Concerts Reviews
Spiritbox Turns Vancouver Into A Tsunami Sea
May 6th marked a highly anticipated moment for metal fans in Vancouver, the return of Spiritbox. The “hometown” heroes, originally from Victoria, BC, performed their Tsunami Sea Tour to a nearly sold-out PNE Forum. The tour celebrates Tsunami Sea, Spiritbox’s sophomore studio album which released this past March to rave reviews. As a longtime fan, the announcement of the Forum as the tour stop felt significant as it signaled the group had grown exponentially since their last show in the city in 2023 at the Commodore Ballroom. Their impressive trajectory comes to no fan’s surprise as the past few years have been nothing but an uphill climb. From multiple Grammy nominations to major festival appearances, and most recently, Courtney LaPlante’s performance alongside Megan Thee Stallion at Coachella, Spiritbox has firmly established themselves as a major force in the modern music world.
Well before doors opened, hundreds, if not thousands, of fans wrapped around the Forum’s walls. Many of whom were spotted sporting Eternal Blue era merch, which was soon to be joined by Tsunami Sea designs. Once doors opened, energy surged immediately. The merch lines filled quickly, and fans rushed toward the barricade to secure the closest possible spot to the stage. Even for myself, a sense of energy blasted like lighting as my near six month wait for the show was finally ending. The night kicked off with a behemoth trio of opening acts: Poor Sport, Dying Wish, and LOATHE.
Poor Sport and Dying Wish tag-teamed the night with back-to-back sonic uppercuts, ramping up the chaos. Circle-pits were whirlwinds and heads banged with powerful fury. Once the baton was passed to Liverpool juggernauts LOATHE, the fuse hit the powder, and Vancouver erupted. As their set opened with “Gifted Every Strength”, a brooding atmosphere settled over the Forum. The only light came from the moody side-stage fixtures, like a prelude to a storm. Like lightning, LOATHE yanked the crowd into a whirlpool of distortion and disarray, shifting the energy from slow burn to full detonation. Vocalist Kadeem France and co. delivered a rollercoaster of emotion and brutality across an 8-song set that made one thing clear, this performance was a statement.
“Hello Vancouver! We’ve been waiting so long to say that,” Kadeem declared mid-set, signalling the band’s long-overdue debut in the city. Fans, some of whom had waited nearly a decade for this moment, responded in erupting cheers, especially during cult-favourites “Two-Way Mirror” and “Is It Really You?”. If this was anyone’s first time seeing LOATHE, they probably walked out a fan. If they were already one, they walked out grinning. Either way, the Liverpool prog-metal crew left their mark, and thankfully, it won’t be long until round two, as they return this October. This time, at Vancouver’s staple venue Rogers Arena, as they’ll be opening for none other than metal gods Korn.
Though only minutes passed between LOATHE and Spiritbox, it felt like the air itself was holding its breath. Around me, fans swapped stories, revisiting earlier sets, reliving Spiritbox’s last time in town, and speculating nervously about what might unfold. The room buzzed with a tension that no stage light could touch. Then, just after 9 p.m., the lights dimmed and time snapped back into motion. A low, pulsing bass crept in like a heartbeat, and on screen, an image of a burning ship appeared. That was the moment the crowd went silent, the collective anticipation crashing inward. This was it, the moment we’ve waited months for finally arrived.
The set kicked off with “Fata Morgana,” the opening track from Tsunami Sea, and Spiritbox wasted no time. Guitarist Mike Stringer, bassist Josh Gilbert, and drummer Zev Rose unleashed a tidal wave of sound, distorting the stage with unapologetic force. With it, fans answered by turning the Forum floor into a literal Tsunami Sea of crowd-surfers. While the instrumental trio held command, it was singer Courtney LaPlante’s arrival that detonated the room. One moment, anticipation; the next, ignition. A single line, “Sorrow follows me” ripped through the atmosphere, and with it, Vancouver surrendered their sanity.
Courtney’s vocals defy easy description, guttural and feral one moment, hauntingly angelic the next. On tracks like “Soft Spine”and “Holy Roller,” her screams felt ripped from another dimension, only to dissolve into ethereal tones of chilling beauty. It’s this duality, violence and grace, that sets her apart in the metal world. The night’s 16-track setlist was a showcase of the band’s evolution while celebrating their latest release, Tsunami Sea. Spiritbox left little room for breath as they moved with intention through their catalog, each track bleeding seamlessly into the next. Fan-favourites like “No Love, No Loss,” “Secret Garden,” and “Jaded”drew thunderous reactions. Visually, the black-and-white aesthetic of Tsunami Sea took center stage, and transformed the Forum into a monochrome fever dream. At times, the stage visuals verged on eerie, even nightmarish, casting an almost horror-film filter over the performance. Spiritbox’s set wasn’t without its surprises, with two standout guest appearances that elevated an already electrifying performance.
Midway through the night, Noah Edwards of Poor Sport took the stage to join Courtney on vocals for “Circle With Me,” giving the fan-favourite track an added jolt of intensity. Later, Jessie Grace of Don’t Deserve A Grave stepped in for “No Love, No Loss,” her contribution added grit to the already hard-hitting number. While LaPlante’s vocal versatility was front and centre throughout the night, guitarist Mike Stringer delivered a standout performance of his own. Nowhere was this more evident than on “Black Rainbow,” where his precision and force cut through the venue like a blade. Working in perfect tandem with drummer Zev and bassist Josh, the trio built a breakdown that felt cinematic in scale. A thunderous, tightly-wound moment that echoed the intensity of Mick Gordon’s Doom soundtrack.
Spiritbox closed the night with “Ride the Wave,” a track that began with a haunting elegance reminiscent of Evanescence’s The Open Door era, before erupting into a thunderous, full-scale finale. The crowd, far from weary, left the venue visibly buzzing, many already clamouring for more. For a band known for intensity, Spiritbox exceeded even their own reputation, delivering a performance many fans were calling flawless.
With Tsunami Sea representing what may be the band’s most cohesive and ambitious work to date, expectations for this show were sky-high. Yet, by the final note, those expectations were obliterated. The set was sharp, emotionally charged, and showcased a band fully stepping into their prime. For years, it’s been clear Spiritbox had the potential to break through. With a near-capacity crowd at Vancouver’s PNE Forum, that potential is no longer a prediction, it’s reality. At this pace, it’s not hard to imagine their next Vancouver stop being a headlining slot at Rogers Arena.
I’d like to thank Spiritbox and their incredible team for allowing me to capture the magic that was the Tsunami Sea Tour. If you’d like to catch a future date, or find out more info on the band, visit here.
Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!
SPIRITBOX
LOATHE
All Photo Credit: Marquise Monno
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