SURL’S “REVIEW OF US” TOUR IN TORONTO

BY BRENESSA ROACH | APRIL 23 2023

On April 18th, the South Korean rock band SURL (설) consisting of 4 members who met in high school; Hoseung (Vocalist/Guitarist), Doyeon (Guitarist), Hanbin (Bassist) and Myeongsuk (Drummer) performed at Rivoli in Toronto for their 12 city “review of us” North American tour. Through the Canadian entertainment company F7 Entertainment, we had the opportunity to be the photographer for the concert and we had such an amazing time.

The concert started at 8 PM with the first opening act Shyo, accompanied by Aubrey McGhee on saxophone. Both Shyo and Aubrey are local Toronto artists and their set was really cool! Shyo had some special sound effects in his loop pedal board which was interesting to see. Shyo performed a cover of Tyler, The Creator and Kali Uchi’s “See You Again” – which is literally our favourite Tyler, The Creator song so this cover was so fun to see!

Overall, Shyo was amazing on stage. He said it was his first time on stage after a year and you honestly couldn’t tell. He was so engaging with the crowd and we loved to see his bubbly, smiling personality. As well, Aubrey was phenomenal on saxophone and having him on stage made the set even more special and amazing.

Check out Shyo’s Spotify page:

Check out Shyo and Aubrey on Instagram: @shyogram and @therealmcghee

More photos of Shyo and Aubrey:

At 8:45 PM, Kaz Moon came on stage for his 30 minute set. Kaz Moon is an artist from New York who has been the opening act for SURL for the whole North American tour. His voice was beautiful and his range is amazing. We really enjoyed his song “Twice” which was written about the Korean pop group TWICE.

Overall, he was really engaging with the crowd and had such a sweet but shy personality. We had a chance to talk to him after the show and he was very excited to have performed in Toronto for the first time.

Check out Kaz Moon’s Spotify page:

Check out Kaz Moon on Instagram:

More photos of Kaz Moon:

SURL took the stage at 9:30 PM until 11PM and it was the best 1.5 hour set. The boys are so energetic on stage and they were moving around so much and they had the crowd jumping up and down. Hoseung’s energy is next level because he was insanely amazing on stage and making sure he moved around to each side of the stage while playing guitar and jumping around. We stood right up at the stage and Doyeon was so cool with his guitar playing and Myeongsuk, it was hard to see him because of the drum set but he blew us away because of how intense he plays. Hanbin was on the other side of the stage but, we were amazed by his stage presence. He was so smiley and adorable on stage and his bass playing was amazing.

Our favourite performance and favourite SURL song in general is “Dry Flower” so, we were super excited to see this live and of course, SURL did not disappoint. SURL mainly speaks Korean, but yet they tried their hardest to engage with the audience and it was successful.

SURL performed a lot of their songs from their EP I Know which was released in October 2019. As well as a lot of songs from their 2018 EP Aren’t You and their album of us which released in October 2022. At the end of the show, we were able to meet the members of SURL and they were so sweet and thankful for having such a beautiful, first experience in Toronto. We hope they come back very soon!

Check out SURL’s Spotify page: