 | Written by: Alex Stojanovic Photography: Rob Botten (C)2017 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com @ The Danforth Music Hall Toronto, ON Canada May 3, 2017 Unfortunately we do not have photos of Killswitch Engage. Our apologies to the band, and fans. Co-headline tours are not that much of a surprise today because we're seeing more and more of them happening due to the competition in touring, but when you have two awesome bands co-headlining, of course it's worth your buck. This year has seen one of the most exciting co-headline bills and I don't think it will be topped, and that is the Killthrax tour, featuring co-headliners Anthrax and Killswitch Engage with The Devil Wears Prada as support. The tour came up to Toronto at the Danforth Music Hall in early May and it was the only Canadian show on the tour. The show was sold out, so it was indeed a madhouse (pun intended). I've mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again. The very first show I ever saw at the Danforth Hall just happened to be Anthrax when they toured with Testament and Death Angel in 2012. It was one of the best shows I've ever seen. Ever since then, the hall became one of my top two favourite venues due to the acoustics for the sound and the special memory I have from that show, so seeing Anthrax at this venue again definitely conjured up some nostalgia. |
| Unfortunately due to a vehicle malfunction, Code Orange didn't end up performing, so The Devil Wears Prada kicked off the festivities. I've only seen them once before on Mayhem Fest 2015 when they opened the main stage. They performed to a pretty receptive crowd and touched on songs like "Daughter", which they opened up with, "Sailor's Prayer", "Outnumbered" and "Dead Throne" just to name a few. Mike Hranica however didn't even interact with the crowd until the last song. He even managed to throw in a quick little joke about Donald Trump, which garnered a few different reactions. He was also the only member that moved around on stage the most, while everyone else stood in there spots performing, but they weren't stagnant as they did bang their heads. Now came time for the first headliner: Killswitch Engage, who took the stage as the first part of Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right" played and they launched into "Hate By Design", followed by "Vide Infra". Audience participation is always a key part of a Killswitch Engage set with tons of moshing, crowd-surfing and singing along. During their 17-song set, they touched on so many fan favourites that the crowd sang along | (C)2017 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Photo: Rob Botten |
to like "My Last Serenade", "The End Of Heartache", "A Bid Farewell" and "Rose Of Sharyn", as well as a few new songs from Incarnate like "Alone I Stand", "Embrace The Journey...Upraised" and "Strength Of The Mind". The best part was Adam Dutkiewicz's on-stage banter about sex. It was so hilarious, I was guffawing. In the final portion of the set, we were treated to a nice surprise like "Beyond The Flames", a couple of fan favourites like "My Curse" and "In Due Time", and they closed out the set with their "Holy Diver" cover, which they brought out Joey Belladonna to sing guest vocals on. A great ending to a super set from Killswitch Engage.
| Now it was time for the final headliner: Anthrax. To warm up the crowd, Iron Maiden's "Number Of The Beast" and Otis Redding's "I Can't Turn You Loose" played on the P.A, and the show started with "Among The Living" and "Caught In A Mosh". This year, Anthrax have stepped it up a few notches with their stage show, which included a big riser with ramps on either side, four truss totems with lights and CO2 machines. Put that together with the awesome setlist, and this was the best Anthrax show I've ever seen. For the past few years, every time Anthrax does an extensive run of shows, Charlie Benante usually steps out from the tour after the first half due to his ongoing battle with carpal tunnel syndrome and Jon Dette would step in and fill in for Charlie for the rest of the tour. Seeing as this show was near the end of this run, I was expecting Dette to be sitting behind the kit for this show, but to mine and a bunch of other people's great surprise, Charlie was behind the kit for this show, so that was great to see. As I mentioned up at the top about Anthrax being the first band I've seen at the Danforth Hall and it being one of the greatest shows I've seen, the only criticism I had about that show was that the bass was a little too high up. This time however, everything was balanced out evenly. Scott Ian and Jon Donais' guitars were more up front and Frank Bello's bass was at perfect volume, making it sound a whole lot better. | (C)2017 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com Photo: Rob Botten |
As the set went on, several fan favourites and surprises were performed like "Madhouse", "I Am The Law" and "Fight 'Em Til You Can't". As far as the new material goes, they performed "Breathing Lightning" and "Blood Eagle Wings". Since this year is the 30th anniversary of Among The Living, it made sense that most of the songs performed were from that album. A rather nice surprise in the set was "Efilnikufesin (NFL)". Before the song began, Joey Belladonna sang the chorus in A capella and held these long notes during the final words of each line, which was met with a loud approval from the crowd. The man is just ageless. Another surprise in the set was "Medusa" as well as S.O.D's "March Of The S.O.D.". As we arrived at the end of the set, we were treated to "Antisocial" and they closed off the night with the war dance anthem: "Indians". I personally hope there's a second leg of this tour to come because a number of cities didn't get a chance to see this tour and it would be awesome if some more cities got to see it. One last thing I will say is that the only thing that would've made Anthrax's set a perfect one, was if they added "A.I.R." into the set, but it's all good. Hopefully next time. Other than that, Anthrax and Killswitch Engage delivered a truly memorable show that left the fans beyond satisfied and a great way to spend a Wednesday night.
| ANTHRAX Joey Belladonna - Vocals Scott Ian - Rhythm guitars & backing vocals Frank Bello - Bass & backing vocals Charlie Benante - Drums Jon Donais - Lead guitars Label: Megaforce Records Website: www.anthrax.com | KILLSWITCH ENGAGE Jesse Leach - Vocals Adam Dutkiewicz - Lead guitars & backing vocals Joel Stroetzel - Rhythm guitars & backing vocals Mike D'Antonio - Bass Justin Foley - Drums Label: Roadrunner Records Website: www.killswitchengage.com | THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA Mike Hranica - Vocals Jeremy DePoyster - Guitars & vocals Kyle Sipress - Guitars Andy Trick - Bass Giuseppe Capalupo - Drums Label: Rise Records Website: www.tdwpband.com |
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