Title photo: DEADBOLT at Lopez, Nov 29, 2025 by Hamza Yahyaoui

I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to both the easternmost and westernmost islands of Canada for punk in 2025 (almost made it to the Yukon for a mini-tour this year but it fell through! Maybe someday...) These tours and trips, plus some awesome shows in my home of Montreal, defined my year more than any records that I listened to, so to roundup 2025 I compiled my top ten shows (in chronological order).

New Years’s Eve Squat Show (NYC, undisclosed location) – December 31

Rang in 2025 in relatively balmy New York, getting to watch excellent bands like FLOWER, ABISM and LOVE & COMPASSION in a mess of punks, taggers, trains, burning flags and fireworks. The lack of flat surfaces in the illicit "venue" made everything extra chaotic, not entirely sure how all the people on nitrous managed to stay upright (edit: turns out maybe they didn't). Happy I finally made it to one of these infamous NYC generator shows, it was an ideal way to start the year!

New Band Show (Montreal, La Sotterenea) – February 23

Despite frosty temps and feet of snow on the ground, this year's edition of the New Band Show went off without a hitch and is becoming a Montreal winter tradition. Despite not being strictly locals, the instrumental section of POISON SPEAR made it out from PEI to knock our socks off. Tons of teenagers came out to the show, and I have this short video saved of a bunch of teens in corpse paint doing a can-can kickline during LIFELINE. The DUREX tape release show was the night before, and I think some of the energy from that spilled over into this event and made for a really fun deep-winter weekend.

VERIFY tour stop in St. John’s (Peter Easton Pub) – April 18

Wrote about this in my Atlantic Canada tour reportback but I finally made it to Newfoundland this year and it didn’t disappoint! This tour was amazing, but was also plagued by various stresses and misfortunes, so I think something about actually making it to St. John’s made the show at the Peter Easton feel extra cathartic. I fell in love with the wild weirdness of the land and the scene in St. John's.

Scorched Earth Fest (Vancouver, Rickshaw Theatre) – July 24-25

In July I traveled to Vancouver and Victoria, BC for the dual purposes of attending Scorched Earth fest and reuniting with my partner after a monthlong tour. It’s hard to name fest highlights because the bill was totally stacked, but CONTAGIUM’s reunion set was great, DEVIATED INSTINCT were delightful and managed to captivate my attention through a very long set, plus many beloved friends’ bands such as BLACK DOG, EXTENSIVE SLAUGHTER, STREET GLOVES and PORTAL TOMB fleshed out an absolutely crushing lineup. The matinée show with PHYSIQUE, YELLOWCAKE and BARREN SOIL was awesome top-to-bottom, although I got the wind knocked out of me during PHYSIQUE’s set because I was stupidly standing next to a chest-height table while the crowd went nutso. Worth it!! The main shows were in a huge theatre, and while the sound wasn't ideal, the seating in the back and balcony were a real blessing for all the aging crust war vets with bad backs. Shared a dreamy post-fest beach day with two dozen punks, followed by a peaceful walk through giant trees in Stanley Park and a huge crew rolling up to share awesome family-style vegan Chinese food. It was a hard comedown back to reality after this one.

Secret Trash Fest  (Charlottetown, PEI Farm Centre) – August 23

I had so much fun playing PEI in April that I begged the Secret Beach crew to bring my other band RECALL out for the inaugural Secret Trash Fest in August. I was really hyped to see east coast pv duo UNCLE play, and I really wanted to go to the beach again – check, check! The drives were long but so worth it for this little mini-tour-cum-vacay rip with my buds.

URBAN SPRAWL (SF) w/ TOTAL NADA, DEADBOLT, UNFILED (Montreal, The Squat) – September 5

Awesome, scrappy hardcore punk show at a semi-ephemeral, dry, DIY venue (not an actual squat, it’s a gym). Many people who would’ve loved this show slept on it, which is too bad, but the few attendees really brought energy (DEADBOLT’s string section moshed enough to cover everyone who was too lazy to bike to St-Henri). The night was capped by a crazy moonrise over Fattal followed by a flash thunderstorm that necessitated urgently running all the zines and merch inside during URBAN SPRAWL’s set.

Varning XVII (Montreal, Piranha Bar) – Sep 11-13

I already wrote a whole Varning roundup so check that out if you wanna hear more about it. Blabbed with friends, watched too many good bands, ate vegan poutine in a park with an international crew of spiky punks and went a little insane trying to keep up with everyone on drugs.

Search for the Sun (Montreal, La Toscadura) – Oct 30-Nov 1

I can confidently say that the Friday show of this 3-day fest was one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to: THE MOB (UK), FLOWER (NYC), SCUMPUTER (UK), STREET GLOVES, FUCKIN’ LOVERS (Philly) and UZU. I don’t love Halloween so I was happy to have something else to do, but it meant the whole city was in a party mood – everything and everyone were just buzzing. SCUMPUTER (Gabba from Chaos UK’s electronic project) got everyone jumping around and dancing, inlcuding someone beside me in a full-head zebra mask – total surreal insanity. While I can’t condone SCUMPUTER’s silly AI-generated animations, I really love seeing older punks doing what they’re really passionate about rather than just trotting out the same old-ass songs. That said, as far as old punks trotting out their old-ass songs... THE MOB’s set was undeniably very fucking incredible. Finally seeing STREET GLOVES rip alongside another drum machine punk project rather than just being a total oddity on the bill was great, and I was stoked to finally catch FUCKIN’ LOVERS again – their set at a Varning Matinée a few years ago blew my mind and is imprinted in my memory as one of the loudest shows I’ve ever been to. Seeing and hanging with the buds in FLOWER is always a treat, and I was watching alongside a few friends who had never seen them before which was pretty special. This whole weekend was kind of unreal, with way too many highlights to name.

Never Going Away (Toronto, Parish Hall) – November 15

A DIY-to-the-core show in a church basement organized by some younger folks in Toronto who are extremely on the level. Per their request we rolled up with our zine distro, which was a hit, and several people even traded us their own zines. The lineup was solid and none of the bands were all white dudes – I especially enjoyed Columbus' REGALIA and locals HUMAN FORM, and our buds DEADBOLT played probably their best set ever. While I spent my first few years in Canada perfunctorily hating on Toronto, I actually always have a nice time visiting and have been to and played some really sick shows. There are some really cool and solid people keeping things DIY!

All Locals All Ages gig (Montreal, Lopez) – Nov 29

Another all ages/dry show at a semi-ephemeral-space (a cleared-out skate/fashion shop run by a member of FAZE) that was 100% friendship, rippin’ bands, wholesome fun. The kind of show where your cheeks hurt from grinning too much. It was PROGRESS?’s first show and they rocked so hard that a lightbulb spontaneously exploded. This was the platonic ideal of the kind of shows I want to attend and play.

Final thoughts:

As a known shit-talker of both reunion bands and “too many fests”, my list admittedly does include both. I appreciate being able to see bands who are at the top of their game, and to meet and hang with punks and bands who travel for bigger events. Circulation is good for the health of the subculture and seeing really awesome bands keeps me wanting to practice, write, start more bands, and keep doing what I’m doing (but better). But I wish just a bit more of the energy and cash that went into organizing blowout weekends or flying in big-name bands went into the more quotidian local gigs, on going all-out for bands who are struggling to break even on touring right now, or organizing for the kinds of infrastructure that would make our scene stronger (like a reliable all ages venue). That’s what I want to see more of in 2026!