Photos and a review of Sum 41’s last-ever show in Ottawa
[Sum 41 plays their final FINAL shows in Toronto this week. Ross MacDonald and Karen Coughtrey were at the last gig in Ottawa. – AC]
It was a Canadian punk rock triple bill in Ottawa Friday night as Sum 41 brought their Tour Of The Setting Sum through town with openers Gob and PUP.
For those that were fortunate to arrive early, British Columbia’s own alt-rockers Gob got the night going, taking the stage at 6:45 to entertain the building crowd.

They immediately revved up the crowd with their smash hit ‘Give Up The Grudge’ followed by ‘No Regrets’. Gob were the perfect opening act playing fast and hard, familiar songs, and very engaging with their fans.

Tom Thacker was doing double-duty with lead vocals and lead guitar. But that left guitarist Theo Goutzinakis to fill in with broad harmonies both instrumentally and vocally. Theo also added that ‘je ne sais quoi’ that really energised the crowd; his stage presence and audience interactions were electrifying.

Despite the early hour and still growing crowd, a mosh pit was quickly established and in what felt like a blink of an eye they were wrapping up with a cover of the Rolling Stones ‘Paint It Black’ followed by ‘Soda’ and their biggest hit ‘I Hear You Calling’.

The stage set up was simple with overlapping banners for the three bands on the night’s bill. Toronto band, PUP’s, banner was simple black and white with the letters printed but looking as if they might have been cut from corduroy or corrugated cardboard. Their set was equally simple with Stefan announcing off the top that the band won’t do much talking and focus instead on cramming as much music as possible into their given time slot.

In a treat for the audience, but also the band, they were joined by one of their early heroes, founder and still lead of Gob, and guitarist for Sum 41, Tom Thacker, on Paranoid. They tried to say this was the first time this had happened but had to quickly add the caveat that they’d tried it at the St Catharines show but Tom had been sick and it hadn’t been great. When tonight’s edition went perfect they shared “At our first 200 shows we covered ‘I Hear You Calling’ every night. That was a BIG moment for us.”

They opened with ‘Totally Fine’, ‘Kids’, and ‘No Hope’ and although they gave the crowd a hard time saying it felt like a Monday afternoon the fans were into it and energy was building.

Stefan might have chosen not to connect much with the audience between songs but he has great stage presence and with stunts such as playing guitar behind his head or taking a flying somersault across the stage adding to the music the crowd was aptly entertained. He did also get a memorable laugh before finishing up for the night (with ‘If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will’ and ‘DVP’) by calling Ottawa the home of the most lovable shithead, Brady Tkachuck (captain of the Ottawa Senators) and when it was pointed out he might be there he said “Fuck You Brady!” before recanting and admitting he wished Brady played for his team (likely the Leafs).

Next, as AC/DC’s ‘TNT’ played, the curtain would drop to begin Sum 41’s final performance in the Nation’s Capital and there would be no doubt why this band has had a very successful 30 year career and why they will be missed by many. Any in the audience not already, rose immediately to their feet when the band took the stage and most wouldn’t touch their seat again as they were treated to a performance with lots of pyro, laszer lights, balloons for the floor crowd to bounce around and SO MUCH confetti.

The band opened with ‘Motivation’ with an outro of ‘88’ and ‘The Hell Song’ and with Deryck confirming that those who had come to go crazy (and those who hadn’t) should do just that.

Although Deryck commented they had a ton of songs to play (and the crowd would be put through a range of emotions) “old songs, really old songs, and the oldest songs and a new double album released just last year” Deryck did take the time to connect with the crowd between nearly every song. The reminder that Sum 41’s most recent album was a double album because it is the last album, was met with disheartening boos which Deryck ate up with delight reminding the crowd the night was a celebration, a night of smiles, happy, love, family.

Family was a theme of the night and before dedicating ‘War’, a song about family, to the crowd Deryck said:
“Family sticks together through all the good times and all the bad times and Sum 41 has certainly seen their share of ups and really fucking downs. We’ve always had the Sum 41 family to count on to get us through those hard times and all I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you all!”

Deryck didn’t lie that they would pack the night with a ton of songs from across their discography. The lengthy set list included of course, songs off the new album Heaven :x: Hell including ‘Rise Up’ and ‘Preparasi A Salire’ but no one needed to worry they wouldn’t hear their favourites live one last time and the rest of the set list was mostly songs from their albums released in the 00’s including ‘Over My Head (Better Off Dead)’, ‘Underclass Hero’, even the first song they ever shot a video for ‘Makes No Difference’, and a medley of songs from 2002 album Does This Look Infected consisting of ‘My Direction’, ‘No Brains’, and ‘All Messed Up’.

Throughout the night Dave ‘Brownsound’ had a huge smile on his face as his fingers flew up and down his fretboard; he was evidently loving the live show in Ottawa. Brownsound’s precise guitar work and backing vocals add an incredible depth of melody to Sum 41.

Deryck pulled out a special guitar before playing ‘Walking Disaster’. The guitar, a 70s Gibson Marauder, is extra special to him because it was the one he played in the video for ‘Fat Lip’, but it also has the distinction of having been stolen from Whibley’s home 20 years ago and he has only been reunited with it for a few months. He used telling this story as a segue for promoting his autobiographical book, ‘Walking Disaster My Life Through Heaven and Hell’, in which one can find the story of the guy who stole the guitar and the story was met from the crowd with a chorus of “Fuck That Guy” (a phrase reportedly repeated frequently in the book) that would continue for the rest of the night.

He was right about taking the crowd through a range of emotions going from a song about the happy chemicals (the ones you make not the ones you take) ‘Dopamine’ to some covers for the Metal Heads in attendance with the intro to Slayer’s ‘Raining Blood’ and Brownsound’s legendary guitar solo from Metallica’s ‘Master Of Puppets’ to taking to the piano to play ‘Pieces.’

Of course they saved some favourites for last, ending the set with ‘Fat Lip’ and ‘Still Waiting’. For the encore they went to their oldest song, from 1997 when they were in 10th or 11th grade, a song so good in their minds they included it on their two earliest albums, the perfect song for a cold winter’s night, ‘Summer’. It was followed by ‘Waiting On A Twist of Fate’ and their big hit ‘In Too Deep’ after which they bid the crowd a final goodbye and posed for pictures signalling the end had arrived.

As fans on the floor collected souvenir confetti, the fans in the stands were expressing sadness that it appeared the Ottawa crowd was being snubbed and would not be getting the second encore and performance of ‘So Long Goodbye” that happened for audiences in other cities across the country (and world) but with a 24 song setlist no one left truly disappointed and it was evident people were touched that it was a heartfelt goodbye to a beloved Canadian band.

Sum 41
Deryck Whibley – lead vocals, keyboards, guitar
Dave ‘Brownsound’ Baksh – lead guitar, vocals
Jason McCaslin – bass, vocals
Tom Thacker – guitar, vocals, keyboards
Frank Zummo – drums
Gob
Tom Thacker – vocals, lead guitar
Theo Goutzinakis – rhythm guitar, vocals
Gabe Mantle – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Steven Fairweather – bass, backing vocals
PUP
Stefan Babcock – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Steve Sladkowski – lead guitar, backing vocals
Nestor Chumak – bass, backing vocals, keyboards
Zack Mykula – drums, backing vocals, percussion