Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Young the Giant Finds New Life in Old Songs on the Victory Garden Tour
On July 24, Young the Giant brought the Victory Garden Tour to Vancouver’s Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, with Beach Weather and Cold War Kids opening the night. The show had the familiar shape of a summer tour stop, but Young the Giant made a convincing argument for why a band with six albums behind it can still make a new chapter feel worth hearing.
Beach Weather opened the night with a short, easygoing set that got the crowd moving without trying too hard to steal the show. The band joined the tour as a late addition after KennyHoopla was forced to drop off the run, and they made the most of the opportunity. Their set was loose, melodic and built for a summer crowd.
Cold War Kids were a different proposition. They have been around long enough now that calling them an indie rock band feels almost too broad. Their music has lived through several different eras of alternative radio, and their live show carries that history without becoming a museum piece.
Nathan Willett remains an excellent singer, with a voice that sounds remarkably close to the records live. He was joined by a band that looked completely comfortable onstage, particularly bassist Matt Maust, who has a wonderfully loose way of moving around with his instrument, and drummer Joe Plummer, who supplied much of the night’s physical momentum.
The set included staples such as “Hang Me Up to Dry” and “First,” along with newer material and songs that reached further back into the band’s catalogue.
Cold War Kids sounded good. More than that, they looked like a band that knows exactly what it is doing. Their performance had the kind of relaxed confidence that only comes from years of playing together. They were a strong fit for the bill, and the crowd that stayed for them was rewarded.
There is still something slightly strange about watching Young the Giant occupy the role of veteran alternative rock band. The members are not old, neither are the songs. And yet the people who grew up with “Cough Syrup” and “My Body” are now standing in a venue wondering where the hell the time went.
The band opened with “Evergreen,” the first track from Victory Garden, and it immediately established the show’s visual language. Five large, flower-like fixtures surrounded the stage, shifting through different colours as the set progressed. It was an obvious extension of the album’s artwork and title, but it never felt like an overproduced gimmick. The flowers gave the stage a distinct identity and helped the new material feel like part of a larger story.
Sameer Gadhia remains the band’s biggest weapon. His voice is every bit as impressive live as it is on record, but his presence is what separates him from a lot of other alternative rock frontmen. He does not simply stand at the microphone and sing. He moves, dances, gestures and works the room without making any of it feel calculated. He has the rare ability to make a large venue feel personal without pretending it is a small club.
The setlist leaned heavily into Victory Garden as nine of the 22 songs came from the new record, giving the album enough space to exist on its own rather than functioning as filler between older hits. That choice will inevitably frustrate some fans who came for the greatest hits, but I would rather see a band commit to its current record than spend two hours recreating the past.
The new material held up. “Already There,” “Bitter Fruit,” “Mona Lisa,” “God as Witness,” “Ships Passing” and “Different Kind of Love” all found their place in the set. “Ships Passing” was particularly strong, with the band folding a brief passage from “Titus Was Born” into the song before letting it build. “Different Kind of Love,” meanwhile, carried the confidence of a band that has found a fresh creative spark. The song became Young the Giant‘s first No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart,.
The older songs, naturally, still were the most popular. “Apartment” remains one of the band’s best songs, and hearing the opening guitar fill the venue was one of the night’s early highlights. “Garands” was a welcome deep cut, followed by “I Got” and the Home of the Strange pairing of “Repeat” and “Mr. Know-It-All.” This year marks a decade since Home of the Strange, and the set gave the album enough attention to acknowledge that milestone without turning the show into an anniversary tour.
“My Body” has been played to death over the years, but it remains impossible to resist live. The opening brought an immediate reaction from the crowd, and by the chorus, the entire venue was moving. “Cough Syrup” had a similar effect. The opening guitar was enough to trigger a roar, followed by thousands of phones appearing in the air. The song has become the band’s calling card for a reason. It still works.
The band eventually closed with “Mind Over Matter,” one of its biggest songs and a fitting end to a set that spent the night balancing the past with the present. There was no drawn-out encore routine. No disappearing backstage only to return minutes later because everyone knows the script. Young the Giant played the songs they wanted to play, gave the new album room to breathe, and left.
The Victory Garden Tour is built around the idea of reconnecting with joy and approaching life with a little more curiosity and empathy. Those ideas can sound overly earnest in the wrong hands. Young the Giant mostly avoids that trap by putting the message where it belongs: inside the songs.
Six albums into a career that began when the band members were barely out of their teens, Young the Giant no longer needs to prove that it belongs here. The more interesting question is what it wants to do next. In Vancouver, the answer seemed clear: keep the old songs alive, give the new ones a fair shot, and keep moving. For a band that has spent more than 15 years growing up in public, that is a pretty good victory.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
YOUNG THE GIANT
COLD WAR KIDS
All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: LP Brings ‘All Is Not Lost’ Tour to Vancouver
On September 5, multi platinum singer-songwriter LP brought the All Is Not Lost Tour to Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre, delivering a performance that moved effortlessly between vulnerability, power, and pure rock-and-roll energy. The night also carried a special significance: the tour celebrates the 10th anniversary of Lost on You, the record that helped transform LP from a respected songwriter into a global phenomenon.
Known professionally as LP, Laura Pergolizzi has spent years carving out a space that is uniquely their own. Before becoming internationally recognized as a recording artist, LP established themselves as a songwriter for major artists including Rihanna, Christina Aguilera, and Celine Dion. Their own breakthrough came with “Lost on You,” which went to No. 1 in 18 countries and eventually surpassed one billion Spotify streams.
Inside the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, LP’s music felt much more immediate. Their unmistakable voice moved from restrained and intimate to explosive within moments, giving songs such as “Muddy Waters,” “The One That You Love,” and “Lost on You” a sense of urgency that is difficult to recreate outside of a live setting.
The evening’s setlist reflected both sides of LP’s career. The first part moved through newer material and familiar favourites, including “Shelly,” “Tokyo Sunrise,” “Love Is All I Have,” and “Chasing & Waiting.” Later, the performance shifted toward the Lost on You celebration, bringing some of LP’s most recognizable songs into the spotlight.
It was the kind of moment that makes a concert feel bigger than the room. The song that introduced LP’s voice to millions became a shared experience between artist and audience, with the theatre singing along to every familiar line. After nearly a decade of the song living its own life around the world, hearing it performed in a packed Vancouver theatre gave it a renewed sense of intimacy.
From behind the camera, there was another layer to the experience. Photographing LP meant constantly watching for the moments between the obvious ones. The dramatic poses and powerful vocals naturally create striking frames, but some of the strongest images came from the quieter details, the concentration before a verse, a hand wrapped around the microphone, a fleeting expression beneath the stage lights.
LP is an artist who gives a photographer plenty to work with. Their movement across the stage feels instinctive rather than choreographed, and their performance style carries the same unpredictability as their voice. One moment can feel completely still; the next can explode into movement.
That contrast became one of the defining visual elements of the Vancouver show. The Queen Elizabeth Theatre also suited the performance. Rather than feeling distant or oversized, the venue allowed the audience to remain close to the emotional centre of the show. LP could command the room without having to overwhelm it.
There was also a sense of celebration throughout the night. Ten years after Lost on You, LP is still performing the songs that changed the trajectory of their career while continuing to introduce audiences to what’s next. The tour combines material from the upcoming album with a special presentation of Lost on You in its entirety, making the show feel like both a look backward and a step forward.
That balance is what made the Vancouver performance so compelling. LP isn’t simply revisiting an old record. They are showing how those songs have evolved with them and how they continue to resonate with an audience that has grown alongside their music.
By the final moments of the night, the feeling in the theatre was less like watching an artist celebrate an anniversary and more like witnessing a career still in motion.
For me, photographing LP in Vancouver was an opportunity to capture that evolution in real time: the voice, the movement, the vulnerability, and the electricity that has made LP such a distinctive live performer.
Ten years after Lost on You, the LP still has something to say and judging by the way Vancouver listened, people are still more than willing to hear it.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
LP
All Photo Credit: Raphael Arthur
Concerts Reviews
LIVE REVIEW: Icons Deep Purple & Kansas Bring A Legendary Celebratory Night of Surprises To Abbotsford’s Rogers Forum
I don’t say this lightly, but both Deep Purple and Kansas absolutely put on a hell of a show. Since 1968, Deep Purple have basically been the godfathers of live rock performance. Don’t believe me? Go look up their Guinness World Record for “loudest concert,” which they snagged back in 1972. That same energy, that same wall of sound, made the trip across five decades and landed right here for the band’s headlining North American tour stop in Abbotsford. Original drummer Ian Paice is still holding it down, now joined by guitarist Simon McBride, bassist Roger Glover, keyboardist Don Airey, and vocalist Ian Gillan. Sure, only one original member remains, but somehow the whole group still nails the spirit of what made Deep Purple, well, Deep Purple.
They tore through 16 tracks that night. “Smoke on the Water” got the loudest reaction of the evening, no surprise there. “Diablo” and “Perfect Strangers” also landed big, and “Highway Star” kicked the whole thing off on an absolute high. And when I say the crowd was into it, I mean it. Fans who’ve followed this band for almost fifty years were pressed right up against the barrier trying to get as close as possible. That closeness paid off too, with an incredible light show and Simon McBride ripping through solo after solo. Honestly, McBride was the highlight more than once, stepping up so Gillan could catch his breath between songs. Given how much those vocals demand, that rest was more than earned.
Like I said, “Smoke on the Water” was the main event for Abbotsford. It’s one thing to describe it, but actually watching the buildup, seeing the bandmates grinning at each other because they knew exactly what was coming, that was priceless. Then those notes kicked in. You know the ones. Every Guitar Center employee’s nightmare. The whole arena became one voice, singing along to a guitar riff like it was a chorus. It was the moment of the night, the kind of thing every rock fan dreams about experiencing live. That wave of energy carried all the way through to the final song, “Hush.” If you were a millennial who spent way too much time on Guitar Hero 2, hearing this one live gave you full goosebumps. This was the band’s first big hit back in 1968, and in 2026 it still hits just as hard. The crowd treated it like more than an encore. It felt like everyone in that room knew they might not get another chance to see Deep Purple live, and they soaked in every second of it. When the house lights finally came up, Abbotsford just stood there in awe. Deep Purple‘s legendary status was on full display, and nobody in that crowd wanted the night to end.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
DEEP PURPLE
KANSAS
All Photo Credit: Marquise Monno