Magnolia Park landed in Toronto on May 4th in support of their new album and tour of the same name, VAMP. A concept album which follows a half human/half android protagonist, blending rock, punk and modern-day metal sounds. Keeping on theme, the stage set included two coffins and two angel statues on each side. It was a night fans wish didn’t end early, perhaps they had to leave well before the sun came up as per vampire lore. Starting off the night with openers South Arcade, Savage Hands and Hot Milk who are heavy hitters in the alternative music scene who had fans cheering for more after each set. The loudest cheers going to Hot Milk with the audience politely chanting for an encore. Pulling double duty and absolutely killing it, Julia from Magnolia Park’s merch team joined the band on stage for the song “Misfits” (originally sung with Taylor Acorn) and has been doing so every night on tour – thus far.
I was genuinely surprised Magnolia Park included their cover of “I2I”, from A Goofy Movie on this tour. Which is featured on Disney’s pop-punk cover compilation album A Whole New Sound. As amazing as this cover is (and their most streamed song), it didn’t fit with the dark aesthetics and sounds as the rest of the set list but was still a great surprise! A huge 180 degrees musically, but it does showcase the bands duality– very night and day. It was also funny hearing lead singer, Joshua Roberts telling the audience to “shake some ass” during the song. All that to say – Magnolia Park know how to put on a great show, it was fun, dark, a little emotional (specifically during Ophelia), then immediately bringing the mood back up with the Disney classic, giving the fans a full range of human emotion, as a true concert experience should be.
The VAMP Tour is scheduled to continue across America from now until May 20, so if you’re looking for a fun night out with amazing high energy artists then highly recommend checking them out. Or if you happen to be at the Vans Warped Tour this year, you can catch Magnolia Park at all three weekends in June, July and November. For the fans that didn’t make it out to Lee’s Palace on May the 4th, you can still see our exclusive photo gallery just below featuring all four bands on the card. Lastly, make sure to follow Magnolia Park on Instagram @magnoliaparkfl to stay up to date on everything the band does.
Article & Photos by San Veliz (@spacemanmediaproductions)
