So here it was a show I’ve been waiting for months now, my first chance to see San Francisco Punk/rock legends The Dwarves live for my first time with other amazing bands.
We showed up in downtown Toronto at around 6:30. We went down to Vice and got advanced tickets for 15 dollars. We then went down to Church Street to where The Rockit is located and we waited for the show to start.
Things started off rather bad for this show. I found out that Local band The Heatskores were on first and only playing 20 mins. And another problem the doors were delayed and the show started about an hour later than planned but I wasn’t going to let little problems like this make me not enjoy seeing one of my favorite bands live.
Up first were local boys The Heatskores. They are amazing at the music they play. They’ll make all you Ska haters become Rudeys. There style is so creative they play ska/punk like its never been played before, mixing surf, rock, jazz, garage and rockabilly to make some amazing music. Their live presence is simply incredible even though they played for about 20 minutes they blasted through a great set with lots of energy and destruction. They played hits such as “Element Francis” “Don’t judge Judy” and the classic “Fuck Your Mother” definitely check them out if you have the chance and pick up their cd. They are going to become huge. The Heatskores got off the stage and things were starting to get good.
Up next was Ottawa’s Riptides. They play queers/weasel style Pop-Punk accept with Balls. They showed tons of energy and the crowd really got involved with there set and were singing along to songs from there CD “Drop Out” (which was produced by Joe Queer) at the end of their set both the drum kit and the drummer were destroyed.
Now allot more people all of a sudden showed up and this made me happy knowing that a lot of people would be here to watch the dwarves.
The Sinisters were on next. I have never really heard of them and I didn’t find there music too spectacular, typical mediocre rock/punk. But they did however put on a great show and the crowed really digged them. One song had a really good harmonica solo in it that was great. It was starting to get extremely hot in The Rockit. For those of you who don’t know the Rockit is a small old venue that always seems hot and jammed full of people.
We decided to go out for a bit. We talked to Blag from The Dwarves and Vandal from The Riptides then we went down to Mc Donald’s.
When we got back Maximum RnR just started. They play a great mixture of rock n roll and hardcore punk with a stage presence that cant be beat. The singer never seems to stay still. He was jumping on everything, people, speakers, band members, amps, mic stands. They played one of the best shows ive seen in awhile. I really like how they do instrument solo showdowns halfway through there set. RnR didn’t play for too long but they got all the hits in.
And now it was time for what everyone was waiting for, The Dwarves. The beer soaked and smoked filled environment waited anxiously for the dwarves to come on. The new bass player and HEwho both came on tuned up and left, this was weird.
A strange eerie music was played through the PA this was on hell of a build up. Finallay the music stoped lights came on and the Dwarves blasted away. They delivered there blend of pop/punk/rock/hardcore with so much intensity it was mad!
The crowd was going crazy beer cans and people were flying everywhere. People were throwing anything they could find and the band and this made them play 100 times better. Some bands can only dream of playing a show this good.
They played a little bit of everything from all albums. The blasted through songs like “I will Deny” “Everybody’s Girl” “Fuck em All” “How its Done” and tons more. Each song was delivered with as much intensity as the last, they didn’t slow down once. They ended their 19 song set making the crowd hungry for more.
This was a show that will be hard to beat! With an amazing opening band lineup and The Dwarves intensity made this a show to remember!
