WEDNESDAY 13

No strangers to Toronto at all, Wednesday 13, the band, slowly graced the Toronto stage, with the frontman arriving last to a raucous cheer from the incoming audience. Touring on the most recent album, Mid Death Crisis, from Napalm Records, this setlist was a three-way split between the latest album, Transylvania 90210: Songs Of Death, Dying, And The Dead, the debut album from the band, and three different covers. The band’s performance absolutely enthralled old fans and drew in some new ones, with the drums thundering throughout, even though the light wasn’t focused on them the entire time. Even though the frontman took full command of the stage and its risers to an absolutely dramatic and fevered pitch, one of the guitarists got a lot of time to shine, as every single time there was a guitar solo, the spotlight dimmed, and full focus was on them, which the crowd absolutely ate up.

Having seen Wednesday 13, I knew how the ending of the performance would go; the very tongue-in-cheek final song was ‘I Like To Say Fuck’, which had to have been a record for myself and others for the most amount of times that word was said in a song live, complete with an umbrella with a middle finger and the F word in bold capital letters.

SETLIST
‘When The Devil Commands’, ‘Rotting Away’, ‘197666 (Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 Cover)’, ‘In Misery’, ‘Summertime Suicide (Murderdolls Cover)’, ‘Haunt Me’, ‘I Walked With A Zombie’, ‘Bad Things’, ‘I Love To Say Fuck (Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 Cover)’

THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE

There is something really cool, dark, and wholesome about The Birthday Massacre; the band came out one by one, with the bassist absolutely strumming away with a cadence and a commanding sound that was utterly euphoric, especially once the synths came in for the intro song ‘Nightshift’. The venue was at peak capacity, with a band that started in London, Ontario, but relocated to Toronto, bringing as much energy to the floor as it did from the stage. It might not have been a mosh pit, but the tight and packed crowd was swaying and slowly headbanging away in approval. The keyboardist is one of the most animated members of a band I’ve seen, jumping all over the piano stand and even standing on the instrument at random parts of the performance. A lot of hands formed into the shapes of hearts; this was not missed by vocalist Sara, who must have made the same hand symbol at least a dozen times as they were dialed into how the crowd was responding to the music, slowly moving and contorting their bodies. That absolutely added an effect to the music.

Sara went out of their way to check in with the audience a lot over the seventeen-song performance, profusely thanking us, asking if we were ok/having a good time, and actually giving a shout-out to someone in the crowd who had a birthday on the day of the show. Both the number of songs and the diversity of hits, almost every album except for one in their discography, played as a lead-in to a headliner, are super rare in my concert-going experience; however, this just-over-an-hour performance kept a great pace and provided engagement throughout. The new music from the newest album wasn’t the focus in the setlist, but sounded great. I would love to see them headline a Toronto show in the near future.

SETLIST
‘Night Shift’, ‘Counterpane’, ‘Precious Hearts’, ‘Stars And Satellites’, ‘Superstition’, ‘The Vanishing Game’, ‘One’, ‘Sleep Tonight’, ‘All Of Nothing’, ‘Dead’, ‘Crush’, ‘Destroyer’, ‘Blue’, ‘Happy Birthday’, ‘In The Dark’, ‘Pins And Needles’, ‘Red Stars’

LORD OF THE LOST

Rounding out the night of awesome and dark music, the Danforth Music Hall was met with an eerie piano intro for Lord Of The Lost. What felt like somewhat of an extended intro, those keen to the sightline were able to see the keyboardist play the intro via air keyboards. The band slowly made separate entrances to the stage, which was complete with a secondary drum kit set up just behind the keyboardist. Once the intro was over and done with, we were thrown into a heavy barrage of double drum kicks, lightning-fast riffs, and choir chants. The vocalist approached the stage slowly and started off the lyrics for ‘Bazaar Bizarre’ and there was something very rapturous and ominous not over the vocal pattern but the rhythm that came out across the speakers. The crowd was right into this, and they were all too familiar with not only the band but also the lyrics, ‘This Is Your Time’.

The first three songs of the set, exclusively from the newest album Opvs Noir, went very quickly, and then the crowd was addressed by ‘The Lord’, thanking the Toronto crowd for showing up, speaking about the timing of events with this concert, coming from the other side of the world, and professing love of seeing the snow, even if we were tired of it. He also ended the speech with a quick reminder that not everyone made it tonight, and to enjoy the moments. It didn’t take long into the set for the band to play the brand-new song ‘I Hate People’ with Wednesday 13, followed by ‘Blood For Blood’, which had the majority of the crowd jumping up and down to the beat and melody of the two songs. The second set of drums for the keyboardist to smash into was a nice touch to the performance, as the drummer was sitting out this tour and this leg specifically. Seventy minutes for this performance, which included a wonderful cover of ‘The Look’ by Roxette, went by almost too quickly. The fast-paced and often ‘industrial’-leaning music was heavy in synths. It may have only been the band’s second visit to Toronto, but they delivered a refreshing performance for the ages and thankfully came through with this stop on their short tour of North America!

SETLIST
‘Intro Opvs Noir’, ‘Bazaar Bizarre’, ‘I Will Die In It’, ‘Damage’, ‘Prison’, ‘Drag Me To Hell’, ‘I Hate People (With Wednesday 13)’, ‘Blood For Blood’, ‘Priest’, ‘On This Rock I Will Build My Church’, ‘Loreley’, ‘Blood & Glitter (Extended Action Movie Version)’, ‘Light Can Only Shine In The Darkness’, ‘The Look (Roxette Cover)’, ‘The Things We Do For Love’