“We were getting close to finishing the record, and we were going through the liner notes and everything as a band. Then the guys started reading the lyrics, and Scott turned to me at one point and said, “are you ok?” after reading the lyrics. I said, “I’m fine, I have an outlet, I’m good.”…
Author: mikebax2015
Creative Director - CultureWorks ESL • Music Buff
Spoon Wows Fans at London Music Hall with Opener Bodega [Photos]
Britt Daniel, Jim Eno, Alex Fischel, Gerardo Larios, and Ben Trokan commiserated at the side of the London Music Hall stage for a few minutes before the house lights were dimmed and they took the darkened stage and launched into “Held,” the intro song to Lucifer On the Sofa. Pulsing lights slowly brightened as the…
John 5 (w/ Sticks N’ Stones) Shreds for Toronto Sinners at the Phoenix Concert Theatre [Photos]
I think of John 5 more and more amongst the list of living greats; he can play almost any song in any style. He has a killer sweeping style to his playing that seems to get better and better every year that goes by. He did an incredible cover of Queen’s Crazy Little Thing Called…
Voïvod’s Michel “Away” Langevin on ‘Synchro Anarchy,’ Longevity, and Pivotal Moments in Their History [w/ Audio]
“Back then, I tried not to over-think it, but back then, I was trying to incorporate what I had learned from heavy metal, punk, and progressive rock and trying to combine the three of them. Eventually, there was one trick that I always kept. Whenever In the 70s I heard a Van der Graaf Generator…
Primus (w/ Black Mountain) Bring Rush Back to Canada at Massey Hall in Toronto! [Photos]
“Are they here? Are they in the venue?”These words were on the lips of everyone in front of Massey Hall before this performance – fans hoping for a glimpse of Alex Lifeson and/or Geddy Lee on this first night of two special performances of Rush’s seminal A Farewell to Kings album. It was hard to…
The Beaches (w/ The Blue Stones) Get Groovy at Guelph Concert Theatre [Photos]
It struck me that this evening was the first time I’d seen the band truly headline a venue. I have seen them at festivals, as an opener for other bands, and at industry events, but I’d never seen them roll out a 22-song performance that touched on so much of their material in one shot…
Opeth, Mastodon and Khemmis Lay Waste to Toronto’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre [Photos]
Opeth is still cresting high on the wave of their most excellent 2019 album, In Cauda Venenum. They only performed Heart In Hand (Hjärtat vet vad handen gör) from the new album. This saddened me as the new album is so good that I would have been satisfied if they played the entire thing. Instead,…
Mammoth WVH & Dirty Honey Keep it Real at Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall [Photos]
Mammoth WVH similarly took the stage and delivered another round of in-your-face rock ’n roll. Seeing Wolfgang Van Halen on stage with Jon Jourdan (guitar), Ronnie Ficarro (bass), and Garrett Whitlock (drums) gives me renewed hope that rock bands are NOT a thing of the past at all. Mammoth WVH performed most of the debut…
Cancer Bats’ Liam Cormier on ‘Psychic Jailbreak’ and Being Cool with Music Streaming [w/ Audio]
“Musically, we are in a really great place. We are feeling more confident than ever. We are on this new vibe within the band. It feels like we are all on. The three of us, Jaye, Mike, and I, are super pumped to share what we’ve been working on for the past two years with…
Sabaton’s Joakim Brodén on ‘The War to End All Wars’ and Surviving High School [w/ Audio]
“I was into music at an early age, but I was mostly trouble. (laughs) But I was not too bad. I’ve never used this vocabulary in English before. When I am talking about music, I use the same descriptors daily. I was more like this; I could cause trouble, I would disturb the peace in…
Mike Bax 