A highly energetic band came out on the Rebel stage and I think they surprised most of the audience with how good they actually were. Cruisr hails from Philadelphia and had the audience’s attention right from the first note of the first song. The almost capacity crowd was dancing and waving their arms along to the beat of the music. You could tell they were there to have a great night even the wet, dreary, evening outside didn’t dampened their spirits. I even watched a lonely piece of confetti fall from the ceiling trying to be a part of the party. Half way through Cruisr’s set, with no coaxing by the band, the crowd was clapping in unison to the beat of the music cheering quite loudly I might add. Sometimes it is hard to get the fans of the headliner engaged in your music being the opening band but not Cruisr. I am pretty sure they made quite a few new fans at Rebel, and this is why you should always make a point of being at the venue for the opener you could be watching your new favourite band.
We were one with One Ok Rock! The second they hit the stage the crowd went ballistic. The energy from the band is insurmountable to any other band I have seen with the exception of very few bands. I even heard through the grapevine that people had flown in from Japan to see this show in Toronto. This high energy rock band overtook Rebel not just their music but there over the top energetic stage performance. The almost capacity crowd ate up every second of One Ok Rock from the front row all the way to the back of the venue their fans were waving their arms in unison to the music. Not just a few minutes of one or two songs but every note of every song all night long.
I did notice One Ok Rock didn’t seem to have much to say in between songs unfortunately leaving the stage somewhat black while listening to their fans scream their heads off. I do like the banter between the bands and their fans and I felt like tonight was a bit of a missed opportunity to engage with the people in attendance. One of the few times lead singer Taka did speak to the crowd was when he asked “Did you get our new album?” which was immediately followed by ear piercing screams. “What did you think?” Of course the crowd went crazy. Their new album Ambitions was released January 11, 2017.
The night was full of energy and only slowed down when they serenaded the crowd with a new song called “Hard to Love” which Taka explained it was about his father. After this comment there was a collective awwww from the females in attendance. The cell phones lit up Rebel like little stars during this song and even one group of hard core fans had all their cell phones together and Taka made notice of this and said “I like that” You would have thought these people had just won a million dollars with their reaction to this small comment.
To be honest I think One Ok Rock could have sang the phone book and their fans would not have cared, there was nothing but love in the building from their hard core admirers.
Once again thanks to the crew because without them there is no show!
