After a slight delay, South London’s Shame returned to Toronto and every attendee at Lee’s Palace on Sunday can now confidently say that frontman Charlie Steen has stared into their soul and provided them with more entertainment than most people experience in a lifetime.

The show was opened by They Hate Change who blessed the crowd with their presence all the way from Tampa, Florida. The hip hop duo was quite the contrast to Shame but the mix of genres was very refreshing. Members Andre Gainey and Vonne Parks hit the stage with a wave of energy wearing what looked like hazmat suits and slowly pumped life into the crowd with their in-your-face stage presence. They were relentless and they didn’t slow down throughout their entire set which lasted about 45 minutes. The duo’s chemistry was undeniable as they bounced around the stage and gave what looked like a choreographed performance at times. The perfect opening act.

Shame took the stage with a genuine look of excitement and happiness to be playing in Toronto and the crowd reciprocated that feeling. Frontman Charlie Steen approached the mic wearing a red dress shirt tucked into grey dress pants and immediately started surveying the room. They opened with “Alphabet” the opening track from their most recent album Drunk Tank Pink. It’s exactly what the crowd wanted to hear first and the place erupted into a mosh pit. Steen wasted no time and got right into the front row of the crowd. He has the unique ability to make any show feel intimate by staring out into the crowd and it feels like he’s somehow making eye contact with everyone at once. He’s constantly observing the crowd and it makes his stage presence very powerful. It continued throughout their whole set and was amplified during crowd favourites like “Nigel Hitter” and “Born in Luton.” Bassist Josh Finerty contributed heavily with his acrobatics on stage. Constantly running full speed back and forth on stage and taking breaks in between to jump off the bass drum of Charlie Forbes. There was crowd surfing, clothing removal, broken strings, Freddy Mercury-like crowd chants, empty beer cans, and lots of sweat. Everything you’d expect from a memorable show. Not only were we witnessing one of England’s finest but one of punks finest as well.

‘We only have two fucking songs left and this is one of them’ announced Steen as they went into “One Rizla” and ended things off with a bang on “Snowday.” But the crowd refused to leave and the band were happy to come out and really end things with “Angie.”

(Photography by Jacob Vandergeer)