Concert Review: The Callous Daoboys, September 13, East End United

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Concert Review: The Callous Daoboys, September 13, East End United

Posted on

14 Sep 2026

by

Paul

“Toronto, y’all are crazy.”

So said Callous Daoboys frontman Carson Pace to the fairly hyped up crowd on Sunday night at East End United and I have to say – fair assessment. The energy at this show was indeed pretty crazy and also a little infectious. Now, I am old and tired, so I was most definitely not mixing it up in the pit with all the roundhouse kickers and cartwheelers, but I appreciate the enthusiasm.

I also appreciate a good spoonerism, so any band that gives themselves a ridiculous (but admittedly kind of clever) name like The Callous Daoboys is alright in my books. And if you will allow me one quick digression, I’d like to point out that I saw a poster on the TTC on my way to the show promoting their new fare capping policy and, naturally my oddly wired brain, uniquely attuned to looking for spoonerisms after years of training, couldn’t help but think: “Care fapping.” And now you’re thinking it too. You’re welcome. Now back to our regularly scheduled review.

Musically, The Callous Daoboys are all over the place, with some jazzy, almost George Benson-esque guitar licks slipping in from time to time and breakbeats and other samples floating in between tracks, though “heavy” is always the default. While the band uses brutal metalcore as the template, their genre-hopping, chaotic, everything-and-also-the-kitchen-sink vibe is what makes them worth listening to. And live, the band was definitely feeding off the crowd’s energy and putting on an impressive performance.

Touring behind their latest, 2025’s I Don’t Want to See You in Heaven, the Atlanta mathcore six-piece came on strong, starting things off with recently released single “Gigantic Parasite Tongue.” Their set focused largely on the new album and really highlighted the band’s eclectic and adventurous sound. When asked in a recent interview to describe their sound to someone who hadn’t heard them before, guitarist Dan Hodson described it thusly: “It sounds like having fun.” Again, fair assessment. The band definitely looked like they were having fun up on that stage and band members could even be spotted stage side earlier in the evening taking in each of the opening acts and absolutely enjoying themselves. So yeah, I’d say they’re having fun.

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