May 27 2013 – On Saturday May 25th Montreal prog band Mystery lit up Toronto’s Sound Academy for an opening slot for Saga (which we review in detail here). Mystery has been around since 1986 but oddly enough this was their first Toronto show. The six piece band dazzled Toronto with symphonic progressive masterpieces. Their musical proficiency were evident from the get go and we really do hope they enjoyed playing Toronto and will be back.
The band consisted of Michel St-Père and Sylvain Moineau on guitars, Benoît Dupuis on keyboards, bassist François Fournier, and Jean-Sébastien Goyette on drums. Their lead singer Benoît David might sound familiar because he replaced Jon Anderson as the lead singer of YES for a 4 year period between 2008 and 2012.
The setlist consisted of a tidy 6 song set – 2 songs from each of the band’s 3 last albums (2007’s Beneath the Veil of a Winter’s Face, 2010’s One Among the Living, and 2012’s The World Is a Game).
Although their set was relatively short but they did take the opportunity to earn a lot of new fans. Tonight we felt we found a hidden Canadian gem and one we want to see a lot more of. Their brand of prog rock differs from Saga as they rely on a much more guitar driven sound whereas the hometown boys rely on synths more. Individually these musicians are top notch and we give our biggest possible recommendation to prog rock fans across the world – check them out!
Verdict: 4.5 out of 5 – It’s a mystery why we have never heard of Mystery before but DAMN these guys are good! Please visit Toronto more often guys.
