So can we find final value in the world? I believe that we can, so long as we are attuned to aesthetic value. Aesthetic value is a catch-all term that encompasses the beautiful, the ugly, the sublime, the dramatic, the comic, the cute, the kitsch, the uncanny, and many other related concepts. It is a well-worn cliché that the practical person scorns aesthetic value. But there’s reason to think that it is the only way in which we can draw final positive value from the entire world. Thus, to the extent that we care whether or not we live in a good world, we must be aesthetically sensitive.
My map directions took me to Liberty Village/Atlantic Ave, and I was a little unsure how to get to Budweiser Stage (practice, man, practice!) but I saw some people in concert T-shirts and followed them through a tunnel and across the Exhibition grounds where the rides from the CNE were being taken down and packed for transport. After all the difficulties with the Ticketmaster website, and all the rules on the venue’s website about what couldn’t be brought in, nobody gave me any trouble at the gate.
“Yay! They let us in!” said some people near me. “Nobody got arrested!”
I probably could have come at least an hour later without difficulty. We were inside the perimeter with the food and drink stands, but the actual stage didn’t open for another thirty or forty minutes. Meanwhile recorded music played—I felt a little like I was back at a highschool dance: everybody was standing around, and “Life Is A Highway” was playing. The only difference was that the boys and girls weren’t standing on opposite sides of the space and nervously scoping each other.
Of course, if I hadn’t come so early, I might not have scored the upgrade from sitting on the lawn to a seat in the 400 section—A23, so I was in the front row of the the back, if that’s clear. It was easier to climb in and out over the railing in front of the row than to go along it. Tom Cochrane opened the show, and he and his band were pretty good. His bass player looked like Laurence Fishburne in The Matrix, but turned out to be Jeff Jones:
“I just crossed the street, and I still haven’t got home,” he said when introduced by Cochrane, who added:
“We all just flew in from Edmonton, and our arms are fuckin’ tired.”
Not being familiar with stadium concerts, I worried about whether I ought to sneak out during the opening act for a bathroom break before the Who came on. People were going in and out, and I was far enough back I figured Tom Cochrane wouldn’t see me and have his feelings hurt, so I slipped out. I also bought a keychain, and made my way back in time for the live performance of “Life Is a Highway.” As it turned out there was a half-hour break afterwards, but I probably avoided some lineups.
At last the Who came on.
Roger: Hello Toronto!
Pete: I’ve had some very good times in Toronto.
Roger (prodding his earpiece): Is this thing on? That’s how bad my hearing is these days. (Laughs)
Pete: Welp. Good night everybody!
(A technician comes out to fiddle about with the power pack for Roger’s earpiece)
Roger: This is embarrassing. He’s not playing with my arse. He’s just changing the battery.
Then they started to play “Can’t Explain” and I found myself automatically singing along.
You have to understand. I’d been telling myself to dial back my expectations, the two remaining original members are in their eighties, just pretend it’s a band I’ve never heard of and don’t compare them to recordings made fifty-to-sixty years ago. Welp. Turns out Pete and Rog have still got it. I think Keith and John may have willed them their unused decades.
Speaking of Keith and John, their images (photos and old footage) showed up a fair bit on the stage’s jumbo screens. Along with animations and lighting, this was clearly the 21st-century version of the laser show you can see in their performance at Shepperton Studios in The Kids Are Alright—but it also felt like a technological seance.
And it worked. By the mid-point of the concert my brain was fooled into wondering if the drumming was coming from Keith on the video screen, or the drummer and the percussionist onstage; if the singing was coming from young Roger or old Roger. Is it possible to be a tribute band for yourselves? This isn’t a complaint, by the way; I was fascinated.
Things finally came down on the side of the present with “Love, Reign Over Me.” This works as an old man’s song as well as it does for a young man; and the video screens only showed shimmering, animated rain; and Roger started to really show off how good his voice still is. He hit the high notes and held them, and the audience whooped and cheered. At the end, most of us got on our feet, and most of us stayed on them through “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “Baba O’Reilly.” I’m afraid somebody’s camera video of the event has my singing and screaming on it.
I forgot to mention that Simon Townshend (Pete’s younger brother) got a moment in the spotlight to play and sing “Going Mobile.” He was introduced again at the end with the rest of the band, and then Pete and Roger were left alone onstage to sing “Tea At the Theatre” and despite the song’s elegiac theme, it was an energetic performance. They both thanked the audience.
Pete: This is our last tour, but we might come back in disguise as another band.
Rog: This is definitely our final goodbye, but—
Pete: We might be swindling you.
Rog: If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to never fuckin’ say never.
I heard this song on the bus ride home from school today, and now it's stuck in my head. Especially parts of the chorus. And if i have to deal with a song being stuck in my head, i feel like i might as well share it on here too. Apparently the song is based on the life of french poet arthur rimbaud, if that means anything to anyone:
The Second Day of All Things Go Does Not Disappoint
All Things Go – Forest Hills Stadium – September 27, 2025
The unfortunate headline of Day Two of All Things Go was Lola Young collapsing onstage during an emotional set. Thankfully, the latest reports are that she’s doing considerably better. “That was really fucking scary,” said Remi Wolf, addressing the incident during her own set and being the first to update the audience, saying, “My friend Lola is backstage, and she is OK.” The remainder of the night was all about picking people up, with enough gyrations from Remi Wolf and Doechii to get in some trouble with the FCC.
Wolf took the stage in her tennis whites, funking things up with the catchy “Cinderella.” She took everyone through three exercises that involved some vocal runs, kissing your neighbor’s neck and shaking things out. “On three, whatever you have down there, we’re gonna slap it.” The final exercise involved going back upstairs for a good shake of the brain. “New York, I need your idiotic, dumb and stupid. Whatever is weighing on your shoulders, leaver it at the back door.”
Wolf's command of the crowd was commendable, owning the stage with some serious charisma, at one point hopping on the drums to rip a solo at the end of “Kangaroo,” leaving everyone in the audience wondering if there’s anything she can’t do. “That last song was about alcohol and this next song is about fucking in a hotel room,” said Wolf while transitioning from “Liquor Store” to “Toro.” She can belt out high notes with the best of them, sending Tom Cochrane’s “Life Is a Highway” skyward, parading two pride flags across the stage for the song’s crescendo to huge cheers.
All of All Things Go, but especially the Day Two schedule, was a Baddies’ Lilith Fair, if you will. “All week I’ve been saying to my manager, ‘I’m so ready for the lesbian festival, I’m so ready for the lesbian festival,’” said Doechii at the beginning of her set. “I know you don’t call it that,” she added to some big applause. The self-proclaimed swamp princess performed on a greenery-covered platform as rain began to fall, whipping her long hair and stringy outfit like Spanish moss in the wind. The South was at home in hip-hop’s hometown, with the bass-heavy rumbles of “Bullfrog,” rattling the tennis stadium, the G-funky “Boiled Peanuts” cooling down the crowd as the clouds spit rain.
The weather complicated Doechii’s wardrobe plans a bit, and after a few attempts to get her shoes back on, she ultimately decided to ditch them and go barefoot. “Anxiety” and “Alter Ego” elicited some giant sing-alongs, making the best of the packed stadium that Doechii had wrapped around her finger. “Denial Is a River” brought out her DJ — DJ Miss Milan, a star in her own right — to center stage to toss the song’s storytelling (and heavy breathing) back and forth. With the festivities up against the curfew, Doechii polled the audience on which final song to play, settling on her verse from “Balloon” as the fans’ favorite, with an apropos last line, “Out in New York, walk around bare-toed / I don’t need a passport, I’m a swamp bitch, oh-oh,” before closing out with a plea to others: “If you have a voice, use it. There is a war going on. There is a genocide going on. Speak out.” —Dan Rickershauser | @D4nRicks
Photos courtesy of Silvia Saponaro | @silvia_saponaro
my kid asked for the Lightning McQueen song, and of course I smiled and put it on, but then when it was over I said, "did you know this isn't the first singer to sing this song? do you want to hear the first singer who ever sang this song?" and I put on Tom Cochrane, because I want my kids to grow up right
