New Anthem Rains Down KAOS in Vaughan

New Anthem performs live in Vaughan, Ontario. Photo Credit: Michael Drukarsh

By: Michael Drukarsh

Vaughn, ON - Rock and wrestling is alive and well in 2024, but this ain’t Cindy Lauper and Hulk Hogan we’re talking about BROTHER! This is New Anthem’s guitarist and lead singer Daren Ciemins, along with Chris Kari on Guitar, Mathew May on bass, and Chris Zoubs on drums teaming up with long time friend and KAOS Pro Wrestling star Andrew Love to bring metal and mayhem to Vaughan.

Playing the halftime show at KAOS Wrestling’s “Days of the Phoenix”, Toronto Punk band New Anthem tore through a five song set that included new songs “Eagle Street” and “This is Hell” from there upcoming EP Nothing's Ever Good Enough as well as a scorching cover of Sum 41’s “The Hell Song”.

New Anthem performs live in Vaughan, ON. Photo Credit: Michael Drukarsh

Asked about the inspiration for the EP’s title, lead singer Ciemins replied, “I think it’s just the everyday struggles of day to day life. If you are someone my age, you know, I’m 29 years old, the hopes and dreams of maybe buying a house one day is looking slimmer and slimmer, and that’s kinda where that title plays into it."

As proud member of the LGTQ2+ community, Siemens wrote the latest single, “Eagle Street” “...from the perspective of a young LGBT person growing up discovering themselves, kinda falling in love for the first time. Eagle Street is telling the story of that transpiring.”

With a last-minute venue change, the crowd at this outdoor event was small but that didn’t stop New Anthem from attacking their set as if they were playing in front of a full stadium. Ciemins' energy level reached such a high that he lost his guitar strap mid-song. Not wanting to stop the KAOS, he handed his guitar to a fan, allowing fellow guitarist Kari to pick up the lead while Ciemins belted out the lyrics and the fan attached the strap.

The current lineup of New Anthem has been together for just over a year now and at Sunday’s concert they were able to overcome a last minute venue change, some technical difficulties and wildly windy weather to deliver their “what ever, where ever, when ever” punk attitude to a small but enthusiastic crowd in Vaughan.

Daren Ciemens performs live in Vaughan, ON. Photo Credit: Michael Drukarsh

This current lineup of New Anthem has been very active performing for huge audiences including York regions Pride festival. For upcoming dates, New Anthem has a Toronto show September 14th at The Baby G as well as an EP release show planned for early October.

Covering all streaming platforms, including videos on Youtube, you don’t have to search hard to find New Anthem’s music. In fact, watching the video for “Who I Love is Not a Sin” you will see how this rock and wrestling collaboration came about (*Spoiler Alert* the video features KAOS Pro wrestler, Andrew Love).