Great Bands, Great Hall, Great Cause
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Great Bands, Great Hall, Great Cause

Fucked Up channels the holiday spirit and puts on two epic concerts for charity.


Just because your on-stage persona shouts, screams, smashes beer bottles, and heads up a band called Fucked Up, doesn’t at all mean that you can’t have the biggest and most generous of hearts. The big, generous heart of Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham was on full display last week as his band put together two nights of sold-out charitable concerts at the Great Hall, with bills that put just about any other holiday-time show to shame.

Though the shows were in the middle of the work week before Christmas, both nights were sold out weeks in advance. We caught the second night at the Great Hall, which saw Bonjay, Ohbijou, The Rural Alberta Advantage, and Sloan coming together to raise money for COUNTERfit Harm Reduction Program, which services the east end of Toronto and offers support for drug users, ranging from counselling to the distribution of harm reduction information and supplies. The event also supported the Barriere Lake Legal Defense Fund, which is raising money to support the Algonquins of Barriere Lake in a costly legal battle to preserve their traditional autonomy over their land and community.

The show itself was one of the best we’ve seen all year—not a surprise, considering the lineup. We’re not sure if The Rural Alberta Advantage or Sloan were the biggest crowd-drawers (yes, The RAA are big enough in Toronto for us to seriously ask this question), but it didn’t matter: every single band threw down a thoroughly impressive set.

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