Electric Wizard’s Time to Die tour marked their first extended trek across North American in 13 years, and their first Toronto appearance in…forever!? No wonder it was such a hot ticket. The TO show sold out in a week, with plenty of people trekking up from Rochester, Buffalo and Satan-knows-where-else for the festivities. And this was just the second time I’ve ever seen scalpers outside of Lee’s Palace–me, I bought my ticket on StubHub a couple days beforehand, for twice the face value. But hey, based on their recent touring activity, it’s not like they’ll be back next year or anything…
Satan’s Satyrs had the honour of opening the evening–and the entire tour, for that matter, as their bassist is pulling double duty in The Wiz’s touring lineup. You can tell these guys are from the Doom Capital, as they sound an awful lot like Pentagram, albeit played at faster tempos.
It only feels like I haven’t seen Blood Ceremony in forever–in reality, I think it’s been over a year. And they’ve clearly moved past the doom rock of their debut, from which only one song was aired in their supporting set. But hey, when Electric Wizard comes to Toronto, could you even think of calling any other outfit to open for them?
Electric Wizard had clearly underestimated the demand for merchandise on this tour. By their sixth stop in Toronto, they had sold out of everything but a few posters–and there were still 10 dates remaining! Methinks soon we’ll be seeing those t-shirts selling for outrageous sums online…only this time, I won’t be buying. To summarize otherwise, the Wizard was worth the wait. If you missed ’em, you missed out!
