REVIEW: Canadian rockers live up to the hype at ISC
It was a night filled with arguably some of Canada’s best bands and the Kamloops crowd at Interior Savings Centre seemed to love every minute of the Billy Talent concert on Saturday, March 16.
With a trio of hot Canadian bands opening for the Ontario rockers — such as Indian Hand Crafts, Hollerado and Sum 41 — one might expect the crowd to be fatigued after so many great performances, but it was just getting warmed up.
Billy Talent was by far the most intense act and the roar of the crowd when they took the stage was practically deafening — just edging out the ovation Sum 41 received beforehand.
Billy Talent opened with songs such as Viking Death March and kept the hard rock music flowing.
They did slow down the pace a bit, however, with songs such as Surrender and Rusted from the Rain, and even a few people sparked and waved their lighters during the concert.
Lead singer Ben Kowalewicz — despite not having an instrument to play — strummed some air guitar a couple times over the course of the night.
He also came equipped with a camera he used to show his perspective on the exuberant Kamloops crowd and band members Jonathan Gallant, Ian D’Sa and Aaron Solowoniuk.
This allowed the crowd to see themselves on two massive screens on either side of the stage.
On just the second stop of their 2013 Canadian Dead Silence Tour, Kowalewicz showed he’d certainly done his homework on Kamloops, wishing the Blazers good luck in the playoffs against Victoria.
His high-tempo energy was evident all around the Blazers’ barn as he jumped in place and even skipped across the stage while singing. That energy was certainly reflected in the crowd.
The crowd at ground level looked almost like a raging sea as plenty of fist-pumping, jumping and moshing went on throughout the night.
Though attendance looked sporadic when the doors opened at 7 p.m., by the time Sum 41 took to the stage, the crowd on the ground and in seating sections closest to stage had filled out.
There was also plenty of crowd surfing throughout the concert.
Sum 41 called up five people in the crowd to come up on stage. Two men who were chosen ran across the stage once up there.
One was caught by security, but the other ran past Sum 41 and leaped into the crowd below.
An encore was no surprise at the end of the night when Billy Talent left the stage and the lights went out, but the crowd made their demands clear by chanting “encore!”
Billy Talent came back to finish off the night with a few songs, including Red Flag and Surprise, Surprise.
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