Japandroids at Indie88’s Up in Smoke Legalization Event at The Phoenix Concert Theatre - Concert Photos

On October 17, 2018, Canada made history. We became the second country on the planet, and the first country in the G7 to legalize recreational cannabis. I attended a celebration of this monumental and momentous occasion at Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre put on by local radio station Indie88. They called it The Up in Smoke Legalization Event and it featured Japandroids, The Dirty Nil and Indie88 radio personality Brent's band Sure. Click through to those other posts for those pics.

Overall, it was a fantastic event, featuring amazing music from three great bands, snacks like cotton candy, gummies, jelly beans and rockets, paraphernalia like papers and grinder cards, and McD's burgers on the way out. Quite a night.

Japandroids are one of my favourite bands. They've graced the virtual pages of this site for their music and their live shows including shows at Field Trip this past summer and at The Danforth Music Hall back in 2017. I don't think I can say anything about them that I haven't said before. I love their music, their attitude, their live intensity, and the sheer amount of glorious noise that two guys from the wet coast can make. We even got to hear some new tunes, which sounded awesome. They did tell us that this would be their last show for a long time as they go to record. But then again, they said that at Field Trip.

Check out some tunes from their powerful set:

"Near to the Wild Heart of Life"

"Fire's Highway"

"Heart Sweats"

"North East South West"

"The Nights of Wine and Roses"

"Younger Us"

"The House That Heaven Built"