DOA PLAY THE HORSESHOE TAVERN (370 QUEEN W) NOV 13.
After 30 years of blue-collar punk (not to mention helping coin the term “hardcore”), Northern Avenger pairs the BC trio with co-producer Bob “The Black Album” Rock for the first time since he recorded them in the early 1980s, and the results are neither glossy nor a total return to form. Musically, the band remain tight and able to zip along in an energetic mid-tempo, although their forays into ska are less interesting than their meat-and-potatoes rockers. Joey “Shithead” Keithley sings about police brutality (“Police Brutality”), still being a punk (“Still A Punk”) and hockey fights (“Donnybrook”). The presentation is characteristically unspectacular, but the band have retained their oomph, and I’m glad their cover of “Who Will Stop The Rain” works, somehow.