Big Wreck

Julien Rimok (Contributor)

On October 11th, two Canadian bands performed at the Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre. The first band, a surprisingly good opening act, was Royal Tusk from Edmonton, Alberta. The band is currently on tour to promote their first EP, and they put on an amazing performance. With their impressive guitar playing, they started to attract the crowd from the bar to the stage, and likely ended their performance with a bunch of new fans.

However, it wasn’t the band from Edmonton that most of the crowd was there to see, but the Torontonian band Big Wreck. Despite having been broken up for several years, the band reformed and recorded two albums. They are on tour to promote their latest effort: Ghosts.

Front man Ian Thornley (who doubles up as the lead guitarist in most songs) leads the five-man band. The band also includes two other guitarists, making their music very guitar driven – exactly what the fans enjoy. At one point, Thornley played a guitar solo that lasted nearly ten minutes.

The band also did brief covers of Pink Floyd and Queen, which made the crowd go wild.

After a fairly long set, the band left the stage, leaving the fans ecstatic and cheering for the encore. Before long, the band covered “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC, with one of the back-up singers singing the lead. He did a spot on impression; if the audience closed their eyes, they could easily imagine it was really Angus Young singing the song.

The concert ended with fans’ ears ringing for the next couple of hours, and memories of a truly phenomenal concert.