Tag: live
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Stick Men + Sonar @ The Garrison, Toronto, 27 August 2017
Time to get sticky! Stick Men are a progressive rock act where all three band members stick it to conventional rock norms by playing wielding sticks – two Chapman sticks and drum sticks. Formed in 2007 by Chapman stick player Tony Levin of King Crimson fame (who has appeared on over a whopping 500 albums),…
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Magma @ The Mod Club in Toronto, 20 August 2017
Sometimes progressive rock feels too limiting a label for an infinitely innovative collective credited with introducing unorthodox and challenging elements to music. One such act is cult legend Magma, formed in France in 1969 by the ambitious Christian Vander. Vander took Magma one step beyond other musicians at the time by creating his own language for…
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Anathema @ The Opera House, Toronto, 21 August 2017
The last time England’s atmospheric progressive rockers Anathema came to Toronto in 2013, visa issues cruelly skimmed the line up to just frontman Vincent Cavanagh, guitarist Danny Cavanagh and vocalist Lee Douglas. Now live in Toronto tonight, the whole line up is present and it the audience’s anticipation marks this show as long overdue. Starting…
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The Jelly Jam + Rustik @ The Rockpile, Toronto – 18 August 2017
A progressive rock/metal supergroup strikes Toronto! The members of The Jelly Jam include bassist John Myung from Dream Theater, guitarist and vocalist Ty Tabor from King’s X and drummer Rod Morgenstein, an alumni of Dixie Dreggs and Winger. Despite their line-up’s impressive roster of musical contributions, this band has a criminally limited fan base. Their…
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Anciients, Dead Quiet and Muffler Crunch @ Hard Luck Bar, Toronto, 18 August 2017
If you aren’t familiar with Anciients, you should be. The British Columbia-based band recently took a swing through southern Ontario as part of their Voice of the Void Canadian tour with Dead Quiet. Hellbound welcomed them to Hamilton for their performance at This Ain’t Hollywood – a night of top-notch live metal also featuring local openers…
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Neurosis / Converge / Amenra at the Danforth Music Hall, Toronto, 2 August 2017
Amenra Crushing hypnotic sludge. Screamed vocals. Very Neurosis-like in style. Slow parts and catchy melodies. Nice black and white visuals. Clouds and nature with burning and smoking landscapes. Maybe close to as punishingly epic as a cult of Luna show. Lots of feedback and ringing and sustained notes and riffs. Echoing bass and drums can be felt…
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Today is the Day + Kayo Dot @ Hard Luck Bar, Toronto, 26 July 2017
A sizeable number of people think nothing is ever truly original, but that doesn’t mean musicians shouldn’t strive to develop something rare. Tonight’s one-two punch of Today is the Day and Kayo Dot is a welcomed concert of groups whose primary musical motivation is, refreshingly, to attain this goal. JUL 29: Today is the Day,…
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Green Day, Oakland Coliseum, 5 August 2017
Let me start off this show review saying from the early to late-90s I would have considered myself a Green Day fan. From the first time I heard the album Kerplunk around 1992 I knew these Bay Area guys were something special. Now, let’s fast forward to the present. I hadn’t seen Green Day in…
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Hellbound @ Tuska Open Air 2017 in Helsinki
Once again I find myself in Helsinki to attend the Tuska Open Air Festival, which has become a staple in my yearly concert plans. The weather called for rain, but for the most part we were lucky to dodge shit weather — mostly. One thing I love and admire about this festival is that the…
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Fates Warning + Infinite Spectrum @ Mod Club Theatre, Toronto on June 21, 2017
One of progressive metal’s earliest instigators, Fates Warning, returns to Toronto tonight. Being the vanguards of metal’s most skilled genre that ignited the enviable careers of Dream Theater, Opeth and Queensryche, it’s exceedingly criminal that Fates Warning remain so underrated. Recently, these Americans recruited a wave of younger supporters as the retro heavy/power metal trend…