Written by Alex Stojanovic
Photography by Rob Botten
Photography by Rob Botten
| Bullet For My Valentine w/ Ritual, & Conversation @ The Phoenix Concert Theatre June 22, 2017 | (C)2017 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Interview with Matt Tuck can be viewed here. |
After touring heavily for their latest album Venom, Bullet For My Valentine are taking most of this year off to decompress, be with the families and work on their sixth studio album, due for release in 2018. However, the band decided to do a few select shows this summer, with a few in Europe and a couple in Canada. One of the Canadian shows was a one-off headline show at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto that served as a warm-up gig for the band's appearance at the Amnesia Rockfest two days later. This was also the band's first show of the year. It's also worth noting that Bullet For My Valentine were my very first metal show back in 2008 just before I turned 16. I got into metal in 2004, but it was four years later that I started going to metal shows and they were one of my top favourite bands when I was in high school. Listening to The Poison and Scream Aim Fire always casts me back to my high school days. I could also say the same about Fever, but that album came out just as I was about to graduate.
Kicking off the evening's festivities were local hard rockers Conversation. Despite the somewhat odd band name, they managed to put on a really energetic show. On stage, the band was all over the place, I was thinking one of them was going to get knocked over or knocked off the stage. It was also kind of odd not seeing any high toms on Yoda Perron's drum kit. Frontman Timothy Bolton would often swing and spin his microphone. It sometimes looked like he was going to hit someone with the mic, but thankfully he didn't. Overall, the band displayed a great amount of energy and got the crowd hyped up for what was to come.
Up next were Hamilton punk/metalcore outfit Ritual. Many of their songs were rather short, staying in the 2-minute region and some of the songs had a Motorhead flare to them. It was pretty hard to hear Matt Ryan Tobin's vocals though, especially when he was talking to the crowd and singing softly because his mic was both muffled and turned down. After they finished the last song, bassist Matthew Rigg just dropped his bass on to the stage and left it there. I couldn't tell if it was part of the show, or if he had an issue that got him ticked off a bit. Much like Conversation, the band displayed great energy and put on a tight performance.
Kicking off the evening's festivities were local hard rockers Conversation. Despite the somewhat odd band name, they managed to put on a really energetic show. On stage, the band was all over the place, I was thinking one of them was going to get knocked over or knocked off the stage. It was also kind of odd not seeing any high toms on Yoda Perron's drum kit. Frontman Timothy Bolton would often swing and spin his microphone. It sometimes looked like he was going to hit someone with the mic, but thankfully he didn't. Overall, the band displayed a great amount of energy and got the crowd hyped up for what was to come.
Up next were Hamilton punk/metalcore outfit Ritual. Many of their songs were rather short, staying in the 2-minute region and some of the songs had a Motorhead flare to them. It was pretty hard to hear Matt Ryan Tobin's vocals though, especially when he was talking to the crowd and singing softly because his mic was both muffled and turned down. After they finished the last song, bassist Matthew Rigg just dropped his bass on to the stage and left it there. I couldn't tell if it was part of the show, or if he had an issue that got him ticked off a bit. Much like Conversation, the band displayed great energy and put on a tight performance.
| (C)2017 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Photo: Rob Botten | Finally, it was time for Bullet For My Valentine to hit the stage. The warm-up song was "Ace Of Spades", which got much of the crowd singing along and a portion of the crowd was already in mosh mode during the song. However, when the lights went out, the crowd's roar was deafening. The band kicked things off with the one-two punch of "No Way Out" and "Waking The Demon". For the most part, the set consisted of mainly the singles and the hits with a small handful of non-singles. The band continues to have drummer Jason Bowld filling in for Michael "Moose" Thomas, who is still on a temporary leave from the band to be home with his new daughter who came into the world last year. Bowld is doing a phenomenal job though. Other fan-favourites the band touched on included "Your Betrayal", "Four Words To Choke Upon", "The Last Fight" and "Scream Aim Fire". Some of the other songs from Venom that they touched on were "Worthless", "Venom" and "You Want A Battle (Here's A War)". The band didn't have anything fancy on stage. They kept it simple with a few Marshall cabinents and some strobe lights. |
I was really impressed at how tight the band was when they played. A couple of songs I'm really glad they played were "Her Voice Resides" and "Alone". The latter is a song I've been wanting to hear them play live. The main set ended with "Tears Don't Fall" and the night closed off with "Don't Need You" in the encore. The set was not very long though. They only played 13 songs and it lasted for an hour and 15 minutes. They could've easily thrown in about two or three more songs. If I could've requested two more songs, I would've requested "Begging For Mercy" and "Eye Of The Storm". Maybe next time, right? However, it was great to see Bullet For My Valentine once again because I don't go to see them all that often. This was only my third time in 9 years, but it was my first time seeing the band with Jamie Mathias as bassist. I'm not the same hardcore fan I was in high school, but I'm still a fan and always will be. I look forward to seeing them again soon.
| BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE Matt Tuck - Vocals & guitars Michael "Padge" Paget - Lead guitars & backing vocals Jamie Mathias - Bass & backing vocals Jason Bowld - Drums (filling in for Michael "Moose" Thomas) Label: Spinefarm/Search & Destroy Records Website: www.bulletformyvalentine.com | RITUAL Matt Ryan Tobin - Vocals Matthew Rigg - Bass Aaron Le Tual - Guitars Timothy Busa - Guitars Chris Cranston - Drums Label: Distort / Fontana North (Canada) Bullet Tooth Records (Worldwide) Website: www.weareritual.com | CONVERSATION Timothy Bolton - Vocals Jason Prolas - Guitars & vocals Patty Kosak - Guitars Erik Tandberg - Bass Yoda Perron - Drums Label: Unsigned Website: www.conversationband.com |
RSS Feed
