You knew this one was gonna be good. Ending a two-year hiatus, Truckfighters announced that their 2019 tour would feature their seminal debut Gravity X, played in its entirety…albeit in reverse order. Combined with their high-energy live set, you could bet things would get sweaty!
Even though there was no touring support, the local(ish) openers were well selected for this event. Small-town Ontario psych trio Familiars played to a rather sparse crowd at 8:30, but impressed those already in attendance with their laid-back, heavy grooves. One guy (who was on drugs) actually left early, complaining that the Truckfighters only played three songs and took off. 😆
Hadn’t seen Sierra in a while — the Kitchener natives are seemingly more likely to be touring the States as a supporting act than playing a gig ’round these parts. While their sounds added a bit more of a progressive edge to the evening, they filled their supporting role quite ably, once again.
Most of the crowd filed in just before Truckfighters took the stage — when I saw the kids up front doing mushrooms, I knew it was gonna be a wild one. The ‘fighters brought their vintage riffs, and the crowd ate it all up, like a big ol’ plate of Swedish meatballs at IKEA. Dango was completely drenched in sweat by the third song, and he wasn’t even the wettest person in the building, as the sweaty squish pit kicked in right from the opening grooves of “A. Zapruder.”
Like I said, they played the album backwards, ending with a raucous “Desert Cruiser” that had the crowd singing the chorus by themselves. And I’ll be damned if that wasn’t the first time I’ve seen a Toronto crowd really actively calling for an encore — I swear the kids at this gig made more noise in coaxing the band back to the stage than the (considerably larger) crowd at Iron Maiden last weekend…
