After two decades of turning Billboard hits into breakdowns, Our Last Night chose Montreal as one of their final stops before hanging up their touring boots. The irony wasn’t lost on anyone present at MTelus that a band famous for reimagining other people’s songs had crafted their own perfect ending. Sometimes the best conclusions come from knowing exactly when to leave the party.
The evening began with Wind Walkers, a post-hardcore quartet whose relationship with backing tracks bordered on the romantic. Their heavily layered sound created the illusion of a much larger band, though purists might argue that having more musicians in your laptop than on your stage defeats the purpose of live performance. Still, for an audience hungry for polished intensity, they delivered exactly what was ordered.
Grayscale elevated the energy with their third Montreal appearance, proving that sometimes familiarity breeds enthusiasm rather than contempt. Their pop-driven approach and interactive stage antics—including the time-honoured tradition of making everyone sit down before exploding into the chorus—worked the crowd like seasoned professionals. Nothing revolutionary, but effective crowd manipulation deserves recognition when executed properly.
By the time Our Last Night emerged, MTelus was approaching capacity, the air thick with anticipation and the particular brand of excitement that comes with witnessing potential history. The band wasted no time on subtlety, launching directly into a metal-infused version of Gracie Abrams’ “That’s So True” that transformed millennial angst into full-throated aggression.
What followed was a masterclass in musical alchemy. Trevor Wentworth and company possess an almost supernatural ability to locate the hidden anger in pop songs, extracting emotional DNA and rebuilding it with distorted guitars and thunderous drums. Their take on Masked Wolf’s “Astronaut in the Ocean” shouldn’t have worked—the original already carries enough attitude to power a small city—but somehow they found unexplored corners of frustration to mine.
The band’s approach to covers transcends simple genre-swapping. They seem to understand that beneath every pop hit lurks a more desperate version of itself, waiting for someone brave enough to set it free. Their rendition of Gayle’s “abcdefu” turned radio-friendly breakup angst into a full-scale emotional riot, with the crowd delivering each profanity-laden lyric like battle cries.
Original material held its own among the reimagined hits. “Graveyard” and “Sunrise” demonstrated that Our Last Night’s songwriting talents extend beyond their reputation as cover artists. These tracks carried the same emotional weight as their interpretations, proving that their knack for finding universal pain in unlikely places applies to their own compositions as well.
The production values impressed throughout. Lighting design enhanced rather than overwhelmed the performance, creating atmosphere without resorting to the seizure-inducing strobes that plague many metal shows. The mix occasionally buried vocals beneath the instrumental assault, though given Montreal’s reputation for enthusiastic audience participation, determining whether the issue lay with sound engineering or crowd enthusiasm proved impossible.
Circle pits formed and reformed throughout the evening like violent weather systems, the crowd’s energy feeding off the band’s relentless pace. Crowd-surfing became a regular feature, transforming the floor into a human conveyor belt of pure kinetic joy. The audience understood their role in this theatrical exchange, delivering the kind of participation that makes live music feel genuinely communal.
Between songs, genuine gratitude radiated from the stage. The band repeatedly thanked the audience, acknowledging Montreal as one of their favourite stops. After twenty visits to the city, their appreciation carried the weight of accumulated experience.
The evening’s emotional peak arrived during their interpretation of Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things.” The original’s vulnerable introspection gained new dimensions through metal’s emotional amplification, creating a moment of unexpected tenderness amid the sonic assault. When confetti cannons erupted during the final chorus, the gesture felt earned rather than manufactured.
The encore brought “Sunrise,” one of their originals, creating a bookend that emphasized the band’s dual identity. The choice to close with their own material rather than another cover suggested confidence in their legacy beyond their reputation as pop-metal interpreters. The entire venue participated in what felt like a collective goodbye, voices joining in harmonies that transcended the typical call-and-response dynamics.
Grayscale’s post-show gesture of greeting fans outside with free CDs provided the perfect postscript to an evening built around connection. Such acts of accessibility feel increasingly rare in an industry obsessed with maintaining mystique.
Our Last Night’s farewell tour represents more than just another band stepping away from the road. They’ve spent twenty years proving that musical boundaries exist primarily in marketing departments, that passion can transform any song into something personal, and that covers can carry as much emotional weight as originals when approached with sufficient respect and creativity.
Their final Montreal performance captured everything that made them special: technical proficiency, emotional intelligence, and an almost reckless willingness to find beauty in unexpected places. They leave behind a catalog that challenged genre conventions while creating genuine moments of connection between artist and audience.
Our Last Night had accomplished something rare: they’d crafted an ending worthy of their journey. For a band built on reimagining other people’s conclusions, creating their own perfect farewell seemed entirely appropriate.
Setlist
- That’s So True (Gracie Abrams cover)
- Astronaut in the Ocean (Masked Wolf cover)
- BURIED ALIVE
- Same Old War
- Habits (Stay High) (Tove Lo cover)
- Scared to Die
- hot girl bummer (blackbear cover)
- Ordinary (Alex Warren cover)
- NO HELP
- STAY (The Kid LAROI cover)
- Your Idol (Saja Boys cover)
- Dark Horse (Katy Perry cover)
- White Tiger
- Graveyard
- you broke me first (Tate McRae cover)
- abcdefu (GAYLE cover)
- Escape
- Iris (Goo Goo Dolls cover)
- Beautiful Things (Benson Boone cover)
Encore:
- Sunrise
- Song played from tape
- Photograph (Nickelback song)
Photos – Luiz Fernando Araújo
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