CONCERT REVIEW - ALESTORM/ELVENKING

The Concert Hall turned into a pirate ship last Friday when Alestorm sailed into Toronto for a sold out show courtesy of Inertia Entertainment.

I was pretty excited to see Alestorm once again, my first time being during a drunken afternoon at Wacken last summer. Getting to see them at The Concert Hall for the venues first metal show since reopening after renovations was a bonus treat. Hoping that Inertia will have more shows here in the future!

The night began with snow and freezing temperatures. I arrived earlier than I ever do for a show so naturally I ended up in a line for an hour in the wind tunnel that is Yonge street building up a nice base of snow on my shoulders. Finally entering the venue I was greeted by a huge coat check line also crawling at a snails pace. Maybe the venue picked a sold out show to do new staff training? Brutal.

I finally entered the room to see Glyph on stage – saying thanks before walking off. I don’t think a single photographer made it to shoot their set which sucks for the band.

Next up – Elvenking! Shoutout to these guys, and specifically Dan their lovely mercandiser, for hooking me up with a pass for this show. Elvenking are a cool heavy metal band out of Italy with a folk flair and a violinist which I was pretty excited about – so of course the violinist was MIA. I’m assuming VISA problems, which seems to be a common issue for bands from Europe touring North America these days. Neverless, Elvenking delivered an energetic set which got the crowd warmed up and moving. The singer Davide “DAMNAGORAS” Moras has a very theatric performance style and rocked some pretty epic headwear which made for some great photos. I could be entirely wrong so don’t fact check me on this, but I believe it was their first performance in Toronto. Here’s hoping they make it back sooner than later and this time with their violinist!

SETLIST:

RAPTURE

THE HANGING TREE

DRAUGEN’S MAELSTROM

PAGAN REVOLUTION

SILVERSEAL

MOONBEAM STONE CIRCLE

PAGAL PURITY

BRIDE OF NIGHT

THE ONE WE SHALL FOLLOW

THE WANDERER

THE DIVIDED HEART

ELVENLEGIONS

(I very sadly have none of the amazing photos I risked my life to take of Alestorm. My partner wiped the camera card and deleted the backup folder before I got a chance to editing them. My photographer friend also had his card corrupt and lost his Alestorm photos so perhaps it was some sort of pirate curse? I joke because I’m very sad Rae, but lesson learned I guess. Fuck. 🙁 )

With the famous giant rubber duck on stage the crowd eagerly awaited the metal pirates to grace the stage. Sweatily waited, as the venue was hot as fuck. Just when I debated grabbing some water, BAM – the pirate metal party began! And the fans partied HARD, so hard, that I very quickly became aware that the barricade was starting to collapse. I ducked off to the side and saw the band nervously looking around and security rushing in to hold up the metal gates. The crowd kept living their best lives, unaware that the show may very well be coming to an abrupt end. Thankfully frontman Christopher Bowes got the masses to calm down long enough for re-enforements to swoop in which worked, barely, so the show could go on. Kudos to keyboardist Elliot Verno and Mate Bodor for doing some fun little improv during the unexpected pause, they rocked a bit of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack and I don’t know if anyone else noticed but I fucking did and loved it.

SETLIST:

KEELHAULED

NO GRAVE BUT THE SEA

THE SUNK’N NORWEGIAN

ALESTORM

UNDER BLACKENED BANNERS

HANGOVER

THE LAST SASKATCHEWAN PIRATE

WENCHES & MEAD

MAGELLAN’S EXPEDITION

MEXICO

VOYAGE OF THE DEAD MAURADER

BIG SHIP LITTLE SHIP

NANCY THE TAVERN WENCH

P.A.R.T.Y

1741 (THE BATTLE OF CARTAGENA)

SHIT BOAT (NO FANS)

DRINK

ZOMBIES ATE MY PIRATE SHIP

FUCKED WITH AN ANCHOR

With the barricade sort of holding, Alestorm kept the party going for a solid 19 songs. There was much moshing, dancing, drinking and swash buckling to be hard from floor to balcony. The room was so steamy that once we were all funnelled back out into the storm the snow was actually a bit of a relief – until I found out transit had shutdown early. Here’s hoping the next pirate bash is during the summer!