REVIEW: PAPA ROACH KICKS OFF CANADIAN LEG OF 'RISE OF THE ROACH TOUR' IN VANCOUVER

On November 25, 2025, Papa Roach tore into the opening night of their Rise of the Roach Tour Canadian leg at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC, turning their twelfth performance in the province into a career-spanning reset. Twenty five years after first stepping into the same building back when it was still called General Motors Place, the band proved that the roach in their name is still very much alive and moving.

The show began with a simple but striking visual. A tall white curtain hung across the front of the stage, lit from behind so that an upside down cockroach silhouette crawled across it in shadow. As the band took their positions out of sight, the arena roared in approval. When the curtain finally dropped, Jacoby Shaddix, Jerry Horton, Tobin Esperance, and Tony Palermo were already in full flight, slamming straight into new single 'Even If It Kills Me'.

That opener set the tone for the first stretch of the set, which leaned hard into speed and impact. Older favourites 'Blood Brothers' and 'Dead Cell' pulled the night back to the Infest era, firing up fans who had followed the band since those early 2000s days. '...To Be Loved' and 'Kill the Noise' showed the other side of Papa Roach in 2025, polished hooks carried by big rock choruses that still hit with force in an arena setting.

Midway through the set, the band slid into an instrumental version of 2Pac classic 'California Love', using it as a platform to introduce each member. It was a small detail, but it connected the California roots of the group to a rap icon who shaped the broader culture they grew up inside. From there, they shifted gears with 'Liar', then stitched 'Forever' together with 'In the End', letting the crowd take over large sections of the vocals.

The emotional centre of the night arrived in a run that started with 'Falling Apart' and a suicide prevention video that played across the screens. The messaging tied directly into 'Leave a Light On (Talk Away the Dark)', a song that has become a modern signature for Papa Roach and a focal point of their mental health advocacy. After the last notes faded, the arena paused for a moment of silence, a rare stillness in a set otherwise packed with movement and noise. 'Scars' followed, and thousands of voices rose with Jacoby on the chorus, underlining how deeply those lyrics still land with fans who have grown up alongside the band.

A drum and bass feature let Tony Palermo and Tobin Esperance show off their chemistry, then the group kicked back into high gear with 'BRAINDEAD', 'Help', and 'Born for Greatness'. That sequence condensed the second half of Papa Roach history into a few minutes, touching the Crooked Teeth era and reminding everyone in the building that the band’s later catalogue carries as much weight live as their breakout years.

For the encore, they stacked the deck. 'Between Angels and Insects' opened the final stretch, its groove and spoken word verses landing just as hard as they did at the turn of the millennium. 'Infest' turned into a full arena moment when Jacoby left the stage and moved into the crowd, weaving through fans while shouting the lyrics back with them.

Then came a rapid fire nu metal time capsule, blending pieces of Korn’s 'Blind', Deftones’ 'My Own Summer (Shove It)', Limp Bizkit’s 'Break Stuff', and System Of A Down’s 'Chop Suey'. It was both a nod to the scene that Papa Roach came up with and a reminder of how rare it is for a band from that era to be headlining arenas with fresh material in 2025. The only way to finish after that was 'Last Resort', still the undeniable closer, still screamed word for word by every corner of the building.

For anyone new to Papa Roach, the Vancouver show also doubled as a crash course in their story. The band formed in Vacaville, California in 1993, built around high school friends Jacoby Shaddix and drummer Dave Buckner. They hustled through early independent releases before breaking worldwide with 2000 album Infest and its towering single 'Last Resort'. Over time they shifted from pure rap rock into a more melodic hard rock sound, but kept the same core: personal lyrics about mental health, addiction, family, and resilience, delivered with directness and no filter.

The current lineup of Jacoby Shaddix, Jerry Horton, Tobin Esperance, and Tony Palermo has been together since 2008, a rare run of stability in modern rock. Across albums like Getting Away With Murder, The Paramour Sessions, Metamorphosis, F E A R, Crooked Teeth, Who Do You Trust and Ego Trip, they have stacked up hit singles such as 'Getting Away With Murder', 'Scars', 'Forever', 'Help', 'Born for Greatness', 'Kill the Noise', and 'Leave a Light On'. That deep catalogue is what powers the Rise of the Roach Tour and lets the band move confidently between eras in a single night.

The Canadian stretch of the Rise of the Roach Tour now rolls east after its Vancouver launch, with stops in Kelowna, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto, Kitchener, Laval, and Halifax. For fans across the country, this run is a rare chance to see a band that has grown from nu metal outlier to long running headliner without losing the connection that began in small clubs and high school gyms.

More than thirty years after forming, Papa Roach are still adding new chapters rather than coasting on nostalgia. If the Vancouver opener was any indication, how many people in those remaining Canadian cities will walk out of the arena feeling like they just saw the definitive version of a band they first heard back in the Infest days?

Upcoming Tour Dates

Nov 26 – Kelowna, BC – Prospera Place

Nov 28 – Calgary, AB – Scotiabank Saddledome

Nov 29 – Edmonton, AB – Rogers Place

Dec 1 – Saskatoon, SK – SaskTel Centre

Dec 2 – Winnipeg, MB – Canada Life Centre

Dec 5 – Toronto, ON – Coca-Cola Coliseum

Dec 6 – Kitchener, ON – The Aud

Dec 8 – Laval, QC – Place Bell

Dec 10 – Halifax, NS – Scotiabank Centre