you're thinking. "but Pete, how am I gonna eat a bacon sphere without getting my hands dirty???". Baked potato skin buns. You're welcome.

OK IM DONE

- Pete Stains

Of Kings and Burgers

Good news everyone!

It’s been a few days since our rockin’ out of your ass return-to-Clydes show. First of all, we just want to give a shout out to all the people that showed up. You guys made it a really fun night and are awesome fans.

We’d also like to thank Static Kings for wanting to play their first show with us. We had a blast and thought that they played VERY well.

We thought that this show was the best one so far and demonstrated how we’re able to work cohesively together more and more. So much so, that we took the liberty of recording the show! Our friends, Dennis and Joe, helped with that and said that the recording was good quality. We should be listening to it real soon and getting that out to you guys ASAP. A huge thanks to them, as well.

On Saturday, we went to go see our very good friends, Line Spectra, perform at Piranha Bar. The place is pretty small, so it felt like we had the privilege of a private performance. Obviously, we danced and made asses of ourselves to the point where Vanessa started laughing while she was singing. They played a great set and are just some of the coolest girls we know.

This led to yesterday, where The Koalas and Line Spectra met for Burger Summit. Yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like. We got together with them and a few friends and made gargantuan burgers with onions, sausage, jalapenos, BBQ and hot sauce already in the meat. Then, we dressed them with sautéed peppers and onions, tomatoes, grated cheese, salsa, avocado and poutine. Needless to say, we were all fat and sexy afterwards.

Just a heads up, our next show will be in a month, April 30^th at Underworld. We’ll be taking the month of April to work on some songs and deal with finals.

If you want a custom made Koalas t-shirt, then let us know with the size, shirt colour (black or white for now) and logo placement and colour and you’ll be the bell of the ball wherever you go.

Keep it real,

-Daniel

March 12th Gig

Hey Everyone,
Patty Onions reporting on the underworld, katacombe, foufounes electriques, Playhouse Cabaret Gig, yesterday night.

First question you might ask: what the Hell happened? Here's the answer:

So on Thursday night, Kevin Fernandes (who booked us for the Café l'Inco show and yesterday night's show) was talking with the guy that books people for underworld (where we were supposed to play). The underworld guy says ''Alright, dude, i'll see you on monday'', to which Kevin responds ''AHAHA, NON! see you on Saturday!''. The guy: '' AHAHA! NON! you don't have anything on saturday. we've got a contract with some Asian people.''

Conclusion: Underworld double-booked the place. So even though our gig was the one announced on the  Underworld's website, and even though everyone at Underworld thought we were playing, we got bumped because the booking guy had a contract with the Asian people. SOOOO PANIC.

All day friday and Saturday, Kevin Fernandes tried to find another venue: He called Katacombe first. not available. Foufounes? Available, but i don't think they could find any staff for the sound so that went down the drain. Finally Playhouse Cabaret: Available AND staff available.
So the Venue was chosen at .... 3 pm on Saturday, so less then 6 hours before the show. you can imagine how everyone (Kevin, the band members, some friends that knew about the situation, etc.) were really stressed about this.

Even though the time/place change affected a good number of people, A LOT still came to assist to an amazing evening of music. For us on stage, it was awesome! the crowd at least gave the impression of having a good time, which is gratifying for us ! Crowd surf, (very) special happy birthday wishes to Steve, good music cheap-ish beer, the night was the perfect recipe for AWESOME.

Consequences:
#1 The guy from Playhouse said pretty much this : whenever you wanna book with us, the place is yours if you can bring as much people as you did tonight. pretty awesome!!
#2 Some important music person-producer-guy was there and loved us. more on this soon when we meet with him!!!

Anyways just to say that last night was awesome, again thanks to you guys who showed up! for those who didn't, no worries. We have a gig on friday the 25th of march, at Clydes in Pointe-Claire Village in the west-island (familiar place!). Also fun to know, we are going to be recording this show live, so we're gonna play ALL OUR SONGS (and we'll have more time on stage then at Café l'Inco, for exemple)!!! REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THAT!!! go see the event's page http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=185240121498857 . We'll be playing with Static Kings: their first concert it'll be very interesting to discorver what awesomeness they have to offer!! BE THERE!!!!!

Anyways, i think that's it.

going back the study the theory of the hermeneutic circle from Gadamer. someone wants in??

-Patty Onions out-

Grease

Last weekend, we had done something probably only hardcore Americans have ever done before.....

For starters, it's SPRING BREAK!!! Which means we are drunk all the time (not really, but really), and we had a Deep Fryday Sunday band practice, which was surprisingly productive.

You guys might all be asking yourselves: "Well The Koalas, what are a Deep Fryday Sunday band practice?" Well, to answer your question as best as possible without confusing anybody, we all went to the grocery store and bought a ton of everything: no-name brand oreos, avocado, broccoli, Reese's p-b cups, onions (not Pat... though we were debating deep frying Pat at some point), and finally all-dressed Belle Pro hot dogs. We then made an Alexander Keith's beer batter and covered all of the above then placed everything violently in the deep fryer. Surprisingly the hot dogs were the best part of that meal (if you would call it that).
Soon after we all felt like crap and were sweating profusely though we weren't moving much.

Much to our surprise, grease makes the creative juices flow and we put the final touches on the 2 songs mentioned in the previous blog. Chris's recently purchased cow bell provided a sensual touch as well. With only a couple more weeks left before our next show at Underworld, we are scurrying to perfect these 2 tunes as much as possible so we can blow your minds.

We all hope that your spring breaks are as eventful as ours,

- Chris (and Patty Onions in spirit)