On Friday night, Toronto’s Air Canada Centre was packed with eager punk-rock fans as Billy Talent played a nearly sold out show with Indian Handcrafts, Hollerado, and Sum 41.
Billy Talent played a 20 song set list filled with all of their classics from their past albums as well as current hits from their new album Dead Silence.
The band started the show with their first song off Dead Silence, Lonely Road to Absolution. The stage was covered in a white curtain as lead singer Ben Kowalewicz and guitarist Ian D’Sa emerged from the side stage in front of the crowd. As the song dwindled, D’Sa charged into the opening riff of Viking Death March making the curtain drop almost immediately revealing the entire band. The entire crowd erupted into cheers, and the floor went into an insane synchronization of moshing.
As the band finished their third song Devil in a Midnight Mass, Kowalewicz greeted the crowd screaming “home sweet, f*cking home! We are Billy Talent, from right up the f*cking street!” which got the entire crowd screaming and clapping.
The band then jumped into one of their earlier hits, River Below causing several of the fans on the floor to crowd surf and start circle pits.
The band played an electrifying set, with an elaborate lighting set up with constant flashes and strobe lights.
Towards the end of their song Try Honesty, their first single, Kowalewicz turned to the crowd to express the utmost gratitude on behalf of the band to the fans for having them stick by the band for almost 20 years. He further expressed his gratitude towards one of the openers, Sum 41, saying “they were the first band to believe in us.”
As the Kowalewicz got the crowd to sing the lines “forgive me father/why should you bother now”, the band stopped playing, stepped back and stood in awe at the enormous crowd that were singing their music. Most noticeably was bassist Jon Gallant who stared with his mouth agape.
Before the encore, the audience was very rowdy causing them to chant for Billy Talent to come back to the tune of the Blue Jays chant.
The band returned to play four more songs for an encore, finishing with more thank yous to the crowd from the band.
Billy Talent are planned to continue the rest of their Canadian tour until April 16 where they’ll finish their tour in Halifax, NS. From there, the band is traveling to Europe to do some festivals and headlining before they return back to the states to play Warped Tour.
For more info on when Billy Talent is playing a show near you, check out www.billytalent.com
