Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Bring Me the Horizon Lights Up Ottawa
Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa, October 2 2026
Three bands, three very different flavours of heavy, and not a dull stretch in the night. From the opening notes of the first set to the last drop of confetti, this was a show that gave fans their money’s worth.
The Plot in You
The Plot in You had the job of waking up the room, and they did it by leaning on their biggest strength: the vocalist, Landon Tewers. He has a remarkable range, and what stood out most was how smoothly he moved between two completely different modes. One moment he was unleashing deep, guttural screams that hit like a wall of sound. The next he dropped into soft, melodic passages.
That contrast gave the set its shape. Instead of staying at full volume the whole time, the band let the quiet moments breathe, which made the heavy parts land harder. It was an impressive showing from an opener, and a good reminder that this is a band with real dynamic range.
Motionless in White
Motionless in White brought a different energy: dark, theatrical, and confident. With such an extensive discography, they had plenty of material to choose from, and the set felt like a well-curated tour through their career. Longtime fans had something to sing along to, and newcomers got a clear picture of what the band is about.
The look matched the sound too with the bassist and guitarist wearing creepy makeup and masks, which gave the stage a horror-movie atmosphere. It added to the show without ever pulling focus from the music, and it made them fun to watch even from the back of the room.
Bring Me the Horizon
Then it was time for one of the biggest rock acts in the world: Bring Me the Horizon. From the start, frontman Oli Sykes controlled the room. He wasn’t just performing at the crowd; he was directing it. He demanded circle pits and crowd surfing, and the floor responded. Pits opened up, bodies went over the barricade, and the whole arena never sat still.
The production was enormous. Fire, smoke, confetti, fireworks, and lasers were all deployed throughout the night, and none of it felt like a gimmick. Each effect was timed to hit at the right moment, amplifying the biggest drops and choruses. The backdrops and visuals were just as impressive, giving the stage a cinematic, almost apocalyptic feel that changed with the mood of each song.
One of the most striking moments came during “Shadow Moses,” when Oli brought out a flare. With the red glow cutting through the smoke and the crowd roaring the song back at him, it was one of those images that sticks in your memory long after the lights come up.
A young man was brought on stage to sing “Pray for Plagues,” a tradition the band has kept up at every show on this tour. After the fire, noise, and spectacle, it reminded everyone that this massive production still has room for a fan to share the spotlight.
Through all of it, the pacing was excellent. From their well known hit “Can You Feel My Heart” to their more recent “Darkside, the band balanced intense, high-energy stretches with moments that let the crowd catch its breath, and Oli kept the connection with the audience alive the whole way through.
This was a complete night of heavy music: a strong opener with a standout vocalist, a theatrical and razor-sharp middle act, and a headliner that treated the show like a full-scale production without losing the raw energy at its core. Loud, spectacular, and a whole lot of fun.
Head here for information on the rest of the tour.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
BRING ME THE HORIZON
MOTIONLESS IN WHITE
THE PLOT IN YOU
All Photo Credit: Kieran Delport
Concerts Reviews
LØLØ Brings her ‘God Forbid a Girl Goes on Tour’ to the Pearl in Vancouver
LØLØ brought her second headlining tour – aptly named “God Forbid a Girl Goes on Tour” – to Vancouver this week, a first for the Canada-born artist. We’ve been a fan since we first heard “Death Wish” back in 2021, which seems like it was yesterday, and we aren’t going to overthink that right now. That being said, we’ve been waiting a long time for this night, and what a show!
We’ve been frequenting The Pearl more and more lately, and like so many others this show was sold out and packed wall-to-wall. There was a small mob for the first opener of the night, Dawson Gamble, and the floor was packed by the time Con the Artist took the stage. When LØLØ appeared, it was all plaid miniskirts and devil horns from the stage to the merch booth.
When the lights went down, LØLØ’s voice boomed over the speakers, narrating excerpts from a journal. LØLØ is not a choreographed, over-polished pop princess. Like so many artists that grew their audience from nothing, she does her best to connect with individuals in the audience. She takes her time, holds their hands, and during one memorable song, brings them on stage to dance.
“I think that people don’t want perfection,” she told Rolling Stone earlier this year. “They just want to see a live show and a special moment.”
LØLØ was very upfront about her adventures online, finding her voice, and time spent during COVID, and from the vibe you have to assume the audience had been there with her the entire time. From “The Floor is Lava” to “Faceplant,” all the hits were covered and sung along to. Speaking of which…
Must Hear Songs by LØLØ (In Our Humble Opinion):
• “death wish” (Single, 2021)
• “Hot Girls in Hell” (falling for robots, 2023)
• “u turn me on (but you give me depression)” (falling for robots, 2023)
• “Let It Go” (A Whole New Sound (Disney), 2024)
Fun fact: LØLØ was featured on a 2024 Disney punk album alongside Simple Plan, Magnolia Park, and Yellow Card, to name a few iconic bands. Check out her version of “Let It Go” from “Frozen.” It’s unexpected and a lot of fun.
LØLØ ‘s first moment of viral fame was her cover of “Hey There Delilah,” updated and sung from Delilah’s perspective. Pulling Con the Artist back on stage for a duet gave the crowd a wonderful, heartfelt moment that was honestly quite touching. Not everyone’s favorite song, but a lovely moment for everyone in the audience.
LØLØ, with several incredible songs in her library and with a stack of “Warped Tour” appearances already in the books, seems poised to breakthrough to the next level. She’s electric on stage, and animated, and we can only dream of the day she is given more space to play. Until then, another highlight concert of 2026, and something to think about until her next visit!
LØLØ Setlist:
• the devil wears converse
• pretty little wreck
• god forbid a girl spits out her feelings!
• THE FLOOR IS LAVA!
• debbie downer
• me with no shirt on
• the punisher
• 2 of us
• u turn me on (but u give me depression)
• faceplant
• Hey There Delilah
• death wish
• delusional darling
• junkie
• DON’T!
• dumbest girl in the world
• wish i was a robot
• hot girls in hell
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery. Thanks for attending the show with us and for checking out our review!
LØLØ
All Photo Credit: Jason Martin
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Lily Allen Leaves the Hits Behind for a Theatrical ‘West End Girl’ in Vancouver
There was something almost cheeky about Lily Allen making a venue full of people wait for the songs they came to hear, then giving them exactly what she promised instead.
Before Allen appeared at the Orpheum Theatre on September 28, 4 members of the Dallas Minor Sextet took the stage with cello arrangements of some of her biggest songs. “Smile,” “The Fear,” “LDN” and “Fuck You” became an elaborate karaoke session, with the lyrics projected onto screens while the audience did the singing. It could have felt like a strange substitute for an opening act, but instead, Vancouver embraced it. By the time “Fuck You” rolled around, the arena was doing a very good impression of several thousand people at a Lily Allen pub night.
Shortly before 9pm, the stage shifted into something altogether different. Allen appeared behind the curtains and launched into “West End Girl,” the title track from her 2025 album. From there, the evening stopped behaving like a conventional concert.
That distinction matters. Allen is not here to run through the hits, tell a few stories between songs and send everyone home with “Smile” stuck in their heads. The West End Girl tour has been built as a one-woman theatrical production, and the album is performed from beginning to end, in order. There is no live band and no parade of backup dancers. The focus is Allen, the story and an increasingly bizarre apartment set that seems to mutate with every song.
Allen has spent two decades turning blunt observations, bad decisions, sex, relationships and personal disasters into pop songs. West End Girl takes that instinct and strips away most of the distance. The album was already brutally personal. Seeing Allen physically inhabit it makes some of its moments considerably harder to escape.
The stage becomes her apartment, bedroom and emotional crime scene. A swing appears, chandeliers descend, and costumes change. At one point, Allen emerges with a receipt incorporated into her outfit, turning the evidence of betrayal into a ridiculous and oddly effective piece of stage design. A bag filled with decidedly NSFW contents gets its own moment. None of it feels particularly subtle, but subtlety would be a strange request to make of Lily Allen.
The strongest moments come when the production gets out of the way and Allen lets the ugliness of the story sit there. “Relapse” is devastating. Allen moves through the space with the exhaustion of someone trying to outrun her own thoughts before eventually breaking down in tears. There is no need for a speech afterward. The song has already said enough.
The phone call in “West End Girl” is another standout. Allen performs only her side of the conversation, but the missing voice is easy enough to fill in. The audience does, loudly. It is one of those moments where the fourth wall works in her favour. Allen doesn’t need to explain the story because we are already inside it.
That commitment to the album is what makes the show compelling. There are no “Not Fair,” “The Fear” or “Smile” performances from Allen herself. The old songs belong to the Dallas Minor Sextet, and that is a deliberate choice. Some fans will inevitably wish Allen had thrown one or two classics into the main set. I get it. If you’re standing at the Orpheum Theatre waiting to see Lily Allen, watching someone else perform “Fuck You” on cello is a pretty unusual way to get your money’s worth.
But once the main show begins, the absence of those songs makes sense. West End Girl is being treated as one complete piece, rather than a collection of tracks that happen to share an album cover.
Allen closes the album with the same theatrical control she maintained throughout the night. For “Fruityloop,” chandeliers come down around her, the stage returns to the world established at the beginning and the West End Girl sign comes back into view. It feels like the final scene of a play.
That’s probably the best way to judge this show. If you came expecting Lily Allen to perform her greatest hits, you might leave wondering where the concert went. If you accepted that West End Girl was the concert, the night made considerably more sense.
Lily Allen brought a play with a pop album attached to it. For 60 minutes, she made the Orpheum Theatre feel like her apartment, and I loved it.