Music/Live Reviews

Who: The Regrettes
Where: The Opera House, Toronto
When: Tues., May 10
Vibe: Positive girl-boss energy
Highlight: The Regrettes playing an enthusiastic cover of Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne
Next: Sat., May 21, Fortune Sound Club, Vancouver; American and U.K./EU tour

The crowd is buzzing with excitement before The Regrettes take the stage at The Opera House. Fans are decked out in hot-pink outfits in reference to the cover art of the band’s new album, Further Joy, as well as custom face masks emblazoned with The Regrettes logo (provided free of charge to all fans at the merch table).

Opening act, Alex Lahey, gets the crowd warmed up with a vocal singalong and an unexpected alto sax solo during her set. She tells the audience that being in Toronto reminds her of her home in Melbourne, Australia, and calls Canada “Australia’s cooler, gayer cousin.”

The energetic set from The Regrettes is filled with a majority of tracks from Further Joy, including Anxieties (Out of Time), Monday, La Di Da and That’s What Makes Me Love You. Even though it’s only been out for just over a month, the room of adoring fans is already familiar with all the lyrics. Frontwoman Lydia Night is bouncing around the stage the entire time, absolutely giddy with happiness. The only reprieve from the fast-paced set is their single, Pumpkin — which is what The Regrettes call their slow dance song, though it can hardly be considered a ballad.

“I think you’ll know this one …” Night prefaces their cover performance of Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne. The crowd eagerly responds to the chorus callbacks of “Hey, you!” There’s a ton of audience interaction throughout the concert, with Night encouraging everyone to sing along.

During their performance of Barely On My Mind, fans hold up squares of home-printed pictures of James Charles and wave them around, much to the band’s amusement. Night retrieves a digicam from her equipment corner to document the moment. Audience members also pass up a signed Canadian flag, in addition to other gifts and letters, to the band throughout the evening.

The crowd is on its best behaviour when The Regrettes announce that they’ll be livestreaming part of their set. As they play Lacy Loo, their touring guitarist films closeups of the band playing and also races around the venue, filming the fans going wild.

Night makes a heartfelt speech during the show to thank the fans for their support, for showing up to enjoy live music again and reminds us all not to take shows for granted. So many things went right to lead to concerts happening again, and hopefully we can appreciate how music can bring people together.