Manic Street Preachers in Toronto

I finally got the opportunity to see one of my favourite band that I first discovered back in 1999 live at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto. The last few weeks felt very long while impatiently waiting for the show day. The concert started much later than expected around 9:15 pm while the doors opened at 7:00pm. Aside from the delay, they started the night strong with Motorcycle Emptiness.

Even though I have missed some of their works, I am glad they played some of my favourites, in no specific order:

1. If You Tolerate This
2. The Everlasting
3. Tsunami
4. Send Away The Tigers
5. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
6. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough

There are some songs that I don't usually like but sound amazing live. I am glad a few acoustic songs have been squeezed in, specially the excellent The Everlasting. If You Tolerate This was also played a bit faster than the studio version but the live version along with the crowd singing in unison was a one of a kind of experience. My only gripe of the show tonight is the absence of This Joke Sport Severed, I have been looking forward to that song forever. I am assuming they will probably let this song simmer for a few years before playing it live or maybe they have omitted this title from the Toronto playlist.

Near the end of the show, A Design For Life ended their tour in Toronto with a bang after a 10 year absence from Canada, ironically that is also the length of time I have known the band.