Old Old Old Review #1- Marianas Trench at the Opera House

After arriving at the Opera House in Toronto only half an hour before the doors were due to open, I saw the line up around the entire block and was relieved that I had connections at the venue. After calling the owner, we skipped the whole line and got taken to the balcony, where we got front row, centre seats. While we waited for the doors to open, we got to watch the sound check of the second opener, Everlea. First, the Zolas played. From Vancouver, Canada, the band features only two players- on guitar and keyboard. They had a very unique style, very relaxed, almost the type of thing you would expect to hear playing at a cottage. After a solid half hour set, Everlea came on. Hailing from Kingston, Ontario, they were a four person indie-rock band. I was very impressed. The guitar and vocals were all amazing, and I picked up both of their albums after their set, and fortunately was able to meet the lead singer, Justin Dube. Finally, Marianas Trench arrived onstage. With the lights dimmed, they files on one by one, to the opening notes of their albums first song, Masterpiece Theatre 1, to tremendous applause. Aside from being extremely loud, their set was amazing. The vocals were completely flawless, and there were no issues at all. The band did an amazing job at interacting with the audience. For the performance of their hit single, All To Myself, they had a contest and the winner, Caroline Sano, got to go onstage with them and play the song on guitar. She did an amazing job. They had a funny "game" going- any items of clothing thrown on stage during the set had to be worn by their roadie, Brett, for the remainder of their set, which was good for a few laughs.  At the end of their set, the walked offstage, to tremendous screams of ENCORE! Finally, Josh came back, alone, and told the crowd about his former heroin addiction, and played the song "Lover Dearest". The band came onstage halfway through that piece. For their last song, they played "Shake Tramp", which the audience loved. The whole venue was screaming along to the chorus. After a deafening round of applause, the band left the stage for good.

All in all, it was an amazing show, and I would definitely reccomend these guys in the future.