PUP @ The Concert Hall - Toronto
July 18th 2025: PUP @ The Concert Hall - Toronto, ON
Katie Gavin | Photos Courtesy of: Peyton Mott
Back in March, PUP announced their residency in their hometown, Toronto, lovingly titled “PUP Presents Mega City Maddness”. The tour followed 6 dates starting as a house show and heading through the city, gracing stages from large to small – tickets predictably sold out within 5 minutes. The city has birthed some of the most iconic artists of the 21st century, but through the 6-day PUP extravaganza, the Toronto natives prove that the scenesters who grew up with them will always show up as a community. The Concert Hall marked their third show of the run with a mid-sized capacity of 1,200 bodies tightly squeezed, buzzing with anticipation for the exclusive show.
Over the week-long PUP celebration, the band has delegated a theme to each night – the set surrounds each of their studio albums released. Each night has been top secret with the chosen record. At the Concert Hall, the crowd was gifted their 2019 record, “Morbid Stuff”, unveiled via the album cover as a backdrop as the four-piece graced the stage. While each show follows a specific record, the band doesn’t play it fully through, as singer Stefan Babcock eloquently puts it, “We’ve realized while coming up with these setlists…some of these songs we don't know how to fucking play.”
Between the classic tracks from the 2019 record, PUP played their hits like “DVP” and “Full Blown Meltdown”. The famous, long-time friend and PUP collaborator, Jeff Rosenstock, hopped on the gig as an opener. Though Rosenstock played a solo acoustic set to open the show, he made multiple appearances alongside the band. Bringing along guitarist John DeDomenci, the pair performed “Paranoid”, “Get Dumber” (recorded with Rosenstock), and popped in to yell along to “DVP”, the track dedicated to Toronto and its infamous expressway.
PUP demonstrates home is where the heart is, and it's beating in a sea of former (and current) degenerate kids of Toronto.
