The Rockpile is famous for bringing in amazing Hard rock and Metal to the west side of Toronto. This particular night was pretty special because there were two solid bands that made this evening special.
Ryder
Hailing all the way from Queens, New York was the hard rock outfit known as Ryder. Recently, Blast Toronto reviewed their brand-new recording, Menagerie. You can read about it here, Ryder- Menagerie – Blast Toronto
This was the first time I have seen this band live and I was surprised to see that they have a loyal following here in Toronto. I met a photographer who came all the way from the St Catherine’s area just to see them and grab a few shots.
I also heard James tell the audience how much the band loves coming to Toronto and it is like a second home for them. They love Toronto so much; it took them 9 hours to drive to this gig.
As a great hard rock band, they came on hard! They kept the pace and began to open up this audience to their new album with songs like, “One eye Open” and “Southbound”.
I do understand this is the year there are going to be a ton of tributes to Ozzy Osbourne, and Ryder paid their respects by playing “Children of the Grave” in honour of him. You can see a snippet of this song on out Instagram page. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPJYyIGDeVe/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Ryder definitely takes some of their teaching from Motorhead, especially when they tell the audience; “We play Motherfucking Rock and Roll”! That is what they are here to do, and Toronto couldn’t agree more!
Ryder Live:
Chris Holmes
This was the second time Chris Holmes has come through the Rockpile within the last year. If you thought this was going to be the same show and decided not to go, that is your mistake. Chris decided to shelf his Mean Man persona and focus on his early career with WASP.
He walked on stage and told us to get- “Down on your knees”. This was an invitation to pull the crowd from the back of the room closer to the stage. He then launched into “The Hellion” which got the attention of the audience. By the 3rd song he really gave us a treat with “Love Machine”.
After that was pure WASP music from the first two albums, with other great songs like, “I want to be somebody” to, “Blind in Texas”, “Tormentor” and even “I don’t need no Doctor”. You can see a snippet of the video for I want to be somebody on our Instgram account- https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPPGXNFDfE1/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Chris even laughed at his own mortality by making fun of his stiff bones and whip into the wicked song, “The torture never stops”.
Like every Metal band out there, Chris really wanted to pay tribute to Ozzy and did three Black Sabbath songs, “Electric Funeral”, “War Pigs”, and “Iron Man”.
Chris even paid tribute to our very own Neil Young and was finishing off the night with, “Rockin’ in the free world”. This is where the show slowed down. It was kind of fun when he kept repeating the chorus over and over like the Motorhead song, Overkill. But he kept doing it a little too long.
When the encore came around, Ryder walked back on stage and the finished the evening with AC/DC’s “highway to Hell” but then repeated “Rockin” in the free world again.
It was a great evening of hearing my two favourite WASP albums again, but we could have done without the Neil Young song.
Chris Holmes Live:
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