Canadian rockers The Trews moved up the echelon of top-billed Caesars Windsor performers on Friday night, March 1, 2024.
“I didn’t know if we could headline this place,” frontman Colin MacDonald told the Windsor crowd.
“I guess the gamble paid off, no pun intended.”
The Nova Scotia-rooted, Hamilton-based band last performed on the Colosseum stage in July of 2022, when they opened for The Black Crowes, on their ‘Shake Your Money Maker’ anniversary tour.
In a similar vein, The Trews were celebrating a milestone of their own on Friday night, the 20th anniversary of their debut album, 2003’s ‘House of Ill Fame’.
At the Windsor gig, along with the others on their 20-date tour, the band opened their show playing their eponymous album in its entirety, from start to finish.
“We’re going to play you the whole fucking thing,” Colin told the crowd.
“We haven’t played a lot of these songs in a really long time. We’re going to play a lot of the deep cuts from our record.”
In one of his stories about a song on the first album, Colin shared some insight into the inspiration for the fourth track, ‘When You Leave’.
“It came from a line that we heard from the pedal steel player for Bob Dylan’s band, Bucky Baxter,” Colin said.
“He had a vacation home in Nova Scotia, we’re from Antigonish Nova Scotia, and they were touring in Jerusalem and they were visiting all the holy sites and at one of them there was a guy selling statues of Elvis Presley. Bob Dylan told Bucky Baxter that in 1,000 years from now when it’s all said and done and we’re all just dust and everything is dust, they’re going to find one of these relics of Elvis Presley and think he was Jesus Christ. It’s a true story.”
Continuing with his storytelling engagement and before performing the album’s 10th track ‘You’re So Sober’, Colin recalled a humorous and humbling personal account about that song’s inspiration.
“It’s funny, I think back on some of the stories on where these songs came from, and this one, it’s kind of embarrassing,” he said.
“There was this one girl from Nova Scotia, who I loved, but did not like me. There was one Halloween in 1998, I remember it well. I was drunk and drinking and we decided we would go dressed up for Halloween, we go to a bar in town and I decided to wear a makeshift Superman costume, not a good looking one, like a really homemade Superman costume and I was drunk as a skunk.”
He added: “I went to the bar and I saw this girl there in my homemade Superman costume, looking really cool and really drunk, and I confessed my love. If you can believe it, it didn’t work out. The shitty Superman outfit and everything. It didn’t work. What gives?”
Also to mark the anniversary, the band recently released a mini-documentary about the album. Watch it, below:
Sporting a different appearance compared to previous years, The Trews frontman showcased longer, graying tied-back hair, along with some dark-rimmed speckled glasses, while sipping tea throughout the show. However, Colin’s distinctive and dynamic vocal range was familiar and shone through all evening.
“I feel like we’re standing on the shoulders of giants in Windsor,” Colin said.
“A lot of bad motherfuckers come out of Windsor.”
Across the stage, Colin’s brother, lead guitarist John-Angus MacDonald was his typical rock star self: shining in the spotlight, displaying back bending guitar solos, in perfect alignment with the stage cameras and even climbing off stage to the back of the Colosseum for a solo among the chanting crowd in the aisle.
After completing the ‘House of Ill Fame’ segment of the show, The Trews opened up the rest of their catalog, thumping out hit after hit.
Something we’ve seen from them in the past, at The Shelter in Detroit last winter and at Rock The Park in London last summer, the entire band climbed off stage to perform a stripped-down version of ‘Ishmael & Maggie’, from their sophomore album, 2005’s Den of Thieves.
Have a look at our video below:
After performing for nearly two hours straight, the band tucked away backstage, but quickly reappeared for an encore.
And what an encore it was.
While his bandmates started returning to the stage, Colin announced to the crowd that the show’s opening band Wide Mouth Mason – who set the tone for the evening earlier with a resounding, nostalgic performance of ‘Big Shiny Tunes’ era 90’s rock – would be joining The Trews on stage.
To top it off, Colin shared another special treat, as Windsor’s own Kelly ‘Mr. Chill’ Hoppe, the longtime harmonicist for fellow Canadian rockers Big Sugar, would also be joining them.
The Trews and their special guests proceeded to launch into a ‘Hold Me In Your Arms’ sandwich.
The impromptu Canadian rock supergroup launched into the powerful intro from the 2008 Trews banger, with touches of Hoppe’s harmonic brilliance sprinkled throughout.
The meat of the sandwich was an enthralling cover of Led Zeppelin’s classic, ‘When The Levee Breaks.’
Colin transformed into Robert Plant, John-Angus and Wide Mouth Mason frontman Shaun Verreault dueled out on guitar, while Hoppe added some more extended accents with his harmonica.
After performing the entirety of the 1971 classic, the band seamlessly brought the medley back to ‘Hold Me In Your Arms’ to close out the encore and their performance.
Having seen The Trews numerous times over the years, the Windsor concert on Friday was hands down the best we’ve seen from them.
The MacDonald brothers, bassist Jack Syperek and the other band members rose to the occasion as a headliner at Caesars Windsor, adding unique elements to their show and displaying great unity, power, and engagement throughout.
20 years in, The Trews continue to climb the ladder as one of the best live bands in Canadian rock.
Here are some photos of The Trews and Wide Mouth Mason from Friday:
The Trews
Wide Mouth Mason
Stay up to date with the band by checking their website https://www.thetrewsmusic.com/.