Billy Talent rocks Kingston 20 years after debut

Is anyone else having a hard time believing that Billy Talent released their debut album Billy Talent 20 years ago this August? What about Gob? Their album The World According to Gob turns 23 in less than a month. Thanks to both of these acts the Kingston Fronts will need to wait a bit to start their upcoming season while staff at Leon’s Centre rebuild the roof that got blown off the venue last night by a powerhouse display of Canadian rock…or are we calling them classic rock now?!?

Langley, British Columbia’s Gob kicked off the night with a set that could only be described as hard and loud. This was my college years. Hard and heavy, almost hard to believe today the way country music has become the genre most dominant on my radio. Anyone who has played EA Sports NHL hockey would remember rocking out to Gob’s “I Hear You Calling” while skating their digital player down the ice. It was, is, an anthem and last night the crowd at Leon’s Centre in Kingston got to experience it and almost an hour of Gob’s greatest hits. It was one hell of a throwback party!

It feels like just yesterday that Billy Talent performed at RBC Bluesfest, it was my first time seeing them live…well the first time seeing the full band live anyway (I saw Ben perform at a JUNO after party in Ottawa several years ago)…but because I was volunteering I wasn’t able to catch their full set. When they announced that their Crisis of Faith tour would be visiting Kingston in September I was excited that I’d get a chance to catch a full headlining performance…only it was the same night as Morgan Wallen in Ottawa. With country music being such a big part of this publications history and with it being so incredibly popular right now, and few more popular than Wallen that show would have to take precedence over Billy Talent, sorry boys. The only way that I’d be able to catch Billy Talent and Gob was for Morgan Wallen to deny us accreditation for his show…and that’s exactly what happened, and for once I wasn’t disappointed.

For almost 2 hours Ben, Ian and the boys rocked through explosive hit after hit starting with “Devil in a Midnight Mass” and all the way through 20 years of hits including “Pins and Needles”, “Rusted from the Rain”, “Surrender” “Fallen Leaves” (which I personally love to use to torment my friends who are Leafs fans lol) and then a dual Encore with “Viking Death March” and “Red Flag”.

By the end of the night my heart was pumping, my face was smiling, my ears were ringing and I remembered the good times from when I was in my…umm late 20s (hard to admit that 20 years ago I was pushing 30 as I’m pushing 50 now.) I’ve determined I need more rock in my life so thanks Billy Talent and Gob, I needed that energy boost!

The tour leaves Canada for a few weeks before returning for a 5 night western Canadian run starting with Save On Foods Memorial Centre on October 11 and running through October 28 where they wrap up with the Calgary Halloween Howler at the Grey Eagle Event Centre in Calgary.

For a full list of tour dates and tickets visit https://billytalent.com/

BTW Ontario Gob fans if you missed them this time around there’s, at least, two more Ontario shows coming up before the year is out. December 7th will find them at the Bronson Centre in Ottawa and December 9 will find them at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto. For full details visit https://gobband.com/

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