Finger Eleven + Vinyl Hero @ Petit Campus▪

With 2023 coming to a close, there are always going to be the ‘one last show of the year’ articles that come out from every writer in the music scene. Finger Eleven, on Thursday, December 14th, was my last small venue show, I believe, for the year, but being in a tiny venue didn’t make it any less special. Finger Eleven is a band that I had been waiting for years (decades) to be able to see live. I remember playing their self-titled third release so many times on my CD player while doing the most mundane tasks, and it helped me get through at least one summer. As soon as the show was announced, I knew I wanted to cover it, and I wanted to finally see this band perform live. While they may have made regular stops in Thunder Bay (my hometown) through the 2000s, I never had the opportunity to actually enjoy their show.

Leading up to the sold-out show, it looked like there would be no opener, as the details made no mention of one. Cue my surprise when the lead singer (Ray Howard) of Vinyl Hero reached out a week before the show, asking if I wanted to cover Finger Eleven. Soon after, I saw the announcement that they indeed were opening for Finger Eleven, and CHOM 97.7 had a nice quick interview with Ray. This would be the first time I’d see Vinyl Hero being a support act in one of their ‘home’ bars, as they normally have their crowd of usual supporters in Petit Campus. With this sold-out show, people still showed up for the local opener, and judging by the crowd response, quite enjoyed it.

Being compacted back into an opener spot, the set was obviously a lot shorter than they’re used to, so they served up 6 songs. In the half-hour that Vinyl Hero was on stage, their setlist comprised a lot of their originals. Vinyl Hero started their set with ‘Vultures’, which I have heard on CHOM 97.7 a few times, followed by ‘Ego Trip’ and ‘Green Ambitions’. They made a live debut with ‘Around Again,’ which is an unreleased track for an upcoming album that they’re currently working on. The only cover in their set was after the new song, and it was a cover of Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer.’ The packed crowd was very responsive to Ray’s lead into the chorus, and it was a good warmup for Finger Eleven.

Vinyl Hero finished their set with their track called ‘Keith Richards.’ Before they took the stage, I was told by the guys that they were going to be a little bit closer to the front that night. Finger Eleven had their drums set up fully, which pushed Tiburce Perlau forward enough with his own drum set to block his bandmates from their usual movements around the stage. The thing that I missed in their performance this time was Ray interacting with his bassist, Costa Siarlis, which normally highlights their band dynamics. Even with the limitations, they were still enjoyable to watch before a band that they had taken many of their own inspirations from.

Finger Eleven was on their ‘Greatest Hits’ tour to bring their show to Petit Campus on a warmer December Thursday night. After a half-hour stage change, the space was made for James Black and Rick Jackett to create a room filled with nostalgia. Taking over some of the energy that Vinyl Hero had left in the venue, this classic Canadian band launched into ‘First Time’ to lead off the set. With a career spanning a couple of decades at the least, Finger Eleven filled the setlist with 11 of their songs coming from their first three albums.

The song ‘Together Right’ was the newest song that I had heard, as it was only released in 2023. After James Black was left on stage to perform a fantastic solo, the band rejoined him to perform one of their top hits ‘One Thing’, with the crowd filling in without missing any beats. The energy of their performance was evident throughout, as I don’t think Black and Jackett really ever stopped moving unless the song was one of the band’s slower songs. The biggest switch of the night was in the closing song having a few bars from the riff of AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’ being played under Scott singing the lyrics from ‘Paralyzer’.