Death From Above 1979 - Riot Fest (Sep 6)

Sure I'd just seen them with only 200 hardcore fans a few nights prior but that didn't mean I was going to miss another chance to check out their show. After all they disbanded for nearly a decade so you gotta take it when you still can! The stage set-up, the clothes and the band (yep, still no guitarist) was all very similar but the setting was thousands of extremely excited fans as dusk fell on the first afternoon of Riot Fest Toronto. Once more they opened with a 'classic', Turn It Out, from their only album released to that point, as Physical World, from which they would pull much of the rest of the list wouldn't drop until Tuesday. Again they followed up with Frankenstein and Virgins but from their things diverged from the previous show to some degree with different Woman/Machine tossed in (including You're a Woman, I'm a Machine) and playing every single new cut. This included Gemini which Sebastien dedicated to his wife for their anniversary, saying "this is very un-rock and roll", which it really was. Besides that the set did rock, adding Go Home, Get Down (but not Black History Month or Pull Out). The crowd felt like they'd been waiting for this show for years, rightly so, and were giving it their all up front - Romantic Rights dropped right as someone yelled for it and the sea of people soared with it. The backing tracks triggered by the electronic drumset were a little more pronounced as Sebastian messed around with them a bit. Once again the set closer was the title track and album closer, Physical World, and it fits really well with that final burst at the end to lay it all out. Right On.