Nate Ruess at The Opera House

Photographs by Katrina Wong Shue.

Nate Ruess brought his intimate Grand Romantic release tour to Toronto on Monday night with a sound nearly too big to be contained in The Opera House. While opening act Wolf Saga (featuring local gem Lyon) was deceivingly dreamy and contained, Ruess took the stage with a manic fury met by equal enthusiasm from the adoring crowd. Launching right into new material and the standout track, “A Great Big Storm,” Ruess’ energy was relentless and mesmerizing for the entire set.

As only one of three North American stops celebrating the release of the album, Toronto clearly holds a special place in Nate Ruess’s heart. With graciousness he repeated his love for the city throughout the evening along with a confession of being a long-time Raptors fan while later sporting a DeRozan jersey. Despite the album being not even a week old yet (it was released on June 16), the audience was already well-versed in the sweeping lyrics and melodies. The first single “Nothing Without Love” was an obvious crowd pleaser, “You Light My Fire” is impossible not to dance to, and “Aha” made for a cheeky and aggressive encore.

While Grand Romantic is the first solo album for Ruess, he is best known as the frontman of indie pop band Fun., who’s album Some Nights dominated 2012. The carefully crafted set list included the band’s tracks, “Carry On”, “We Are Young”, and a rousing version of “Some Nights” which closed out the evening, much to the audience’s delight. The newest songs were definitely adored by the crowd as a whole, but the Fun. hits were blatantly beloved. Also included on the set list was a throwback to Ruess’ earliest musical endeavour The Format, and a solo rendition of the singer’s hit “Just Give Me a Reason” originally performed with P!nk.

Not to be too cheesy, but the entire evening from start to finish was grandly romantic. Ruess has cultivated a devoted fan base with brilliantly crafted songs and a live performance that frankly puts the already great recorded versions to shame. Intoxicating, magical, orchestral, and dramatic are a few other adjectives that can be tossed around to describe the night. Needless to say Nate Ruess won’t be a stranger to the city for long, and his Toronto fans are very okay with that.