It is bittersweet to see Canadian punk legends D.O.A playing their last tour, but at the same time it is always an experience to hear them play in your backyard as a decent sized crowd did, Feb. 20 at Studio 54. While D.O.A has been playing even before most of the audience was born, they were happy to take them to punk rock school.  Many of the audience were shouting along with every word. While they have been recording consistently since 1977, they concentrated on “classic” D.O.A material from their first few late ’70s, early ’80s albums.

 The trio began a ferocious set relatively slowly with “New Age,” from their record  “Something Better Change,” before crashing  into “He’s Got a Gun,”  the only song they played from their latest CD “We Come In Peace.” It was back to the classics after that with “World War Three.”

Frontman Joe Keithley leaped around the stage like a man half his age, did high kicks, played his beat to hell Gibson SG behind his head and glared into his mic while shaking his head to the beat.
 They proved themselves to be way more than a typical three chord punk bad. He played some wicked classic rock style riffs like on a couple of my favourites “General Strike” and “2+2” and on a  blisteringly fast, incendiary version of “Police Brutality,” one of their relatively  newer songs. Keithley also played some scorching guitar solos like on the aforementioned “Police Brutality.”

He  didn’t speak much other than to  thank  the crowd for coming out and noting “This Machine Kills Fascists” was dedicated to Woody Guthrie.
 He also expressed his support for Idle No More before playing “I Hate You,” which he noted was about people who hate for no reason.
“It’s bullshit what the government is doing to natives,” he growled.

 They went reggae for  “War in the East,” before turning things up again with “Driving to Hell and back,” then his ode to politicians “Liar For Hire.”

they ended their set with “The Prisoner,” but returned to play some of their earliest classics “Fuck You,” the ever popular  “Disco Sucks,” which the crowd was shouting out for, “Fucked Up Baby,” and  ended the show with a slower, more groove orientated number “Woke Up Screaming.”

 Opening acts the Scallywags and No More Moments properly warmed up the crowd.

 While the audience stood back and watched for most of the Scallywags’ set of energetic punk, some of the crowd eventually got into it and had started a mosh pit by the time  they ended their set.

 After a lightning quick changeover, No More Moments took the stage with a set of high energy metal tinged punk rock music and eventually got a few more people moving.