Billy Talent heats up frozen TD Place

The always amazing Billy Talent brought the third last stop of the Canadian leg of their ‘Afraid of Heights’ –tour to the jam packed TD Place, and was set to play to an exceptionally  enthusiastic crowd.

Dundas’ own Dirty Nil opened the night with their half an hour set and stole some hearts as they went on. The dynamic trio played refreshingly energetic set full of kick ass rocknroll for the audience to enjoy before the Monster Truck hit the stage.

Monster Truck are known to deliver and they didn’t disappoint. It was clear how much love this audience has for the band as they kicked off their show with tunes such as ‘The Enforcer’ and ‘She’s a Witch’ from their most recent album Sittin’ Heavy followed by more bluesy ballad  ‘For The Sun’. The Hamilton band gave their all to pave the road for the headliner of the night and proved they can be pure rock at its best.

Billy Talent opened the show with ‘Devil in the Midnight Mass’ making standing in the bleachers feel like being in the middle of an earthquake. It has been a while since I’ve seen a mosh pit form at a show in Ottawa but Billy Talent sure made it happen last night.

The band continued with ‘This Suffering’ and ‘Burn the Evidence’ and delighted the audience by playing even some more older tunes.

Watching singer Benjamin Kowalewicz on stage is like watching pro-athlete’s performance and the amount of energy he has bouncing off the walls is just astonishing.

In between huge hits ‘Rusted from the Rain’, ‘Surrender’, ‘Veronica’ and ‘Afraid of Heights’, Kowalewicz approached the audience to remind everyone about tolerance, and responsibility we have as proud Canadians to remember to respect and appreciate each other regardless of gender, religion, nationality or sexual orientation and broke the crowd in huge cheers.

‘Louder than the DJ’, ‘Devil on My Shoulder’ and ‘Red Flag’ were just a few other reminders that Billy Talent truly knows how to write brilliant, catchy hooks and meaningful lyrics that speak to so many people around the world, and have such an unique sound and style that separates the band from so many other rock bands and has been one of the biggest contributors to their success.

Last night’s show included Alexisonfire’s drummer Jordan Hastings, who is currently covering for the band’s drummer Aaron Solowoniuk who is dealing with MS and taking a break from touring with the band. Hastings worked the rhythm section seamlessly with the bassist Jon Gallant’s thundering riffs, while complimenting Ian D’Sa’s guitar solos.

After giving a solid one and a half hour set, the band returned for encore and made sure to play their megahits’ Fallen Leaves’, ‘Try Honesty’ and at the end, finished the show with ‘Viking Death March’.

There’s no better way to caption the essence of last night’s show than to quote the great Billy Talent themselves. “Someone said long time ago, rocknroll would never grow old, she’s still got the fire left in her bones.”

By Laura Collins. Photos by Dave Di Ubaldo-Worn Leather Media.