Last month Musik Mirage featured a concert review of 90’s rock band Porno For Pyros playing live in Los Angeles at The Belasco for their final farewell tour which can be read Here. About a week and half later the band would make their last trip as Porno For Pyros north of the boarder to Canada, more specifically the city of Toronto. Being a huge fan of this group and it’s history dating back to the early 1990’s, I had to make my way out to the show to document this occasion and produce a follow up piece to the coverage of the earlier concert in Los Angeles. Some of my favourite live performances from this band has to be headlining Woodstock in 1994 as one of the main acts and their last performance in Toronto back in October 1996 at the Varsity Arena. Almost 30 years later, Porno For Pyros took to the stage once again in the city, this time at the History concert venue for the “Horns, Thorns, En Halos Farewell Tour”. This would be my first and as the name of the tour suggests the only time I would be seeing the group live in concert but I am happy to say it will be one I will always remember. 
As reported in the previous article, UK based rock band Tigercub were on this tour as the official guest for the entire campaign across North America. One major Canadian connection P4P had for this tour was the addition of keyboardist Robin Hatch which lead singer Perry Farrell made note of multiple times between songs which the crowd cheered loudly for. I’m personally very grateful the band included at least one Canadian date on this tour as it would give the fans one last to chance to see the group play live in the great north. I already know this concert will surely be in my top three concerts for the year of 2024 although we are barely 3 months into the year. The audio/visual experience the History concert venue provides is world class and the group made sure to make use of the giant HD screen at the back of the stage that projected cool patterns and videos that were in sync with the music. It might have been one of the only venues on the tour to have these capabilities so believe the Canadian fans got the most unique viewing experience. 
The “Horns, Thorns, En Halos Farewell Tour” concluded on March 10th in Montclair, New Jersey. Two days before that on March 8th they played their final show in New York at the historic Hammerstein Ballroom which Jane’s Addiction played famously back in 1997. Its a time of reflection for the fans and the members of the band now the run of this band is officially in the books. In some ways I think we are lucky to have gotten this one last run as the band’s original run was very limited(1992 – 1998) and it was only in 2020 when lead singer Perry Farrell announced via social media that the group would be reforming to produce some new music. It is unclear whether it was always planned out this way however last November original bassist Martin LeNoble announced that he would be leaving the group following the new recordings in 2023. History would repeat itself once again when legendary bassist Mike Watt would fill in for the tour.
Perry’s beautiful wife Etty Farrell would be the final addition to the official line up – showing off her impressive supporting vocals and dance skills. The new songs like “Aqua” and “Little Me” were performed by the band which sounded very impressive and have the Porno For Pyros unique sound and style. Along with all the photos seen in this article, I was lucky enough to capture a few short view clips from the concert in Toronto have uploaded a two song mixer of “Agua” and “Cursed Female” to the Musik Mirage YouTube channel but have linked it in just below. I am hopeful this article will amount to be a little slice of rock & roll history or a time capsule of sorts for future music fans to come to experience what this event was like or for the fans that were in attendance on February 29th in Toronto to have a chance to relive the magic.
For more tour photos of the band and for more future updates you can follow Porno For Pyros on Instagram @PornoForPyros. Finally, be sure to scroll down in the article for the earlier mentioned video clip and more photos!
Photos & Article By Kyle McNeil (@trueaspectmedia)
