Photos by Sue Sadzak.
The rock duo Death From Above took their first tour no longer as Death From Above 1979, to Toronto at the Phoenix Concert Theatre on Friday, December 1st, 2017. The lights dimmed, and the crowd’s excitement built up as the Toronto rock duo hit the stage, and opened the show with hard-hitting Wolfmother inspired track “Nomad” off of their latest album “Outrage! is Now.”
Although the duo doesn’t speak much throughout the show, Keeler’s aggressiveness on the bass and Grainger’s hard and heavy vocals.
Technicality wise, I was surprised with how good everything sounded. The Phoenix usually a hit or miss for sound quality, but everything sounded how it was supposed to, and essential accents in their tracks were heard loud and clear, such as piano during “Trainwreck 1979”.
The performance of title track “Outrage! Is Now” was probably the weakest performance during the set. It wasn’t that it was bad, but it was missing a certain hype required to portray such a political and relevant message. I guess I’m a bit biased though, as this was my least favourite track on the album.
“Romantic Rights” was a good time as per usual however, Grainger got someone to fill in on the drums for him so he could go all out with the vocals mid-way through the song, which I actually appreciated. The crowd went insane, to say the least. I also may or may not have lost both of my shoes at one point.
Death From Above never fails to disappoint in their live performances. The whole idea of it being a two-piece that sounds like at-least a four piece is mind blowing in itself. The effort it takes to put into making that sound as close to the record as possible live is not minimal, and that’s how you know its going to be a good show, because it simply cannot be half-assed.
The band closed out the show with a hard hitting encore, including the following : “Blood On Our Hands,” “Right On, Frankenstein!”, and ending the with “Pull Out.”
