Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Lost Americana Finds a Home in Vancouver as MGK Hits With Fire, Heart, and Volume
Machine Gun Kelly has spent the better part of a decade refusing to stay in one musical lane, and his stop at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on June 29 proved that he’s no longer interested in explaining himself. The Lost Americana Tour doesn’t try to convince anyone that rap, pop-punk, alternative rock, country influences, and arena spectacle belong together. It simply throws them all on stage and dares you to keep up.
Before MGK appeared, Emo Nite warmed up the crowd with the kind of party they’re know for. Mod Sun followed with a set full of his usual infectious energy and charisma, bouncing between pop-punk hooks and hip-hop swagger while keeping the arena moving before the night’s main event.
One noticeable absence lingered over the evening. MGK explained more than once that his usual tourmate, Wiz Khalifa, had been unable to cross the border and wouldn’t be performing in Vancouver. He admitted it added pressure to his own set, since Wiz normally joins him during several songs, but hoped the crowd was still ready for a great night. Judging by the roar that followed, Rogers Arena wasn’t about to let him carry that weight alone.
The stage itself immediately set the tone. Dominating the production was an enormous Statue of Liberty head, complete with a cigarette hanging from its mouth beneath the glowing “Lost Americana” sign. It was a striking visual that matched the album’s themes of rebellion and search for identity. It looked fantastic, especially once the pyrotechnics, towering video screens, and relentless lighting package came to life.
MGK emerged from the Kabuki drop to open with “FIX UR FACE” and “Outlaw Overture,” wasting little time before launching into newer material including “Starman.” Those songs carried the early stretch of the show. Lost Americana borrows from every chapter of his career, and that’s exactly how the concert unfolded. Early in the set, he welcomed American singer-songwriter Honestav to the stage for a surprise duet that drew one of the night’s loudest reactions. It was an unexpected moment that fit perfectly with the free-flowing nature of the show.
Between songs, MGK dropped the rockstar persona long enough to share something more personal. Despite performing since he was 16 years old, he admitted he still gets nervous before every show, wondering if people will actually show up. Looking around Rogers Arena, he said it still amazes him that after playing amphitheatres for months on this tour, he now gets to headline arenas like this one.
That honesty has become part of MGK‘s appeal. One minute he’s slinging a guitar across his shoulder and leading an arena-sized singalong. A few songs later he’s back in full rapper mode, firing through verses with the confidence that first made his name. Instead of feeling scattered, the shifts felt natural. At this point, the different versions of MGK have stopped competing with one another. They’ve become part of the same artist.
Visually, the show rarely slowed down. Fire erupted across the front of the stage during the heavier songs, dancers filled nearly every transition, and air cannons arrived exactly when they needed to. It would have been easy for the production to overshadow the music, but MGK remained the focal point throughout. He sprinted from one side of the stage to the other, climbed platforms, leaned into the barricade to greet fans, and constantly challenged the audience to match his energy.
One of the evening’s most memorable moments came during “Can’t Stay Here,” when thousands of phone lights illuminated Rogers Arena, transforming the venue into a sea of stars. The massive production suddenly gave way to something quieter, with the audience becoming just as important to the atmosphere as the stage itself
One of the smartest decisions in the set came midway through the show when MGK left the main stage for a smaller platform deeper inside the arena. The production suddenly shrank, replacing explosions with something much quieter. Songs like “Glass House” carried a vulnerability that often gets buried beneath the fireworks. In those moments, Rogers Arena felt surprisingly intimate despite the crowd size.
The emotional swings have become part of MGK‘s identity. He can spend one song encouraging crowdsurfing before turning around to deliver deeply personal lyrics that leave the arena almost silent. It shouldn’t work as well as it does, but somehow it always finds its balance.
There was plenty of humour mixed into the chaos. During “Everything Tatted,” MGK spotted a fan holding a sign announcing she had “FIX UR FACE” tattooed on her backside. The cameras immediately found her, and when she proudly revealed the tattoo, the arena erupted with laughter and applause while MGK could only shake his head in disbelief while smiling.
The covers landed just as well. His version of “Mr. Brightside” instantly became one of the loudest singalongs of the evening, proving that some songs have taken on a life of their own inside concert arenas. It was one of several moments where MGK stepped back and simply let the audience carry the performance.
The celebration continued during “My Bloody Valentine,” when roughly twenty female fans were invited onto the stage to dance alongside him. The standout among them was an energetic six-year-old girl who completely stole the spotlight, confidently dancing across the stage and earning one of the biggest ovations of the night.
Before launching into “My Ex’s Best Friend,” MGK paused to remove his shirt, joking, “I know Canadians can say sorry, but can you please?” as he tried to squeeze a little more noise out of the audience. Judging by the response, they were more than happy to oblige.
What continues to separate MGK from many of his peers isn’t that he blends genres. Plenty of artists do that now. It’s that he fully commits to every version of himself without apologizing for the contradictions. He’s still a rapper. He’s still a rock frontman. He’s still willing to lean into melodic pop songwriting. Rather than smoothing those edges out, the Lost Americana Tour puts them all under the same spotlight.
Closing with “Vampire Diaries,” MGK capped off nearly two hours that rarely lost momentum. Loud, theatrical, emotional, and occasionally chaotic, the show never felt interested in perfection. It aimed for something much more entertaining. Rogers Arena got a performance that embraced every corner of MGK‘s career, delivering a night that felt unpredictable from start to finish.
Whether fans came for the rap records, the pop-punk era, or the newest material, there was very little chance of leaving disappointed. MGK has become one of modern arena rock’s most unpredictable performers, and Lost Americana makes a strong case that his refusal to fit neatly into one genre is exactly what keeps his live shows so compelling.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
MGK
MOD SUN
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer
Concerts Reviews
AC/DC Brings the Thunder to Vancouver with their ‘Power Up Tour’
There is a point where a band stops being simply a band and becomes part of the architecture of rock music. AC/DC crossed that line a long time ago.
At BC Place on August 13, the Australian hard-rock institution brought its Power Up Tour to Vancouver for a night built around the things AC/DC has spent more than five decades doing better than almost anyone: giant riffs, simple choruses, loud guitars and absolutely no interest in pretending it needs to be anything else.
The Pretty Reckless had the unenviable job of warming up a stadium full of people who had come primarily to see one band. Taylor Momsen and company handled it well. The band had already played BC Place with AC/DC the previous year, so the venue was familiar territory, and their dark, muscular rock gave the evening a harder modern edge before AC/DC took over.
Momsen remains a compelling frontwoman. She has the kind of voice that can go from a rough growl to something surprisingly controlled without losing its bite. The Pretty Reckless worked through songs including “Death by Rock and Roll,” “Follow Me Down,” “Make Me Wanna Die” and “Going to Hell,” making a solid case for their place on a tour where the headliner could easily swallow an opening act whole.
Then it was time for AC/DC. The opening notes of “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)” were enough to make the point. There was no elaborate buildup or some cinematic explanation of what was about to happen. Angus Young walked out in his schoolboy uniform, picked up his Gibson SG and started playing.
That’s the AC/DC trick. They make the obvious feel good. Young is 71 now, and Brian Johnson is 78. Those numbers are hard to ignore for about five minutes. Then Young starts moving. He still has the strange, almost cartoonish physicality that has made him such an effective performer. The duckwalk remains intact. So does the ability to disappear into a guitar solo and somehow make a stadium watch one small figure instead of the enormous production surrounding him.
Johnson has changed more noticeably. His voice carries more wear than it did decades ago, and some of the higher passages have lost a bit of their old bite. Yet there is something fitting about hearing that weathered voice attack these songs now. “Back in Black” doesn’t need to sound exactly like the 1980 recording. Neither does “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.” Johnson sings them like someone who has lived with these songs for most of his adult life. The audience knows every word anyway.
“Thunderstruck” turned BC Place into a sea of raised arms. “Hells Bells” brought out the giant bell and all the expected theatrics. “Highway to Hell” needed almost no encouragement from the band; the crowd did most of the work. This is where AC/DC has an advantage over younger stadium acts. There is no learning curve ast hese songs have been sitting in people’s heads for decades.
The Power Up material, including “Demon Fire” and “Shot in the Dark,” fits into the set without disrupting its momentum. Still, the older songs are where the night really catches fire. “Shoot to Thrill,” “Sin City,” “High Voltage,” “Riff Raff” and “You Shook Me All Night Long” are simply too deeply embedded in the band’s history to compete with.
“Let There Be Rock” became Angus Young’s playground. His extended solo was indulgent and ridiculous, but that’s exactly what it needed to be. A shorter version might have been more sensible, but nobody came to AC/DC for sensible.
There is something almost refreshing about how little the band cares about reinvention. AC/DC has no new sound to unveil and no grand statement about where rock music is going next. It knows where it came from, knows what its audience wants and has decided that is enough.
By the time “T.N.T.” arrived, BC Place was already primed for the inevitable finale. Then came “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You),” with the cannons firing and the stadium turning into one enormous, deafening salute.
AC/DC isn’t trying to prove that it is still the future of rock. The band has become something more stubborn than that: a living reminder that a great riff doesn’t age nearly as quickly as the people playing it. Five decades in, Angus Young still wants you to turn it up. Vancouver was happy to oblige.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
Upcoming Power Up Tour Dates:
Thu Aug 27 Atlanta, GA Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Mon Aug 31 Houston, TX NRG Stadium
Fri Sep 04 South Bend, IN Notre Dame Stadium
Tue Sep 08 St. Louis, MO The Dome at America’s Center
Sat Sep 12 Montreal, QC Parc Jean-Drapeau
Wed Sep 16 Toronto, ON Rogers Stadium
Fri Sep 25 East Rutherford, NJ MetLife Stadium
Tue Sep 29 Philadelphia, PA Lincoln Financial Field
More information here.
AC/DC
THE PRETTY RECKLESS
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer | @frogphotography
Concerts Reviews
IVE ‘Show What I Am’ Tour Lives Up to Its Name in Vancouver
A few months ago, I walked into Rogers Arena for my first K-pop concert. That show was TWICE’s This Is For Tour, and it was a bit of a crash course. I knew the group, knew some of the songs, but I was still trying to figure out what made a K-pop concert different from the rock and pop shows I had spent years photographing and reviewing.
Since then, I’ve done my homework. I’ve listened to more groups, learned more about the culture around K-pop, and started to understand why the relationship between a group and its fans is such a big part of the experience. So when IVE ended the North American leg of their Show What I Am Tour to Rogers Arena on August 9, I was much more prepared.
I still wasn’t an expert on IVE. I couldn’t have named every song going in, and I certainly wasn’t going to pretend I could match the DIVE fandom’s encyclopedic knowledge of the group. What I did have was curiosity, and by the end of the night, I had a much better idea of why IVE has become one of K-pop’s biggest fourth-generation girl groups.
IVE — An Yujin, Gaeul, Rei, Jang Wonyoung, Liz and Leeseo — has built its identity around confidence since debuting in 2021. The group’s catalogue includes some of K-pop’s biggest recent hits, including “LOVE DIVE,” “After LIKE,” “I AM,” “Kitsch” and “Baddie.” The Show What I Am Tour takes that idea of confidence and stretches it across a concert that deliberately gives each member room to stand on her own.
The show opens with a cinematic video sequence before the six members appear in black leather outfits, surrounded by dancers, lasers and sparks. “GOTCHA (Baddest Eros)” gets things moving before “XOXZ” and “Baddie” keep the momentum going. There is very little patience for a slow start here.
“ICE QUEEN” brings a more elegant edge, followed by “BLACKHOLE,” where the live band gives the song considerably more weight than its studio version. The band is one of the smartest choices in the production. The arrangements aren’t simply backing tracks played louder ; songs get extended instrumental sections, heavier percussion and moments where the musicians can actually breathe. It makes the show feel like a concert rather than a two-hour music video with a very large budget.
“TKO” brings the members down the runway for the first time, putting them much closer to the audience. “Holy Moly” follows, before “My Satisfaction” shifts the mood again with darker lighting, dancers and tight camera shots projected onto the arena screens (K-pop bands’ camera work really excels during live performance).
Then IVE breaks apart. The solo section is probably the strongest part of the show. Each member gets a chance to show a different side of herself, and the performances are different enough that the sequence never feels like six variations of the same idea. Wonyoung’s “8” is confident and controlled. Rei turns “In Your Heart” into a cute, playful Y2K-style performance. Liz’s “Unreal” strips things back and puts her vocals front and centre. Gaeul’s “Odd” is dreamy and understated before Leeseo completely changes the temperature with the hyperactive “Super ICY.” Yujin closes the sequence with “Force,” combining live vocals with demanding choreography before handing the stage over to the dancers.
For someone coming into the show without a deep knowledge of IVE, this was the section that made the group click for me. They are six distinct performers, not six interchangeable pieces of a larger machine.
The group eventually reunites for “♥beats,” changing into white outfits with angel wings and moving into a lighter part of the show. “WOW,” “Off The Record” and “FLU” lean heavily into fan interaction. There are waves, heart gestures, posing for cameras and plenty of moments where the members seem just as entertained by the audience as the audience is by them.
That connection is hard to miss. K-pop fans don’t just know the songs, they know the choreography, the members, the inside jokes and the tiny details. Watching thousands of people respond to the same cue at exactly the same time can feel slightly surreal when you’re still learning the language of the genre.
And then IVE brings out the big guns. “ATTITUDE,” “LOVE DIVE,” “REBEL HEART” and “I AM” arrive in quick succession, turning Rogers Arena into one enormous singalong. “I AM,” in particular, gets the kind of response you expect from a band playing its signature song.
“BANG BANG” follows, with the group teasing the crowd that it is the final song before an extended outro sends the members racing back across the stage.
Of course, it isn’t the final song. The first encore brings “Wild Bird” and a more relaxed version of IVE, with the members wearing tour merchandise and spending more time talking to the audience. Then comes another surprise: Wonyoung takes over a DJ booth for “Supernova Love,” the group’s collaboration with David Guetta. “Kitsch” follows, and then “After LIKE” closes the night with thousands of fans singing along.
I came into Rogers Arena knowing far less about IVE than the people sitting around me. I left with a much better understanding of the group, and more importantly, a better understanding of why K-pop concerts have become such a force.
The spectacle is impressive, but that isn’t what stuck with me. It was the personalities. Show What I Am works best when IVE stops trying to prove how big the production can be and simply lets the six members show what makes each of them different. The choreography is sharp, the live band adds real punch, and the production rarely sits still for long. But the biggest success is that the show gives fans plenty of reasons to feel like they are part of it.
A few months after my first K-pop concert, I’m still learning the names and catching up on the catalogue. I’m starting to get it, though. And IVE made a pretty convincing case for keeping up.
Upcoming IVE Show What I Am Tour dates:
Sept. 4 – Hong Kong – Asia World Arena
Sept. 5 – Hong Kong – Asia World Arena
Sept. 11 – Taipei, Taiwan – Taipei Arena
Sept. 12 – Taipei, Taiwan – Taipei Arena