Show Review: The Devil Wears Prada @ the Kool Haus (Toronto, ON) on December 11, 2010

When I was in high school I spent most of my weekends going to shows. When one of my favourite bands was coming to town, I’d comment my excitement to my friends on MySpace and we’d all gather in our skinny-jeaned glory to travel to Toronto. One of the bands that we never missed was The Devil Wears Prada. I had a great time during those days, so I was ecstatic when one of my old friends asked me to go see The Devil Wears Prada open for Silverstein at the Kool Haus in December.

When I arrived at the venue, the place was filled with young teens that were crowded by the stage eagerly awaiting the concert to begin. When The Devil Wears Prada took the stage, the kids went nuts. They opened their set with fan favourite “Danger: Wildman” and the moment lead vocalist Mike Hranica screamed the opening line “I know a ghost!” the crowd morphed into one big circle pit.

The band’s set was composed of songs ranging from their latest EP release Zombies to their 2007 breakthrough Plagues. I became nostalgic when they played “Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over” and “HTML Roolz Dude” as it triggered memories of those countless times my set group of friends and I would push each other and sing every lyric at the top of our lungs. As one of their last songs, the band announced they’d retire their classic “Reptar, King of the Ozone”, and Toronto definitely made the song go out with a bang. These boys really do get better with age, as I have seen them perform countless times before and this was the best set I’ve ever witnessed.

Their performance that night was phenomenal. The group has such great stage presence; one that invites their fans to go wild. Each hook was sung in unison loudly by the crowd, and the chaotic guitars of Chris Ruby and Jeremy DePoyster tore venue’s roof off. TDWP are one of the few bands I’ve seen in the metalcore community who have the same crazy crowd reaction when playing a new song and an older tune. It’s great to see a band that was popular a few years ago still be relevant, and as the band releases more material it is obvious that their fan base is expanding to a newer generation of MySpace-using, skinny-jeaned teenagers.

Check out the song “Outnumbered”