Thursday 9 June 1977
Massey Hall, Toronto, ON

Details

In an interview a week before the show on CHUM FM with Rick Ringer, Kim says they're going to play a new song called The Party at their first show at Massey Hall. "We're the musicians here catching the colour of your skin," he says (this lyric was the predecessor to "we're just musicians here to thin the thickness of your skin").

The show was almost sold out with over 2,000 in attendance. They played almost the entire first two albums and gave three encores, one of which was the first performance of The Party. The band was joined by Carla Jenson and Judy Donnelly on backing vocals for a few songs (they would appear on the next two Max Webster albums).

Pye Dubois was introduced on stage for the first time at this show, coming out in a white lab coat.

Bob Mackowycz at Q107 reviewed the gig the next day: "Kim Mitchell delivers these lyrics with wit and intelligence, and frankly it just knocked me out that heavy metal could be done with style and with intelligence. It doesn't have to be all just a physical experience. There was something else happening with this group, and I found it fascinating. There's definitely another softer side to them, and personally I find their laid back stuff much more interesting. I think that with songs like Diamonds Diamonds, they're really at an international level. You really don't find very many metal bands attempting to change moods. I think I can only think of Led Zeppelin right off hand. And Max Webster, and I think it's a credit to them, have done that."

Many years later Terry Watkinson said these dates at Massey Hall were amongst his favourites with the band. "Just beautiful sound, and a nice intimate, ideal venue," he recalled.

In a 2017 interview Mike Tilka reflected on this night as well:

"Us headlining Massey Hall was a big thing. I mean, opening for Rush there three times was amazing, but to do our own show in that place was fantastic. Although I like to tell the story of how quickly we came back down to earth. We finished the gig, went back to the band house, showered up, jumped in the van and drove to Winnipeg to open for Styx. We didn't have a big party and say, 'oh boy, we've arrived.' We didn't have any of that. We just got in the van and drove ourselves to start a cross-Canada opening slot tour."

Line-up

  • Kim Mitchell : Vocals/Guitar
  • Mike Tilka : Bass
  • Terry Watkinson : Keyboards
  • Gary McCracken : Drums
  • Carla Jensen - Vocals
  • Judy Donnelly - Vocals

Bands

  • A Foot In Coldwater

Partial Setlist

  • Oh War!
  • Gravity
  • In Context Of The Moon
  • Diamonds Diamonds
  • Lily
  • Research (at Beach Resorts)
  • Words To Words
  • On The Road
  • Summer's Up
  • America's Veins
  • Rain Child
  • Coming Off The Moon
  • Toronto Tontos
  • Only Your Nose Knows
  • Hangover
  • The Party
  • Here Among The Cats

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Fan Stories

Mark Doble

The show opened with Oh War with the sound of airplane engines overhead. Then at the end of the song, Kim asked the audience, "What are you going to tell them when they ask you to go to war???" And the audience answered quite clearly with a loud and single voice... with 2 words.

They did everything from High Class In Borrowed Shoes and everything from the first album except Summer Turning Blue and Blowing The Blues Away. Final encore was Here Among The Cats. I distinctly recall The Party being introduced as a new number.

Romano Del Tin

They tied Pye to a chair on stage and left him there! Because he didn't want to come on stage.