By: Joe Taylor (special guest contributor from Blast Toronto)
Toronto, ON - Black Throne Productions is famous for putting together amazing shows for people who love fuzzy and buzzy bands, if you know what I mean. On this night Ryan of Black Throne was able to showcase a band from Whistler B.C. called Heavy Trip and this was their premiere performance in the Big Smoke.
Before I get to that story, there were two notable bands that were in the opening slot that was filling our heads with that heavy lo-fi energy that really slows down your thought patterns and brings you into a new aligned space.
Sons of Otis
Sons of Otis are one of Canada’s pioneers of the fuzzed and buzzed sounds. They have been blowing smoke in our face since 1992. The journey through the years read like a Spinal Tap novel. They have been through 15 drummers since their inception. I am not sure how many of them 'died by choking on somebody else’s vomit. We still can’t dust for vomit.'
The evening opened with Ken Baluke saying, “Are we in”? Let the maddening buzz begin. Well this was truly a slow and droneful journey. The guttural gargling came from the underbelly of a swine being slaughtered. It was a feeling of being completely hopeless.
The new band who consists of Jenn McCubin on Bass and Jay Lioumanis on Drums, dove a little darker with the song, “Hunted”. This was a slow crawl through the mindless marsh of maddening paranoia.
These were to be tonight’s themes at the Bovine Sex Club. If Rush, in their song "Xanadu" made you drink the milk of paradise, then the Sons of Otis helped you drink sludgy tar and let you sink deeper in a bog of sickly neurosis. It eats away at your rose coloured glasses and molds the nihilist within you. This is a band of pure doom and gloom.
Seum
Seum are from Montreal and came to Toronto to spew its anger out onto the streets and watch it bleed. They certainly grabbed and kept our attention while they smashed our heads against the jagged walls of the dive bar.
This is truly a lo-fi band. They consist of only a drummer and a bass player and primal screamer who look like he just escaped a psych ward while his meds wore off.
This could be the house band at Guantanamo Bay, exercising their right in experimenting with audio torture. That did not seem to deter the audience one bit as they stood shoulder to shoulder soaking in the deadly cathode rays of their distorted souls.
In fact, during this Frankenstein experiment that was going on, I couldn’t help but notice the bass player bouncing around joyously like an excited kid auditioning for GG Allin and the Murder Junkies. In a short and sour description of this band, I would describe them to be just downright brutal and vicious. If that is how you eat your cereal then pour on the sour cream!
Heavy Trip
Coming all the way from British Columbia, Heavy Trip came rolling down a mountain and crushing everything in its path. The Bovine crowd hurled themselves forward towards the stage waiting a good milking of their souls.
Their machine gun approach was very effective as the audience willingly soaked in the sounds as if they stood in front of a firing squad. Their massive approach to their music was like watching Jimi Hendrix trying to jam with Motorhead. It was chaotic psychedelic metal on a brand new level.
Just to sidestep a bit from this report, it was both very refreshing and even rewarding to learn that the Bass player’s parents were in the front row rocking out to their sons band. He was thrilled to share the fact that his parents were there to witness the Sons of Otis live. In fact the parents must have been elated when Toronto began chanting "Heavy Trip", showing pure love and loyalty at this moment.
It looked even more fun when the gathering began a full on mosh pit at a demolition derby, but they made sure not to crush the parents at the front. Chaos and caring, it brings a tear to my eye.
This is a band that plays all instrumental music. I am sure it gives them plenty of space to jam out and really create new ideas on the spot. From my perspective, they seemed flawless as they went for broke with some of their mental outings. This is the essence of this music, to take us to places rarely explored.
This is a band that can ride on a medium speed riff, and then all at once hit the booster switch and send you out like a bullet on an intercontinental ballistic missile. It is a torpedo of twists and turns through wormholes of wanton deconstruction. Unlike the first two bands that brought you true doom and gloom and feelings of abhorrent vileness, Heavy Trip is a twisted glory ride into oblivion.
Concert Photo Gallery
If you love to freak out to stoner metal here are their Instagram pages:
show date: March 14, 2025
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