BORN RUFFIANS w/ FLEECE
@ THE DANFORTH MUSIC HALL, TORONTO
DECEMBER 14, 2019
Canadian indie rock band Born Ruffians returned home to celebrate their second annual Shondi Festoon at the Danforth Music Hall. The Midland, Ontario quartet recently finished their North American tour as the opener for Australian indie rock band Last Dinosaurs. A full house means that it was going to be a big rocking party of great music.
Montreal’s Fleece was the opener for Born Ruffians, and they put on a fantastic set of psychedelic sounds and guitar riffs. As they finished up, the crowd applauded and patiently waited for the main act as the venue started to fill up.
Born Ruffians opened with “Needle,” and the crowd immediately began to sing along. Playing under colourful flowers while wearing floral dress shirts, bass guitarist Mitch DeRosier and drummer Steve Hamelin passionately move their heads up and down to the music. At the same time, lead singer Luke Lalonde matched his bandmate’s energy with his powerful vocals.
FLEECE
Born Ruffians continued to play songs that kept the crowd cheering and singing. The band members took a short break, while Lalonde performed “The Perpetual Optimist,” and “Dusty Lime” off from his debut solo album, The Perpetual Optimist.
“I wish we could play all night,” says Lalonde as the band continues to perform song after song with endless energy. The band members of Fleece as well as Last Dinosaur’s Lachlan Caskey joined the band onstage to play “Working Together”. The song had everything from the crowd singing along and Hamelin crowd surfing with the audience twice! It was a fascinating sight to watch.
The crowd pleaded for one more song, and Lalonde returns on stage to perform an acoustic version of “Barnacle Goose,” before the rest of the band returned to perform “Fade To Black.” Just when the audience thought the concert was over, Hamelin announced, “Let’s do one more song!” The whole crowd loudly cheered in excitement and quickly returned to the front of the stage. “You made it happen. It’s because of you!” Hamelin said before the band played the final song of the night, “Kurt Vonnegut.”
The audience left the venue full of happiness while many stayed to have a chat with Born Ruffians and Fleece. It was indeed a memorable show.
(Photography by Andrew Wu)
Photos
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