Garden of Bedlam/Destroilet Concert Review!!

In our first of two straight concert reviews as we wind down 2013, last night saw Garden of Bedlam rock The Algonquin Pub for the first time with Destroilet in tow! Very solid crowd for this downstairs concert, albeit with a late start, with Destroilet not taking the stage until 11:15 PM, over two hours after the door opening time. Everything went well though, so here's my thoughts on the bands!

Opening last night was local hardcore punk quintet Destroilet, who punched through another entertaing and blistering set of originals and covers! Along with plenty of cuts from their CD (like "End Me" & "Eternal Fire"), they covered plenty of familiar songs by bands like The Descendents and The Adolescents, and if you're familiar with their longer concert sets, you'll know they fit a lot of songs in! The guys were on form from prior sets this year, and vocals were easier to hear than at some recent shows, with Mike Hull and Christian Foisy trading off well for most of the night, and prolific local musician Mikey Hawdon even joined in on guest vocals for a song! John Conway and Adam Larocque really shined on guitar and bass, and Mike's energy was uninterrupted, even if his shirt surprisingly stayed on from start to finish! Their set was slightly abbreviated late, but Destroilet's energetic and reckless blend of old school hardcore punk shone last night, and here's to much more from them in 2014!

And of course, your headliners were local metal quartet Garden of Bedlam in just their fourth live concert (and third in the Soo) of 2013, so what'd fans get in their return? A very entertaining and determined set from these local mainstays, and the guys sounded as good as I've ever heard them! Their 14 song set included 7 songs from their CD "Everything Will Die", plus "Shallow" from their debut EP, and a selection of covers, including the return of their System of a Down cover "Sugar", two Metallica songs, and a surprise cover of Slayer's "Raining Blood" that definitely got a huge reception! I was a bit surprised that no Tool songs made the setlist, but what we got was great, and the fans ate it up, slowly eroding the line between stage and floor! Buzz's vocals were strong, rangy, and aggressive, Josh Belleau was on fire on guitar, and Derek Turner was drumming like a madman throughout! We haven't got as much live Garden of Bedlam action in the past year, but this was a great way to help end 2013, and fingers crossed we get some new concerts and material from them in the new year!

Overall, this was a very entertaining concert full of heavy metal action, and hopefully a solid prelude for things to come from both Garden of Bedlam and Destroilet in 2013! My photos & videos from the event can be seen at this link or at our Facebook page, and here's my videos, of Destroilet playing their original "R.O.Y.C." and Garden of Bedlam covering Volbeat's "Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood"!





That's all for today, but I'll see you guys TONIGHT at The Algonquin Pub once again, this time for Another Year, Another Santa 2013! Thanks everyone!