Toronto, Ontario - April 17, 2026

The air at a The OBGMs show is different than most, buzzing with more than the usual preshow excitement and jitters. There’s something more in the atmosphere as the crowd packed into Lee’s Palace in Toronto late Friday night, the long line outside uniformly moving from waiting for the doors to open to waiting at the merch booth. The excitement in the air felt more like coming home than coming to watch strangers on stage, everyone in the crowd seemingly innately as much of a part of the show as the band themselves.

The crowd filled the room as openers Bonnie Trash, followed by The Effens took the stage, each completely taking over as the audience danced and jumped along through their sets. Teasing the room with a small glimpse of the show to come, The OBGM’s frontman, Densil McFarlane, joined The Effens to rip across the stage for one song before darting back behind the scenes.

When the time finally came for The OBGMs to take the stage, the room erupted as drummer Colanthony Humphrey, guitarist Simon Outhit, and bassist Joe Brosnan walked out, egging on the audience as they started playing, only for McFarlane to appear in the middle of the pit as the crowd ignited and moshed around him.

Making his way up to the stage, McFarlane set the ground rules for the night, reminding people to take care of each other before laughing into the mic, “Are you guys ready to hear some Nickelback covers?!”, only to be met with a resounding scream of excitement. Kicking off again, notably, not into a Nickelback cover, the band was unrelenting on stage, matched by an audience ready to indulge their every whim, a rush of crowd surfers falling towards the stage only to get up and dive right back off into the crowd.

The setlist was a mix of songs from throughout their discography, each met with an undeniable chorus of excitement as the crowd never stopped pulsing with energy, teetering on the edge of losing control. Songs like “LIAR” and “BUFFALO” off of their latest record, SORRY, IT’S OVER, were completely overtaken by the audience, the entire crowd screaming the lyrics back at the stage.

Taking the time to tease unreleased tracks, a wave of excited whispers moved through the audience, many already counting down to the unannounced release date, unable to wait to get another taste. In the midst of the crowd at the edge of chaos, the band effortlessly maintained control of the room, the audience hanging off every word as they joked and laughed throughout the set.

To quote The OBGMs’ themselves, let me talk my sh*t for a moment here. If you are not already listening to The OBGMs, you are missing out. People have spent fortunes and ages trying to capture star power but this is something else, something more. It’s far and few between that you can feel the soul that went into a project in more than the music itself, but something in The OBGMs expands to fill the entire room, absorbing into the people lucky enough to witness it.

Perhaps one of the last great punk bands, or possibly on the edge of something completely new and undefinable, one thing is clear, The OBGMs will save you. Catch them now on their world tour, continuing through to July, before it's too late.