INTRO
Selfishly, I jumped out of my chair when this tour was announced, two bands I know really well and two that would expose me to new music. Better Lovers missed Toronto on the original headliner North American tour earlier this year, opting for London as the Ontario stop; this show promised to be so much better, as they were touring on the recently released album. The Opera House was in for a magical ride on this night.
CLOAKROOM
The band started to load onto the stage at the 7 pm time call, which, once all set up, led to a 7:17 pm start time that would delay the rest of the night from any other stop on the tour. Instantly with this band, it was hard to place this band in any category; genres are a funny thing, but I’m seeing six different genres defining them. played and sent me on a trip for the time that they played. I was completely sober but was launched into space via headbanging. This band shouldn’t be missed. They also joked forward to the new release they have coming in 2025. about why they were late to the Opera House, held up at our aggressive and tough border, over one of them being an alleged killer, which caused laughter from the crowd, as this music was so somber, a reflection of the brutal northwest Indiana they hail from. Looking forward to the new release they have coming in 2025.
Setlist
‘The Pilot’, ‘Story Of The Egg with ‘Unbelonging’ intro), ‘Lost Meaning’, ‘Light Up’, ‘Dissembler’
SPY
This five-piece band from the extraordinary music-producing Bay Area is no joke. This area of America, not generally a hotbed for the punk, this band brought to the Opera House on this night. I’ve seen some bands make movements on stage, but this band really set the tone for this show and anything I will see in the future. Specifically, the bassist and vocalist were a tag team of madmen that were doing back-and-forth laps on the storied opera house stage; they got their steps in for sure on this night. This performance really went quick; the whole band was on a mission to deliver. This set was both fierce and heavy.
Setlist
‘Running Out Of Space’, ‘Koniec’, ‘Surveilled’, ‘Mob’, ‘Do What I Can’, ‘Exceptional American’, ‘Bootlicker’, ‘Carceral Attitude’, ‘Violent Majority’, ‘Big Man’, ‘Afraid Of Everything’
FULL OF HELL
Legendary five-piece band Full Of Hell has not been shy with Toronto over the last year. This is the second year in a row on November 14th that the band has played Toronto. A grindcore band of this caliber touring nationally so often is great to those who love the genre. With three members out of five being with the band since 2009, when the band formed. This band was tight and a force from the start to the finish of the set; the drummer sounded like he was going to break through the stage with how hard he was smashing the drums. Dylan was a menace on his sound and pedal board in between some of the most impressive banshee-style screams. The crowd was absolutely enthralled with this set, with lots of movement, and the filled-up main floor by the time this started. It was funny to note as well that the crowd wasn’t too aware of the spacing in between the songs, which led to a couple of awkward claps at the wrong moments. The performance ended off with Dylan profusely thanking the Opera House crowd for coming to this show instead of Taylor Swift. The look on Dylan’s face, you could tell he is a super genuine person, loving life, and super grateful to be on this tour. Happy anniversary! Full Of Hell, im sure it wasn’t planned, but see you November 14th, 2025, for the third anniversary of the band playing in Toronto on the same date.
Setlist
‘Deluminate’, ‘Asphyxiant Blessing’, ‘Doors To Mental Agony’, ‘Transmuting Chemical Burns’, ‘Crawling Back To God’, ‘Amber Mote’, ‘Schizoid Rupture’, ‘Bone Coral And Brine (w/extended drum solo outro)’, ‘Gelding Of Men’, ‘Reeking Tunnels’, ‘Coagulated Bliss’, ‘Guided Blight’
BETTER LOVERS
By the time Better Lovers were tuning up the band, the Opera House was peak stuffed full of people on the main floor, even with the newly bars removed. This is hard to explain over text, as the data is incomplete; Better Lovers have a kickass audio intro with someone on a “boombox radio” surfing through radio stations and just random snippets of songs from all decades and generations that have the word “love” in it (online it says medley of ‘love” lyrics across popular songs). Coming out of the backstage red hot with the opening track to the brand new album, the Opera House came alive with movement and crowd singing that was heard even from the photo pit. I’ve only experienced this a handful of times, but specifically the third song, ‘Your Misplaced Self’ was played at a slower pace than what was on the record, much to the dramatic effect of the extensive lighting that made photography for anyone in this venue less than ideal.
High energy is an understatement from this band: nonstop movement, lots of jumping, smiles, and waves from the band to audience members in between songs. I want to shout out the song ‘Future Myopia’; as energic as this performance was, this song was the break spot from all the madness, sadly with no light shining on the Opera House’s disco ball for extra dramatic effect. No show would be complete without Greg specifically doing something completely random that sets him apart from everyone else. Unlike an experience with fire in a closed building at the London show, Greg chose to jump into the crowd for the final lines of the last song and was joined by one of the guitarists. Long are the days of Greg jumping off the Opera House balconies, which was previously done with a lot of trust from the crowd. This performance was one of the most phenomenal and euphoric performances of the year for sure, all Better Lovers songs, no covers, full of angst and energy. The Toronto crowd was very responsive to this performance, also firing on all cylinders, and showered the band with affection, and I’m sure the band will be back sooner than later.
Setlist
‘Lie Between The Lines’, ‘Sacrificial Participant’, ‘Your Misplaced Self’, ‘Become So Small’, ‘Superman Died Paralyzed’, ‘A White Horse Covered In Blood’, ‘Drowning In A Burning World’, ‘The Flowering’, ‘Two Alive Amongst The Dead’, ‘Future Myopia’, ‘At All Times’, ‘God Made Me An Animal’, ‘Love As An Act Of Rebellion’, ’30 Under 13′
OUTRO
Not knowing the full lineup, in my travels of concert going, this show was packed full of talent for a super affordable price, considering this is a North American tour tied to it. Poetically, when said in an interview, “We’re not here for a cup of coffee,” I would like to agree and extend this to all of the bands on this bill: please come back to Toronto sooner than later; we will be here with open arms.
November 14th, 2024 @ The Opera House
(Toronto, ON)
Images By: Miles George
Words By: Miles George