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Concerts

PUP Are Going on a Six-Venue Tour — All in Toronto

Celebrating their upcoming release Who Will Look After The Dogs? the Canadian punk band will play throughout the city on the Mega-City Madness tour, with a different guest each night, beginning July 13.

PUP

PUP

Vanessa Heins

PUP are heading out on a tour — of their hometown.

The Canadian punk band will take over Toronto for six nights in July on their Mega-City Madness tour, performing at a different venue each night.


The local circuit celebrates their upcoming fifth album, Who Will Look After The Dogs? set for release May 2.

The band will kick off the tour on July 13 at a house show, before going on to play five iconic mid-sized Toronto spots — all of which they have played over the last 15 years, as their career has grown — with a new special guest each night.

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Rock group Bad Waitress will join them at Sneaky Dee's on College Street and Montreal's Solids will share the stage at Annex venue Lee's Palace. Jeff Rosenstock — featured on recent single "Get Dumber" — will appear at Yonge Street's The Concert Hall and Polaris Prize winner Cadence Weapon is set to join for the east end gig at Danforth Music Hall.

Closing out the madness on July 19, recently-minted Juno winners NOBRO will play with PUP at Beaches venue History.

“We are incredibly proud to be from Toronto,” says the band's Stefan Babcock. “We started this band in friends' basements and over the past decade have grown slowly and steadily until we were lucky enough to be playing big concert halls. This ‘tour’ is a celebration of that journey, going back to the smallest, greasiest shows."

"We're playing all these milestone venues, each one a little bigger than the last, just like we have over the past 10 years, but this time we're doing it all in one week. We're so grateful for what this city has given us. Holy f-ck we love Toronto.”

On their Substack, the band provides a bit more context, going down memory lane with a history of their shows in Toronto, going back to the days when they were called Topanga.

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"It’s 2014, we’ve just come home from our first ever, disastrous US tour, supporting our friends SOLIDS. We play to 10 people a night for 5 weeks straight. But we have the best time. And when we get back to Canada, our first record’s been out for a bit and a few people seem to really care about it. We book our next Toronto show at Lee’s Palace and we’re floored when it sells out."

For those outside the mega-city, PUP are also heading to Europe in May, New Zealand and Australia in August, and the U.S. in September.

Pre-sale for the Mega-City Madness tour starts April 9 at 10 AM EST, with general sale beginning April 10.

PUP Mega-City Madness Tour Dates

07/13/25 - Toronto, ON - House Show

07/14/25 - Toronto, ON - Sneaky Dee’s w/ Bad Waitress

07/15/25 - Toronto, ON - Lee’s Palace w/ Solids

07/17/25 - Toronto, ON - The Concert Hall w/ Jeff Rosenstock (solo)

07/18/25 - Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall w/ Cadence Weapon

07/19/25 - Toronto, ON - History w/ NOBRO

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The Nylons in 2016

The Nylons in 2016

FYI

Obituaries: The Nylons Vocalist and Co-Founder Claude Morrison, Toronto Jazz Pianist Mark Kieswetter

This week we also acknowledge the passing of post-punk visionary David Thomas of Pere Ubu, rock hitmaker Roy Thomas Baker and the Hoodoo Gurus co-founder Kimble Rendall.

Mark Kieswetter, an in-demand Toronto jazz pianist, arranger, music director and composer, died on April 21, at age 71, after a long battle with stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer.

The U.S.-born Kieswetter earned a degree in classical piano from the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music before discovering his affinity for jazz and relocating to Toledo.

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