​If you've been a DragonForce fan for as long as I have, you know that their whole gimmick is based on video game fantasy, and they love to throw in quite a bit of comedic aspects into their set.  Unlike some bands that go overboard on the comedy to the point where it starts getting ridiculous and stale, DragonForce don't overuse the comedic aspect in their show.  For example, in between "Heart Demolition" and "Ashes Of The Dawn", they played a couple of the classic Sega commercials from the 90s advertising the Megadrive.  In keeping up with the gaming theme tradition, the band ripped through a couple of video game theme songs like "Dracula's Castle" from Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night, and "Fight On" from Final Fantasy VII.  Herman Li announced to the crowd that he was livestreaming the entire show on Twitch from a camera that was mounted on his shoulder, which got the crowd roaring with excitement.  On top of that, they had a few local YouTube/Tik-Tok personalities join them on stage like Nik Nocturnal, Stevie T, jordan.wav and Cole Rolland to jam some songs.  Sam Totman also dressed up in a farmer's costume and played banjo during one of these segments.  It's also hilarious to see that even after all these years, Herman and Sam are still displaying their playful competitive attitude towards each other when it comes to shredding.

To summarize, DragonForce, Firewind, Visions Of Atlantis and Seven Spires brought a ton of uplifting vibes to us metalheads and video game geeks, and a much needed sense of relief to those who had this show be their first one back since the beginning of all the nonsense we experienced in the last two years (i.e: me).  This is just the beginning of the full return of tours, with so much more to come throughout the rest of the year.  If this tour is hitting your town, go see it.

​For anyone that has read this review, knows that Kim Mitchell (Canadian rock royalty) means a lot to me, because he was my introduction to music at age 3, and the very first artist I ever heard music from and embraced.  I'm still as much of a fan as I was back then.  Given that the show was in a seated-theatre setting, I knew that the sound was going to be amazing, because many seated-theatres contain acoustics that make for amazing sound.  Normally, Kim and his band would start off a show in pure rocking style, but things started off a bit differently this time around.

The show consisted of two sets with an intermission in between.  The first set started off with a few songs being performed acoustically, with piano accompaniment by his new keyboardist Kevin Adamson, and guest vocalist Laura Cole.  Songs they started off the set were "Alana Loves Me" and "Called Off", as well as a couple of rare Max Webster surprises, which were "Words To Words" and "Here Among The Cats".  Just before the music started, Kim made the exciting announcement that he just finished recording a brand new record of all new original material, which is certainly long overdue, and should be out soon.  After the acoustic segment was done, drummer Dave Langguth, and bassist and Kim's longtime fellow bandmate Peter Fredette walked out on stage, and things kicked off into high gear with "That's A Man".  The remainder of the first set consisted of Max Webster tunes such as "High Class In Borrowed Shoes", "Blue River Liquor Shine" and "The Party".

After a 20 minute intermission, the second set kicked off with "Lager & Ale".  Kim, Peter, Kevin and David went through a whole bunch of signature tunes such as "Rockland Wonderland", "Easy To Tame", "I Am A Wild Party", "Patio Lanterns", "All We Are" and "Go For Soda".  For the encore, the band returned and treated us to "Rock 'N Roll Duty", officially ending the night.  As they were saying their "thank yous", Kim made the reminder for everybody to wash their hands.  Simply put, at nearly 70 years, Kim Mitchell proves that he's still a wild party!  Go see him live when you get the chance.  A huge congratulations to Kim is also in order on his induction into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.  Very well deserved.