REVIEW: Our Lady Peace
Where: Royal Theatre
When: Monday, June 6, 2022
Rating: 3.5 (out of 5)
Our Lady Peace’s tour-opening concert Monday had moments that felt otherworldly, with digitally rendered holograms — some based on real people, some purely artificial intelligence — issuing complex proclamations about the future.
There were drawbacks on occasion, as the Toronto rock group led by frontman Raine Maida attempted to bridge the past, present and future of conceptual art. That is never without its difficulty, as Pop-era U2 can attest.
“I’m not sure what we got ourselves into here,” Maida said at the outset, drawing laughs from the Royal Theatre audience. “But thanks for coming along for the ride.”
It was never going to be problem-free for the group, forging a new path such as this. A tour dubbed The Wonderful Future Theatrical Experience is long on hubris, based on its name alone, but there’s no way to underplay a tour of this magnitude. With monologues from a holographic Ray Kurzweil, the futurist and author, and a reliance on cutting-edge tech, captured in 4K resolution, you might as well go all in.
Kudos to the quartet for branching out, and owning the moments when the technology fell flat. The band has plenty of die-hard fans, many of whom were ready for a party Monday, but this wasn’t a beer-guzzling environment by any stretch.
Maida is an engaging host, and his between-song interludes smoothed over any rough patches with the audience (a few members of which were outwardly unreceptive to the digital content). He’s skilled. The opening night of any tour always has its quirks, so fans can expect a much smoother ride when the tour continues Tuesday in Nanaimo at the Port Theatre.
The band’s original guitarist, Mike Turner, who left the group in 2001, appeared via hologram at first, during All My Friends. He then strode on stage minutes later and finished the song in person, to a surprise roar from the audience.
Turner, who would also appear on stage later in the show, was one of several special guests, including holographic turns from Sarah Slean (who sang a version of Julia on electric piano) and Pussy Riot singer-activist Nadya Tolokonnikova (who had a duet with Maida on Stop Making Stupid People Famous). The scope of the show was impressive, to say the least.
The energy peaked in the second set, which ended in grand style with the smashes Clumsy and 4 a.m. When the group closed out the two-and-half-hour performance with Naveed and Starseed, two of its earliest and most dependable hits, released at a time in their career when many in attendance Monday came on board as fans, it felt like a traditional rock concert — which is nothing if not an exercise in interpersonal communication.
On a night when the future was front and centre, that moment was the most real one of them all.
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