Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Ottawa – July 14, 2026

There’s a particular kind of chaos that follows Coheed and Cambria into a room, and Ottawa got the full dose of it on a Tuesday night that felt more like a Saturday. Twenty-plus years into their run, and still touring behind last year’s Vaxis – Act III: The Father of Make Believe, the New York prog-rock lifers proved once again that a good story and a great riff are not mutually exclusive.

The Openers: Cevilain Own Their Hometown Stage

Before the headliners even hit the stage, the local crowd already had something to cheer for. Cevilain, Ottawa’s own, got the rare hometown-opener treatment, and they didn’t waste it. Tight, loud, and relishing the size of the room, the band tore through a set that had the front rows moving well before Coheed‘s set change. There’s something different about watching a band play in their own city, and that energy was written all over the performance.

The Headliners: Hair, Harmonics, and the Keywork

By the time the house lights dropped, the room was packed shoulder to shoulder. Claudio Sanchez took the stage exactly as fans expect him to, guitar slung low and hair a wall of curls.

The production leaned hard into the band’s sci-fi mythology, with the “keywork” logo splashed across the backdrop in shifting reds, blues, and greens throughout the night. Sanchez spent as much time airborne, leaping, crouching, and prowling the lip of the stage, as he did locked into the fretboard, and the rest of the band matched the intensity beat for beat. The rhythm section anchored the heavier cuts while the guitar work carried the band’s trademark blend of melodic hooks and progressive sprawl.

Between songs, the crowd took over almost as much as the band did, fists in the air, singalongs on the choruses, and no shortage of phones raised to catch a moment.

The Takeaway

For a band this deep into a catalog built on interlocking concept albums, Coheed and Cambria‘s live show still manages to feel less like a history lesson and more like a release valve. Ottawa showed up ready to shout every word back, Cevilain proved a hometown opening slot is nothing to waste, and by the time the last chord rang out, it was clear this stop on the This Is Our War tour earned its place in the run.

Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!

COHEED AND CAMBRIA

CEVILIAN

All Photo Credit: Kieran Delport

Jinjer brought an evening of relentless metal to Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom on July 8, turning the historic venue into a sea of circle pits and crowd surfers during a stop on the band’s Duél Tour.

Before the Ukrainian quartet took the stage, Crystal Lake and Entheos did more than warm up the crowd. Japan’s Crystal Lake delivered a blistering set packed with crushing riffs and nonstop energy, wasting no time between songs as they tore through tracks from The Weight of Sound. Their performance had the first pits of the night spinning well before the headliner arrived.

Entheos raised the intensity another level. Frontwoman Chaney Crabb was impossible to look away from, effortlessly shifting between soaring clean vocals and ferocious growls while commanding every inch of the stage. The band’s technical precision never came at the expense of raw energy. By the end of their set, the Commodore crowd was fully locked in.

When the lights dimmed and the Jinjer logo appeared on the big screen, the room erupted. Opening with “Duél” before rolling into “Green Serpent” and “Fast Draw.” The band clearly showing to everyone why they’ve become one of modern metal’s most respected live acts.

Tatiana Shmayluk remains one of the genre’s most captivating performers. Her seamless transitions between haunting clean vocals and thunderous growls continue to feel almost unreal in a live setting. Behind her, guitarist Roman Ibramkhalilov, bassist Eugene Abdukhanov, and drummer Vladislav Ulasevich played with remarkable precision, locking together through the band’s complex arrangements without missing a beat.

The set balanced material from Duél with fan favourites like “Teacher, Teacher!,” “I Speak Astronomy,” “Perennial,” and the always powerful “Pisces.” Throughout the night, the crowd responded with nonstop moshing, headbanging, and crowd surfing, matching the band’s intensity from start to finish.

Closing with an encore of “Sit Stay Roll Over,” Jinjer left the Commodore exhausted but wanting more.

One thing worth mentioning from the media pit: readers will notice there are no close-up photos of Shmayluk’s face accompanying this article. During the opening songs, she repeatedly shielded her face from photographers with her hand or by turning away whenever cameras were pointed in her direction. As a photographer, that created an uncomfortable situation. While our outlet had been approved to photograph the show, I wasn’t comfortable continuing to shoot someone who appeared to be signaling that they didn’t want to be photographed. I left the photo pit after the second song instead of staying for the usual three-song limit. It’s difficult to know what prompted the change, especially since photographers at earlier dates on the tour and during previous Jinjer tours didn’t appear to encounter the same situation. Her stage presence seemed to relax as the set went on, but the opening moments left an awkward impression that stood in contrast to an otherwise outstanding performance.

Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!

JINJER

ETHEOS

All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer