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 out playing live shows. Their first of the year was at The Atria in Oshawa on February 6. With the band's newest track, and their debut EP Drowning expected early this year, I wanted to get out to watch them do their thing live.
Sandwiched between 2 other acts (NERiMA and headliners Sun Junkies), NAKEDBURN took the small stage, ready to kick things into high gear. The sound engineer at the Oshawa live music venue had other ideas though. Perhaps that is unfair of me. It could easily have been the equipment. I'm not privy to the ins and outs at this specific bar, but there were a ton of problems nonetheless. After some agreements between the band and the sound man, NAKEDBURN was ready to burn! And I perhaps mean this literally, as they were not happy with club by this point. And I don't blame them.
When you enter the Atria, the stage area is to the left, and the bar area is to the right, separated by a half wall. Pent up with angst, lead singer Matt Guarrasi urges everybody in the venue to come up, "even if you're over by the bar!" The band then blasts into "stuck (inyourhead)". After the gentle vocal intro, there is an explosion of energy with the music on stage, but also from the band themselves. Guarrasi and bassist Michael Van are bouncing and jumping all over the place (given the limited space), guitarist Luc Chiasson is thrashing like a madman, and the band let's it all out through their craft.
The first half of the set, the band maintains the same force, playing some new tracks live for the first time. These guys have some real stage presence. For a 5-piece, at least on this night, that's not easy to achieve. The stage at The Atria is rather small, but NAKEDBURN don't let it stop them from going hard.
We certainly don't know all the music from every band we choose to check out live. So when Matt Guarrasi tells the crowd that they're going to slow it down for their 6th track "Drowning", I thought we'd get a bit of a breather. While the song started out a bit slower than their previous 5, there was nothing soft, or slow about it.
Ahead of the band's 7th song of their set, their frontman urges the fans "If you are here with a loved one, whether it's a family member, or friend, hug them. This next track is about losing somebody." The band goes into their song "safe to say", and on this one, the tempo certainly comes down, but the screams from Guarrasi during the songs crescendo are fantastic!
Finishing off the energy that the band gave off during their whole set, Michael Van jumps into the crowd during the last song "lie awake". Singer Matt Guarrasi joins him. They could have easily thrown in the towel before any of this even started, but they pounded forward, and put on a great performance.
Set List
stuck (inyourhead)
Smoke
blue sky
jaded
Balance
Drowning
safe to say
lie awake
Despite the sound issues from The Atria this night, NAKEDBURN sounded great. With live performances, musicianship is only half of the equation. You need to have some swagger. You need to look, and feel like a rock star. That was NAKEDBURN on this cold February night in Oshawa. They're a band that we'll have to keep our eyes on!!
Concert Photo Gallery
NAKEDBURN Online
show date: February 6, 2025
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