After their tour to Montana two years ago, Theory of a Deadman (now known as Theory) made yet another round to Missoula, filling our ears with loud, awesome rock ‘n’ roll. On November 10,Theory was playing live at The Wilma Theater in downtown Missoula. Starting out with their hit song “Lowlife,” they immediately got the sold out crowd of fourteen hundred people excited, full of energy and craving more.

They primarily stuck to their classic songs in the beginning of the show, playing songs like “So Bad,” “Not Meant to Be” and others. Theory certainly gave the crowd exactly what they wanted. They strayed away from their classic songs after the filth or sixth song to focus on some of their songs from their new album Wake Up Call. The energy, lights and basically the whole atmosphere of this show was everything you could hope to expect from a show like that. In other words, it was killer.

Other than just quality of the band’s performance the other factor that made this show good was the sound quality. In some other places that you can go see indoor shows, the room is almost an echo chamber and there is a loud constant screech. Not in The Wilma.

It’s interesting to think about how far the band has come in the years since they started, writing six albums since 2001 while replacing only one member in the process (the band’s old drummer Brent Fitz). In the years they’ve been together, the calibration between the band members is impressive in the sense of the diversity of the songs they have written.

This Canadian rock band has shaken the rock community with Tyler Connolly as their lead vocals, Dave Brenner as lead guitar, Joey Dandeneau as their current drummer and last but not least Dean Black on the bass guitar.

The first album they released was Theory of a Deadman. This  album was the band’s way of finding their sound and they certainly did. But the feeling of this album, unlike the later ones, felt in a way fake like the band was just trying to get off the ground in the sense that the songs in that album felt like they were not about real life experiences.

Unlike the second albums Gasoline, which felt like the songs in that album where writing about someone that Tyler used to love and then that person left him.The latest album Wake up Call has a huge new feel to it for example the song “RX (Medication)” felt fresh with more computer generated and the vocals felt less rock inspired these factors made it sound like almost like another artist in its complexity.

But it’s still recognizable as Theory. As for the other songs in that album they have less rhyming in the vocals like RX and lean more to singing in a heartfelt way. For example the song “Echoes” or (wake up call),“Straitjacket”,“Loner”,“Time”,“Machine”,“PCH”, and literally the rest of the songs in that album.

If you don’t listen to the other albums at least listen to this one, just for the sheer  fact that it is beautiful. And unlike a lot of music that people find amusing in this day and age. And I’m confident that you we at least like — if not love — every song in that album

Their third album Scars and Souvenirs felt like an extension of the Gasoline album in the way that Connolly was writing about someone who had left him but it was also different because he was wright in a way that seemed like was resenting that person. For instance the songs “By the way”, “Crutch”, “Not Meant to Be” and “So Happy”. Later in the album the songs that were coming out at the time felt like were written in a humorous way, for example the song “Bad Girlfriend”.

In the next album there were a few songs that were sad and a few that were just funny in a way but also rock like the song “Lowlife”.

The fifth album, Savages, had some other styles in it for instance in the song “Blow” they touch on a small amount of Tom Petty style if you will, by using Tom Petty’s signature, the harmonica. But other than that this album primarily sticks to the style Theory is used to:straight up rock and roll.

With all these factors considered if you haven’t seen Theory play live — or any show at The Wilma, for that matter — you should seriously consider it. Most shows Wilma are affordable and more than likely good quality performers. You won’t regret it, unless you don’t get in of course.