Concert Review: Japandroids Open New Concert Venue, Adelaide Hall, With Sold-Out Show

By: Lauren Garbutt (@LaurenGarbutt1) –

Japandroids performing at 2013 Sasquatch Music Festival on May 24. (Photo: Kirsten Pardun)

Japandroids opened Toronto’s newest concert venue with a sold out show on Monday night along with opening act, San Diego-based garage punk duo Crocodiles.

Adelaide Hall, which also contains the Tap House bar above it, was recently renovated and morphed into a two-level concert venue.  The space holds a capacity of 680 people, but that seems to be including all three levels of the building and the actual concert space is not that large. The space is impressive though, featuring a small stage and a balcony which allows you to get close to the action. The only downside is that if you are not in the front of the balcony then you won’t be able to see much from above.

Opening for Japandroids was San Diego punks Crocodiles, who were solid openers, and a band of few words, wasting barely any time talking to the crowd except to thank them. The quartet entertained the crowd with their brand of sixties style pop rock. Kind of psychedelic, pretty rock and roll. One can’t help but draw the comparison to Jesus and Mary Chain. The group opened with the track, “Neon Jesus” from their album of the same name, followed by “I Wanna Kill”.  Heavy on the distortion, the duo cruised through their half-hour set playing songs such as “Stoned To Death” and a cover of the Soft Boys’, “I Wanna Destroy You”. The crowd was receptive to their set and they had heads nodding along throughout.

Japandroids burst onto the stage to a wave of applause and a noisy crowd. They kicked off the show first with a few “announcements”, one being that they were going to smash the crowd “against the walls of this venue and christen this bitch” and one that this show was going to be their last Toronto show for a long time. Fans met the first announcement with excitement and joy while the second, not so much.

The duo, which consisted of guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse, both on vocals,  began their set with “Adrenaline Nightshift” followed by “Fire’s Highway” and the crowd quickly got crazy. So crazy that as the venue heated up,  singer and guitarist, Brian King, passed out an entire case or two of water to the audience, joking that they were actually going to film a surprise music video for Nelly tonight (because it was so hot in here, get it!?).

Fan favourite “Wet Hair” followed, along with a lot of clapping along and crowd surfing.

This band makes a lot of noise. You might be surprised to see only two people on stage if you weren’t watching. Every song was fast paced and lively, full of raw energy which the crowd happily gave back to them.  Each track was a celebration of living in the moment and being as rowdy and excitable as possible. The gang of sweaty shirtless men embracing each other gleefully in the pit emphasized this.

The band chilled the crowd out toward the end of their set by playing “Continuous Thunder” before their encore, a building, epic type of song that set itself apart from all the others as it focused less on starting an immediate party and more of the conclusion of one.

After a brief pause, Japandroids stormed back to the stage to play their arguably most popular and anthemic song, “House that Heaven Built”, which saw the mosh pit in front of the stage grow considerably as the room sang along. To close the show was cover of  Gun Club’s “For The Love of Ivy”.

Japandroids proved to be a fantastic choice to help launch Adelaide Hall as one of Toronto’s most promising new concert venues. With a sold-out show, those in attendance were beaming, and both bands providing tight and memorable shows, it was a great introduction to Toronto’s music scene. What Adelaide Hall’s place in the Toronto music scene will be remains to be seen but if their future live events are anything like Monday’s, then Toronto may have another impressive venue to add to the list.