Prepared to see a high school favourite of mine, Anberlin, I was a little shocked to see Everlea on stage when the concert finally began. The four-man band from Kingston pleasantly surprised me. After seeing the lead singer handing out stickers in the line before the show, I wasn't sure what to expect. But the vocals were clear and flawlessly reached heights other boy bands dream about. They sounded seemingly similar to The Rocket Summer, but a bit more masculine and mellowed. Aesthetically resembled The All American rejects with a similar demeanor, but less pop. The tunes were catchy and memorable, but likely what you would expect from looking at them. Although enjoyable to watch, Everlea is quite a few shows away from being a worthy headliner, but it's definitely within reach.
After Everlea, we waited with anticipation to see who would grace the stage with there presence next. Would it be Anberlin? Taking Back Sunday? Nope it was a little Brampton based band called Moneen. I had heard Moneen prior, but never gave them the recognition they deserved. The moment they played the first note you could tell Moneen were seasoned performers. The melodic rock with heavy bass and incendiary vocals was a deeply emotive combination. They seemed to exude every ounce of physical energy that was humanly safe while they performed with unique showmanship. The lead singer, Kenny Bridges wooed the crowd by saying they wanted to play some older stuff. When the crowd went crazy he replied with “ Not that old”. Moneen's new album “ The world I want to leave behind” is set to debut Sept 15th. That night they are also playing a free show at The Horseshoe. If their performance as openers is any indication of what they are capable of as headliners (and it is), the free show is not something I would want to miss out on.
Finally at 9:30 after much time spent waiting between sets, Taking Back Sunday teased us no further and exploded on to stage with an epic entrance. Sporting a more mature appearance, TBS started their set with: What's it feel like to be a ghost? Off their 2006 album “Louder Now”. Afterwards they explained and apologized for canceling the June 23rd show that this was in lieu of - the lead singer Adam Lazzara had been hospitalized for an illness that incapacitated him. At that point no one seemed to care, we just wanted to hear more TBS! Each song was booming with energy from the performers and the rowdy crowd. Everyone knew the words and didn't hesitate to scream at the top of their lungs. This really got Lazzara jazzed up. At one point he voiced his dismay for canceling this show out of all the shows on the “New Again” Tour, because it was obvious what avid fans we were. They made mention of the guitarist/back-up vocalist, Matthew Fazzi playing with a broken foot. It hardly hindered his performance, which is impressive considering the work-out he was getting on stage. Lazzara almost compulsively swung his mic around his arm and in to the crowd, very entertaining. And no TBS concert would be complete without the infamous mic-neck wrap Lazzara's fans know all too well. Their four song encore ended with Make Damn Sure, quite the crowd pleaser. TBS made damn sure all their fans were satisfied with their larger than life performance. Thank-you, Taking Back Sunday for being as incredible as we remembered, and exactly what we had hoped for. All in all, great show from all three bands.
