 | Written by Alex Stojanovic @ The Opera House Toronto, ON, Canada September 21, 2017 Presented by Inertia Entertainment There's no doubting that 2017 has been a great year for shows with some rarities popping up. One of those rarities was Sacred Reich's first North American tour in 21 years. This tour included the band's first visit to Canada since 1993 and the dates they've done this year around Europe, North and South America are in celebration of the 30th anniversary of their classic debut album Ignorance. For this tour, Sacred Reich held a free VIP meet-and-greet for all the fans at the merch table when the doors opened. That was an incredible thing to see. I'm all for bands doing the paid meet-and-greet because they need to make some extra money, but every once in a while, it's always great to see a band doing a free meet-and-greet. Kicking off the festivities were local outfit Cellphone. I first saw these guys over a year ago as part of the Wacken Metal Battle Canada 2016 edition. There has been a slight lineup change since that last time and that is that there is no more keyboardist, so the band is now a trio. With a sparse crowd to start off the night, the band's performance received a decent reaction. Miami Mike's bass resembled Cliff Burton's a bit with the heavy distortion. My only complaints about their set was their stage presence was pretty dull, the bass drowned out the guitar a bit and the drums sounded a little muffled. |
Next up were West Virginia melodic thrashers Byzantine who are making their second visit to Toronto in their 17-year career on this tour. The band almost didn't make it to the show due to issues at the border and the transmission in their vehicle breaking. Luckilly, they made it just in time, but the transmission issue has caused the band to cancel a couple of appearances. It was great to see many fans buying their merch and donating to the band afterwards to help out. Their sound was a huge improvement over Cellphone's with everything sounding cleaner and more distinguishable. Due to the problems they were experiencing earlier in the day, it just made the band play with more fervor. The only issue about their set was that every time frontman Chris Ojeda asked for a pit, nothing happened, but at least the crowd was very receptive to their performance. We all wish Byzantine the best for the rest of the tour and we look forward to them coming back soon sometime.
Finally, Sacred Reich closed the night off with a long-awaited appearance. The mosh pit kicked off into high gear as the band started the set with "Ignorance". Phil Rind's vocals are still in great shape. During his in-between-song banters, Phil reminisced about the old days, briefly touched on how politics worldwide are a mess. He even acknowledged a promoter who brought the band for their first Toronto show at the Silver Dollar in 1988, who was in the audience. He also acknowledged a friend of his whose band opened for them at that Silver Dollar show, who was also in the crowd. The majority of the set focused on Ignorance and The American Way, while touching on select cuts from Independent and Surf Nicaragua as well. Some other tracks we were treated to included "Violent Solutions", "One Nation", "Administrative Decisions", "Crimes Against Humanity" and their cover of "War Pigs", during which Danko Jones came on stage for the "whoas" at the end of the song. Just like Byzantine, there was great clarity to Sacred Reich's sound. Everything from Jason Rainey and Wiley Arnett's guitars to Phil's bass and vocals and Greg Hall's drums was in perfect volume balance. For the encore, we were treated to "Death Squad" and the night closed off with "Surf Nicaragua". Due to the very respectable turnout, great merch sales and great reaction, I hope that this is a sign that there's more North American tours to come for Sacred Reich in the future, but more like every couple of years rather than every 20 years.
Finally, Sacred Reich closed the night off with a long-awaited appearance. The mosh pit kicked off into high gear as the band started the set with "Ignorance". Phil Rind's vocals are still in great shape. During his in-between-song banters, Phil reminisced about the old days, briefly touched on how politics worldwide are a mess. He even acknowledged a promoter who brought the band for their first Toronto show at the Silver Dollar in 1988, who was in the audience. He also acknowledged a friend of his whose band opened for them at that Silver Dollar show, who was also in the crowd. The majority of the set focused on Ignorance and The American Way, while touching on select cuts from Independent and Surf Nicaragua as well. Some other tracks we were treated to included "Violent Solutions", "One Nation", "Administrative Decisions", "Crimes Against Humanity" and their cover of "War Pigs", during which Danko Jones came on stage for the "whoas" at the end of the song. Just like Byzantine, there was great clarity to Sacred Reich's sound. Everything from Jason Rainey and Wiley Arnett's guitars to Phil's bass and vocals and Greg Hall's drums was in perfect volume balance. For the encore, we were treated to "Death Squad" and the night closed off with "Surf Nicaragua". Due to the very respectable turnout, great merch sales and great reaction, I hope that this is a sign that there's more North American tours to come for Sacred Reich in the future, but more like every couple of years rather than every 20 years.
| CELLPHONE Miami Mike - Vocals & bass J. Leon - Guitars CJ Morgan - Drums Label: Telephone Explosion Website: www.facebook.com/Cellphone | BYZANTINE Chris Ojeda - Vocals & rhythm guitars Brian Henderson - Lead guitars & vocals Sean Sydnor - Bass Matt Bowles - Drums Label: Metal Blade Records Website: www.byzantine.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/Byzantinewv | SACRED REICH Phil Rind - Bass & vocals Jason Rainey - Rhythm guitars Wiley Arnett - Lead guitars Greg Hall - Drums Label: Metal Blade Records Website: www.facebook.com/sacredreichofficial |
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