Country, country, and more country! That was the order of the day on Thursday when Toby Keith’s Interstates and Tailgates Tour rolled into Toronto.
Tim Hicks Throws It Down In Bala
In what has been an amazingly busy week of concert and festival coverage here at Sound Check Entertainment, we kept the crazy going by flying up Highway 400 to Muskoka on Saturday night. Tim Hicks returned to The KEE to Bala for his annual Summer Throwdown and man, it was CRAZY! This was a SOLD OUT show and, seriously, you could barely move within the cozy confines of The KEE.
Keith Urban Ripcord Tour 2016
Keith Urban pulled the Ripcord and landed safely in Toronto at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre Friday night. What a great show! Playing the first of a two night stand at the open air venue, and the third in the Live Nation Country Mega Ticket Series, Urban shows why he is amongst the most popular of the country scene with his polished stage performance and great music.
Luke Bryan – Kill The Lights Tour
Rain makes corn. Corn makes whiskey. Whiskey makes Toronto feel a little frisky!
Well, wasn’t that a night! Luke Bryan returned to Ontario for the first of two sold out shows at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre Friday night and he delivered in spades. The Kill The Lights Tour absolutely did kill it.
Many Looks of Drummer Chris Frazier
Here’s a look back to when Sound Check covered the fun show that Foreigner delivered in April at Casino Rama. Love how they interact with their audience, and drummer Chris Frazier is a prime example of that.
Boots & Bourbon, Bourbon & Blues – CMW 2016
At Sound Check Entertainment, We Love Live! And right now in Toronto, there is no shortage of live music available in all genres as we continued our coverage of Canadian Music Week. This is like the music lover’s all you can eat buffet. Today’s review comes from the performances at one of our favourite venues, Boots and Bourbon.
CMW 2016 Hits The Dakota
Canadian Music Week 2016 is in full swing in Toronto. And man it’s pretty much all night, every night, at every venue in the T-dot. While Corey was over at the Phoenix, I hit up the Dakota Tavern to capture the action and here is my recap of what went down.
The Trews Strip It Down In London ON
East coast rockers, The Trews, are wrapping up a coast to coast acoustic tour which has seen them play various venues across the country. Saturday night the tour made its stop in London, ON, at the London Music Hall. Now, let me start by saying, I love this venue; amazing sound, amazing lighting and not really a bad spot to sit or stand in the place. London is lucky to have this world-class venue and it seems more and more acts are signing up to play there.
The Trews perform to a sold out crowd at The London Music Hall – photo: Bill Woodcock
The Trews brought a powerful show, and any one of the capacity crowd who were there, will likely tell you that it was an amazing night. From the moment they hit the stage, with a thunderous roar from the crowd, they were rocking. As a guy who has covered a lot of country music events lately, it was a refreshing change of pace. Having been a big The Trews fan for many years, I was excited to see how a stripped down acoustic set would be. Not only was I impressed, but I would go out and say this show likely made my top 5 all time concerts, and I have been to a few over the years.
The Trews perform to a sold out crowd at The London Music Hall – photo: Bill Woodcock
They opened the show with, “The Power of Positive Drinking”, and the hits just kept rolling from there. Highlights of the show, for me, included all their classics with a different sound to them being done acoustically. “Hope and Ruin”, “Yearning”, “Poor Ol Broken Hearted Me”, all had the crowd singing along so loud, that at times you could hear them overpowering the amazing sound system of the London Music Hall.
The Trews perform to a sold out crowd at The London Music Hall – photo: Bill Woodcock
One part of the show that gave me goosebumps was when they took a few minutes to explain the story behind their fan favorite, “Highway of Heroes”, and then played it. This song has become an iconic song in Canada, and particularly Ontario, where the Highway of Heroes saw a lot of soldiers make their final journeys home from serving our country overseas. This particular song truly affected me, as they performed it, letting the crowd sing the chorus a few times. I don’t think there was a single person in the place that didn’t belt out the words. It truly honors our fallen heroes and will for many generations to come.
The Trews perform to a sold out crowd at The London Music Hall – photo: Bill Woodcock
@thetrews what an amazing night! @londonmusichall @FM96Rocks @SoundCheckBlg @strutent #highwayofheros #thankyou pic.twitter.com/0T53dKp0v8
— Bill Woodcock (@BillWoodcock) March 13, 2016
After being on the stage for the best part of two and a half hours, they finally gave the crowd the word that the show was ending. Someone yelled out and asked if they could do it again tomorrow, to which they replied, “sure!”. The Trews left the stage but the crowd wasn’t done yet. They chanted and cheered for a few minutes and the boys of The Trews came back out and gave a solid acapella performance of, “Ish and Mag”, to start what would be a two song encore. To wrap up the show it was time for, “Not Ready to Go”, which, judging by their reaction, the crowd was not ready to go! All amazing things must come to an end, however, and we can hope The Trews make their way back to the London area soon.
Bill Woodcock – @BillWoodcock
MORE PHOTOS…
The Trews perform to a sold out crowd at The London Music Hall – photo: Bill Woodcock
The Trews perform to a sold out crowd at The London Music Hall – photo: Bill Woodcock
The Trews perform to a sold out crowd at The London Music Hall – photo: Bill Woodcock
The Trews perform to a sold out crowd at The London Music Hall – photo: Bill Woodcock
The Trews perform to a sold out crowd at The London Music Hall – photo: Bill Woodcock
The Trews perform to a sold out crowd at The London Music Hall – photo: Bill Woodcock
