Progressive punk/hardcore veterans Fucked Up just dropped another epic album, dubbed Dose Your Dreams, and naturally embarked on a tour to support it. As far as I can remember, I haven’t seen them live in four and a half years, which is kind of a long time given that I’ve followed them since 2006. They brought out two more stripped-down acts to open for them, one of the punk persuasion and another of the more hardcore stripe. The former, Bad Waitress were fellow Torontonians of Fucked Up and played aggressive and snotty but melody-rich punk rock; it wasn’t entirely my thing, but it was clearly well-done.
The latter, Candy is one of hardcore’s more hyped acts as of late; while the crowd certainly didn’t mind Bad Waitress, there was definitely a little more movement on the floor for Candy, who played a blistering set that took a bit from Japanese hardcore, D-beat, and metal. They kicked it off with the furious title track and first song from their new, debut full-length, Good to Feel, eventually following it with the catchy though apocalyptic “Lust for Destruction”. They played a couple from their Candy Says EP as well, which got a strong reaction. Their timing felt off for a couple rare moments, but they were tight otherwise. It was an intense and heavy set that helped bookend Fucked Up’s sound well with Bad Waitress on the other side of their stylistic spectrum.
The backdrop of the stage had a Twin Peaks-esque red curtain, which the six-piece Fucked Up came out in front of and picked up their instruments to some raucous roaring inside a venue that had suddenly filled up. They launched right into the excellent throwback “David Comes to Life” and people were psyched. It set the precedent for the energy they’d exude from that point on. After all these years, I gotta say, they’ve still got it. They just put on a fun show and sound well-rehearsed without sacrificing any of that raw energy.
They played a third of Dose Your Dreams, including the peppy, new wave-y “Raise Your Voice Joyce” and the fun bark of “Living in a Simulation”, the latter of which impressively retained the symphonic feel that’s so prevalent on the album.
The band also has their charismatic and personable frontman, Damian Abraham, at least for now. He shared the mic plenty as people bopped around and politely slammed into one another towards the front of the crowd. After “Under My Nose”, Abraham told everyone about his desire for former Texas senatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke to run for and win the presidency so Minor Threat would reunite for his inauguration (although something tells me the former wouldn’t necessarily lead to the latter). Then they launched into Abraham’s love song for record collecting, “Black Albino Bones”, much of which he spent with a plastic cup affixed to his bald head. Right before the “Dose Your Dreams” title track, he also told a personal story about his stepmother essentially coming over to his political side of things just before her death.
As things began to wrap up, the band obliged a request for “Son the Father”, while guitarist Ben Cook left his instrument to the side to front most of “Accelerate” to start the encore. But they hardly overstayed their welcome, closing things just about an hour after they began.
Set list (9:43-10:36):
1. David Comes to Life
2. Raise Your Voice Joyce
3. Tell Me What You See
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4. Living in a Simulation
5. Queen of Hearts
6. Under My Nose
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7. Black Albino Bones
8. I Hate Summer
9. Normal People
10. Turn the Season
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11. Dose Your Dreams
12. Son the Father [request]
13. Generation
Encore (10:38-10:47):
14. Accelerate
15. The Other Shoe