Pierce the Veil perform live at Budweiser Stage in Toronto, Canada. Photo By: Jay Broderick By: Jay Broderick Toronto, Canada - You ever get caught in a crowd where your "life experience" seems vastly superior? As I watched the crowd entering the main gates at Budweiser Stage for the "I Can't Hear You" Tour, featuring Pierce the Veil , I felt like John Oldman from The Man From Earth. Man, this crowd looked so young! And to exacerbate the situation, the photographers who star

Sessanta 2.0 at Budweiser Stage in Toronto, Canada. Photo By: Jay Broderick By: Jay Broderick Toronto, Canada - On April 17, 2024, alternative music icon Maynard Keenan James turned 60 years old. To celebrate, he took his bands A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer on the road, along with legends Primus, and embarked on a tour that they titled Sessanta. If you're Italian, you'll know that this means "60". If you're not Italian, now you know! The tour was such a success, that the t

Gowan perform live at Regent Theatre in Oshawa, Ontario. Photo By: Jay Broderick By: Jay Broderick Oshawa, Ontario - For over 10 years, Durham Region promoter's Blackrose Entertainment , have been bringing the absolute best entertainment of all facets to Southern Ontario. The husband and wife team of Scott and Christine Templeton have built a business that considers community first. Outside of bringing outstanding acts to the stage, running fundraisers and giving back is of

Steel Panther perform live at Pickering Casino resort in Pickering, ON. Photo By: Jay Broderick WARNING: the following article contains vulgar language, and deals with adult subject matter. And even some adults will find this offensive. You have been warned! By: Jay Broderick Pickering, ON - The Pickering Casino Resort ... it's my first time at Durham Region's newest entertainment facility. Of course, I'm here to cover a concert at The Arena. It's The Northern Exposure Tour

BUSH performs live at Meridian Centre in St. Catherine's, Canada. Photo By: Dan Duffin By: Dan Duffin St. Catherine's, ON - As part of their 2025 tour, British band BUSH stopped at St. Catherines' Meridian Centre on Sunday 'May the 4th', with US bands Filter and Rival Sons as support acts. Filter Filter perform live at Meridian Centre. Photo By: Dan Duffin Shooting from a limited space pit, the night kicked off with a strobe filled, yet quite dark performance from Filter ,

Trivium close the night at Great Canadian Casino Resort in Toronto. Photo By: Felix Foxtail By: Felix Foxtail Toronto, Canada - The fusion of heavy metal and casino vibes made for a curious backdrop at The Great Canadian Casino Resort on Sunday night as fans lined up at the theatre to see this powerhouse lineup of Trivium, Bullet For My Valentine, August Burns Red and Bleed From Within. For the co-headliners, these two metal heavy hitters last saw Canada in October of 2022

Bachman-Turner Overdrive perform live at Meridian Centre in St. Catherine's, Ontario. Photo By: Dan Duffin By: Dan Duffin St. Catherine's, ON - My last time out to cover Colin James in Hamilton was probably Ontario’s snowiest day of the winter with a fun drive in blizzard conditions. This time out the windows were down and dry roads all around as the weather hit a much needed 20+ degrees. There was a fun pre-summer vibe outside of the Meridian Centre in the streets with

Wednesday 13 perform live at Lee's Palace in Toronto. Photo By: Jay Broderick By: Jay Broderick Toronto, Canada - Spring time in Canada. It's unpredictable at the best of times, but 2025 has been downright freezing cold. As I stood outside Lee's Palace for the Wednesday 13 show at the Bloor Street concert venue, snow flurries are actually falling. What in the sweet name??? It's the middle of April for crying out loud!! I remember snow once or twice at Easter when I was a k

Warbringer perform live at The Garrison in Toronto, Canada. Photo By: Jay Broderick By: Jay Broderick Toronto, Canada - Man, what a winter. The weather in Toronto has been brutal. The excitement of spring gives us hope as we yearn for warmer weather. Perhaps our expectations are too grand, but by now, I expect it to be in the high single digits (Celsius), but as I line up outside The Garrison for Warbringer's The Vortex of Violence Tour, the only vortex I'm feeling is the p

Heavy Trip perform live at Bovine Sex Club in Toronto. Photo By: Joe Taylor By: Joe Taylor (special guest contributor from Blast Toronto ) Toronto, ON - Black Throne Productions is famous for putting together amazing shows for people who love fuzzy and buzzy bands, if you know what I mean. On this night Ryan of Black Throne was able to showcase a band from Whistler B.C. called Heavy Trip and this was their premiere performance in the Big Smoke. Before I get to that story,

Chris Holmes performs live at Rockpile in Toronto. Photo By: Michael Drukarsh By: Michael Drukarsh Toronto, Canada - Friday March 21 was the first of two shows at Toronto’s infamous Rockpile for the lineup of Skeleton Lake, Twisted Sista and headliner Chris Holmes making his triumphant return to the Canadian stage. Skeleton Lake Skeleton Lake perform live at Rockpile. Photo By: Michael Drukarsh Taking the stage first, Skeleton Lake , a stoner, doom metal band out of Oshawa,

Lonely Little Kitsch perform live at Sneaky Dee's in Toronto. Photo By: Jay Broderick By: Jay Broderick Toronto, ON - In March of 2023 (crazy that this was 2 years ago) during LoudTO's infancy (well, only 2 years in, we're still really young), an email came across my laptop from a Niagara Region band called Lonely Little Kitsch . They were sharing their first single "The New Scene", and you know how sometimes things just click? Well that was the situation for me, and I was s

Dream Theater performs live at Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto. Photo By: Michael Drukarsh By: Michael Drukarsh Toronto, Canada - It’s not often a photographer gets to be involved in the show, unless of course you're with Alice Cooper and that never ends well. Last night, yours truly had the honor and privilege of handing back the mic to Dream Theater ’s lead singer James LaBrie after it accidentally flew from the mic stand and smacked front row fan Davor square in the forehe

Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace performs live at Tribute Communities Centre in Oshawa, ON. Photo By: Jay Broderick By: Jay Broderick Oshawa, ON - For hard music fans, the 1980s were unmistakably (and unarguably) the greatest decade for music. As the decade rolled over into the 1990s, Seattle's grunge scene took the world by storm, and I quickly found myself listening to this style of music all the time. My Alternative Rock phase in my mid-20s, took over and it was the genre I

Korpiklaani performs live at The Concert Hall in Toronto. Photo By: Jay Broderick By: Jay Broderik (see what I did there?) Toronto, Canada - 888 Yonge Street. The corner of Yonge and Davenport near the heart of the city. The building that sits on this corner is known around these parts as The Concert Hall . Man, do I have a ton of stories about this venue. Like the story of when I almost died when I saw my first thrash show, Megadeth, at this very venue. Well, IT'S BACK! I

James Clark performs live during Canada's Teen Jam Round 2. Photo By: Jay Broderick By: Jay Broderick Toronto, ON - Back in October 2024, we took in the first ever finals for Canada's Teen Jam , a platform for young Canadian musicians to showcase their powers, and to give them an opportunity to perform on a real stage. I was blown away by the show that was put on that evening. Man, the young artists were simply fire! Then, early in February, I had a chat with founder Mark Hi

Colin James performs live at First Ontario Concert Hall in Hamilton, ON. Photo By: Dan Duffin By: Dan Duffin - Colin James couldn’t have picked a better date for the “Chasing the Sun 2025” tour here in Hamilton Ontario. With the largest snowstorm in many years already bearing down on us, streets 10cm deep in snow and another 15-25cm on the way the sun was nowhere to be seen. Terra Lightfoot Terra Lightfoot performs live in Hamilton, Ontario. Photo By Dan Duffin Instead I jo

Apocalyptica perform live at Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto. Photo By: Michael Drukarsh By: Michael Drukarsh Toronto, ON - For the first time last night at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto, I witnessed a phenomenon that truly blew my mind! A heavy metal concert where 80% of the music played had no lead singer! Nita Strauss Nita Strauss performs live at Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Photo By: Michael Drukarsh Storming the stage with a blazing guitar, opening act Nita S

NAKEDBURN perform live at The Atria in Oshawa. Photo Credit: Jay Broderick By: Jay Broderick Oshawa, Ontario - In 2023, a new band emerged on the emo scene here in Toronto. With an intention to fuse emo, alternative and hardcore sounds, it didn't take long for the members to click, and shit started rolling! With a handful of music videos under their belt, the band released their latest track "jaded" in November . Now as we are a month into the new year, NAKEDBURN is getting

Kerry King performs live at Danforth Music Hall in Toronto. Photo By: Jay Broderick By: Jay Broderick Toronto, Canada - When thrash metal giants Slayer announced their retirement in 2019, the news was shocking to say the least. But the fans weren't the only ones who were upset. Slayer guitarist, and main song writer Kerry King was among the angry. And yes, he was angry! King thought the band had a lot of music left to share, and was caught blindsided by the decision. Happi