Today I am going to a Sabaton concert, it’s been a good long time since I last saw them, I think I saw them for the first time in 2018, damn time flies, it’s been almost a decade since I saw them live, it’s not like they don’t come to Toronto, their last show here was 2019, err..then again it’s not like they had very many opportunities to tour in the early 2020’s with covid fucking shit up. With that said, let’s see how today went and alot of bonus exploration of the venue as well.

Today’s first photo starts in a rather unexpected place, at the woodbine mall parking lot across the street from woodbine racetrack or whatever they call the place now. Why you say? Because I couldn’t enter the parking space when I was trying to enter the grounds, I was blocked.

This mall, woodbine mall I think is just across the street from the racetrack and it’s parking space is like completely filled out because most people cannot park or enter the free parking site on premise, including myself.

After arriving fairly early, like 3-4 hours before the actual show is to begin, I walk to my destination. As it can be seen there is a blockade of sorts where most people try to drive in to park onto the grounds. But as you can see, it is jammed, nobody can enter, even entering from the road you can’t do it.

The cause? These guys are on strike so they blocked the road into the casino and woodbine parking area, what the hell? I am not entirely sure what kind of workers they were, I think maybe parking traffic people? But either way there wasn’t that much on duty but they blocked it either way, I think only allowing a car to enter every 10 minutes or so which is pretty ridiculously slow. When I drove into from the road I was also stuck like these other cars, after a few minutes I was like what the hell is shit, and did a four point turn then just drove straight into the mall parking lot. Fine, but still, of all days, it just had to be the day when there is a concert and a big horse race going on.

Proof of existence, I got in edition and whatever this place is officially now called. It’s still woodbine racetrack but the casino and theater they built here are part of this “Great Canadian” branding which honestly is kinda shit. Should have just left it as Woodbine resort or something.

Some art thing, I have no idea.

Proof of existence, I guess Chinese people come here after all.

From a distance, the main building I think for races and other shit.

Entry way for the Casino, it’s kinda weird you don’t enter from the front, but everything it’s like you enter like halfway from the inside around the complex, sure.

Once inside the first thing you see in the checkpoint for the casino, where I guess you line up and check your ID and etc. At first glace, at least the slots area it doesn’t seem that big but yea.

Immediately to the left of the Casino area is the theater entrance, and of course they have a post for mech sales early. Of course I lined up, might as well. Nice umbrella jacket bro.

Line lining up some dude was giving away these cards, hmm what?

On the back is some thing you can scan for a chance to win a signed Vinyl, sure I guess. I did it. You have to sign up for some shit and answer a quiz, but the thing is the prize is not announced till a few days from now, not even today, so yea, who knows if anyone wins the shit, I guess they will email or mail it to you if you win.

This is considered the early merch line it is indeed very early, like 3 hours before the show but still lots of people buying, like they say, first thing you do is buy your merch then do other shit. True dat, brought some shit.

I thought about exploring the Casino but decided to nah, I’ve been to Vegas, they are all the same shit. They also have food inside there and I can see from a distance they have like Tims and Mary Browns and shit, so yea common food.

The place isn’t that big so I just followed the signs to check out the racetrack. Up the escalators and your there I guess.

And here we are, the main place where people do bets and shit for horse racing. Hm, for a major event today, it doesn’t seem that populated at this time, probably because it’s still like an hour to go before the main event to today, the last of the Canadian Triple Crown, the Breeders Stakes.

Interestingly they also have screens and machines that allow betting for other race tracks as well, not just here hmm ok.

Damn, you can’t escape pizza pizza, even here. They were also advertising this Tastees patty deal, honestly, not bad considering the location.

Totally not worth it for these hot dogs either, just like in NYC scam, but still somehow cheaper than on the street of NYC.

They have indoor seating in case it rains and shit or dont’ want to go outside if you want to watch the races. Everything about this place is free, you don’t need to pay anything to come here, so if you want to just chill here for the day and watch horses you can if you want to.

Going outside to check it out, wow, not bad, it’s a real racetrack, the world of Umamusame is real.

Proof of existence, race track edition, uma racing is real edition. There was a few other early concert folks also up here exploring to, you can tell, cause the shirts and shit.

Some folks were just standing around and looking at the odds for each race and placing their bets. Apparently whenever there is a race day there is generally 10 races, some of these races are named titled races, most are literally just called “race 4” of today or some shit. I see now, in Umamusame, when you start there are some “OP” races that don’t have names, these are the same thing, nameless races that don’t mean anything, just for gambling filler. If a race has a name, that means something.

Each race takes place in half hour intervals, like people have half an hour to figure out what they want to bet on before betting closes but if you wanted to you can technically bet for all races in the entire day in advance if you wanted to, which I did. Placing bets is easy, just use some of these touch screens. They greatly prefer if you use cash, insert cash and place your bet on what race, horse and type of bet etc. You can technically use debit here too but I see most just use cash. No credit cards allowed I think.

I decided to try my luck and place a $20 bet on Katie’s Grace, the favorite horse to win the Breeders Stakes today, the main event. Let’s see how that goes. After this, what you don’t see is me walking back to my car and dropping off the shirts I just brought, because yea, I don’t want to carry it during the concert, got lot’s of time anyways.

Once I dropped off my shirt at the car again, I arrived back in time for race I bet on, the Breeders Stakes, the 9th race of the day.

It appears there are more people watching now for this one since the prize pool is larger than all the other races in the day, I think minimum 400k so if you win and place your bets right you could win alot. Lots of Chinese people here I noticed/hear as well, even bringing their kids and shit hm.

A few rows down I can clearly see, hear rich ass white boys, not seen in photo but they were wearing like suits and shit and or golfing gear. All I could hear was some shit like them laughly, “Oh Joffrey, you always bet on that horse. it never wins. try another one with a more fancy name.”, “Bro, no way, that ones my horse, I always have to bet on that one whenever race they are in.” Like damn son, you come here that frequently that you actually know some of the horses names?. Guess Umamusame is real I guess, but only for rich people.

The gates of today where they hold the uma before race. Today’s race is actually quite small in comparison to other shit I think.

For a main event of the day, they only have 6 horses participating in this race, lol damn jokes. The one I bet on, Katie’s Grace, has a star on the right indicating it is the favorite to win. And the left are the odds/payout ratio if you win. It’s not good because it’s 6-5, meaning that you don’t get much money if you win, whereas if you bet on let’s say IMYOURMEDICINEMAN, I beleive you get 10 times your bet, meaning if you bet $100 and your horse wins, you get $1000 or so.

It’s almost time and the umas begin to line up from their stables. There is other kind of betting like, betting who the first 3 are, top 2 are or other combinations but the easiest for beginners is just picking who is going to win, which is what I did.

That ain’t goldship but close enough I guess. All of these horses are 3 year olds I think, in uma terms, they would be in there third senior year. Guess these guys are not that great to be honest if they are racing here of all places. This race, the breeders stakes is not even considered a graded race or G1, G2, G3 etc like in the game. From what I understand, to be considered a graded race, it has to be open to international horses, but all of the races in the Canadian Triple crown the horses must be Canadian born horses hence, they are not graded, hmm interesting. The most famous race at woodbine is the King’s Plate, but even that is not a graded race due to the Canadian horses rules for example. This race is 1.5 miles or 2400m which is basically 1 full lap around the course on turf aka grass. In umamusame terms, today’s race conditions would be Left, Sunny, Firm, Medium, Turf, Fall the horse needs a good amount of stamina to survive.

Before I realize it the race starts, no horn or anything, they just go. And after a short 2 or so minutes, it’s over, I lost lol. Damn. The favorite I bet on didn’t even make top 4, out of 6, shittt I think they came in 5th, second last. The one that won was favored second last, damn. They were a front runner and lead through the entire duration of the race, so it wasn’t very exciting to watch either, ahwell. That’s how it is in real uma racing, just like in the game too. But damn, favorite didn’t even place, so bad lol.

After my horse lost, go back inside and I see lots of black people betting on other races and shit, interesting. That kinda explains the patties maybe.

They have some display with King’s plate merch and some plushies on display. I have no idea if there is a store here, I certainly didn’t’ see it around.

Making my way back to the theater I see that the line to get in the area has a long line now, cool I guess, might aswell line up. One of these guys in front of me was playing the Hololive Dreams music game, I know for sure because I hear Irys’s “Carbonated Love” being played audibly. Hah, everyone likes anime and vtubers jokes lol.

Making our way to the gate, it’s not that big this space as you can see.

Once you pass the gates and they check your digital ticket on your phone, they put on a wristband just in case. The first thing you see is again the inside merch booth just in case you didn’t get your merch early. The shirts are all expensive man, $70 each, damn, shit’s not cheap at all, like any concert merch but it’s getting worse and worse every time I see it.

The actual area in the theater pre-inside is interesting, you an technically walk around it in this pathway untill you get to the real entrance, on one of two sides.

Go inside to check out the space, wow, not bad, it’s super early so the space hasn’t filled out yet but yea, I guess these people are determined to be at the very front so here they are. It’s gonna be like another hour before the first act starts, let alone Sabaton starts so sure guys.

Behind the general standing tickets are the elevated seating area for seated ticket types. I don’t know about this to be honest. Most metal concerts are standing for the optimal experience, having seated options is good for accessibility but it kinda diminishes the party-like crowd atmosphere. I went to a metal concert before seated, Amon Amarth and it just wasn’t the same really.

Side profile of the divisions, between standing and seated oh boi I dunno about this.

With an abundance of time still, I exited to chill outside and see what there was to eat, no drinks for me as even water is like $5 and a beer is like $14-17 damn lol.

They had patties so hell why not, get something to bite on before the show. I then realized disappointingly that it was a patty king patty. I paid like $6 dollars for this patty. Fuckkk. That Tastees patty deal they had in the horse racing concessions area WAS a good deal after all lol shit.

Yep, that’s a ghetto patty king patty alright. Even worse for me is that for some reason I ended up dropping it on the ground halfway eating it, doh, there goes $3 of my money, directly into the garbage, ah well, my mistake.

After my patty failure, it was like 15 min or so before the first act to start, so went inside, looks like more people around now.

The seated area has more people know, so that’s nice.

Proof of waiting existence. I mean, if your only coming here for the main act, Sabaton, there is actually no reason to come early to a concert like this on the scheduled start time, as there is guaranteed to be at least 2 openers before the main event, there sets usually like 30-40 mins, so realistically if the concert says they are starting at 7pm, which is what this is, Sabaton wouldn’t even be on stage until 9pm.

The first band to start was called Wings of Steel, their name is pretty cool and they played classic style power heavy metal, the kind with the very high vocals. The main vocalist, I didn’t realize it was a man until half-way through their set because he’s clothes and hair, not to mention high pitched voiced made him sound like a women lol.

Their main guitarist was also quite swole, quite brave/stupid I guess. In all they were kinda mid, nothing memorable at all and their sound was just a mess, full of bullshit generic power metal tunes, made worse by the acoustics of this place which were not well suited to their sound. Nice energy tho, but totally forgettable, their name is better than their music.

Proof of endurance of opening band, they were mid and forgettable edition. I went to the washroom after this, cause yea.

After some time, the next band setup their shit they are a band called Pop Evil, they have been around for awhile I think but never heard.

Their sound was more modern metal/rock, more clean vocals a bit and considerably heavier than Wings and Steel and maybe even Sabaton themselves. I actually liked their music, it’s different, it reminds me of a much heavier LinkIn Park without the rap, clean vocals only and more melodic guitar riffs. They are official friends with Sabaton I guess, since they recently released collab version of one of Sabaton’s songs. Not bad, a good opener band.

As Pop Evil finishes their set, they prepare to setup the stage for Sabaton. I also go outside and walk around a bit more but that’s not documented.

And here we are, Sabaton finally on stage, they open with their famous/trademark song Ghost Division a fan and crowd favorite, which is also one of my favorites as well.

They have alot of pyrotechnics going on, they have like smoke, flames and fake gun shot fireworks kinda things going on coming from their faux tank where the drummer sits lol.

They then immediately play one of their newest singles, Yamato, which is as it’s name implies is about the WWII Japanese battleship Yamato, also a new favorite of mine this year. Good shit.

I think they are playing also another crowd favorite “The last Stand” which for some reason everyone online thinks is about he Crusades, but it’s not, but because some dude made a music video with clips from the movie Kingdom of Heaven and it matches well so it kinda stuck. Sabaton knows about this to, so it’s kinda jokes.

Let’s go not-Par. This concert was supposed to happen in spring but was delayed till now because one of the main guys, not this guy; Par had a health issue, I don’t know the specifics but I think they said it was due to Par’s health or something, they said he had inflammation of his arms and was ordered to stop playing guitar for awhile until his arms healed. Damn, getting old I guess, Sabaton has been around for 25 years already so they must be in there late 40’s or even 50’s by now so yea.

The lead vocalist and frontman Joakim, the face of Sabaton stands ontop of the faux tank setpiece. I can’t remember what song this was but it was nice performance. The first half of the show was interesting, they mainly played older fan fav songs which is kinda surprising since the name of this tour is called “Legends On Tour” and their latest album is called “Legends” you would think they would sing more from their latest album but I guess not, I think they only sang like 3-4 from the latest album wow.

Here they are playing their mega hit, Bismarck, about the WWII German battleship of the same name. The crowd really liked this one, I mean, it’s arguably their most popular/famous song. Any song that they do about boats tends to do well well it seems for a variety of reasons.

Midway they hadsome female background singers since some of their later songs have some chorus stuff choir going on, but honestly I didn’t hear any of them, they were just girls who sang but I didnt’ hear any of their voices lol since it was so loud. They also took a moment to recognize one of the backstage staff’s birthday today which was kinda nice jokes too.

They played their new song about Napoleon, I, Emperor which I personally like quite alot. Some people have found it as a good song for Warhammer 40K about the Emperor or Man but I don’t know much about that. People man.

Playing another good/popular song, Attack of the Dead men, but it’s kinda more political over the past few years since it’s about Russians in WWI being basically zombie like unstoppable fighters surviving poison gas, hmm, not so hot in today’s geopolitical climate.

They really have a good setup for this song, they all put on gas masks and they have smoke/fog machines going on with Jokiam running around with a smoke/mist gun pretty nice stage set pieces. The guy on the right with the longest hair is Par, the guy, this not-clone is I forgot who I think rejoined the ban recently after leaving for like a number of years, and filled in when another guy left the band to do his own thing, that’s how bands work I guess, rotational.

Nearing the end of the night, singing their time wasting fan favorite song Swedish Pagans, I don’t like this song but people love it, because they usually pair it with a long call and response segment with the audience that can last like 5 or more minutes but sure.

Their final song surprisingly is not one of their new songs but To Hell and Back, from Heroes album, which in my opinion one of their weaker albums, which is a hmm, why kinda choice but sure.

Final greetings and applause from the audience while they soak it in.

More aura farming and talking pictures for social media and whatnot, final thanks again to see you again.

Standing ovation even from everyone, I guess even not those already standing. I think everyone was hoping they would do an encore thing, but they didn’t, they not a Japanese band after all so ahwell, good show overall.

Yes, even the people behind sitting stood up for this of course.

With that, people are up and about from their standing ovation and are on their way to head out now.

The casino is still open I think, the time is now like 11:15pm-ish I think? It’s gonna be a bit drive back home after this. I thought about going in but opted not to, I have food at home, better not fall into the $6 patty thing again. At these prices it’ll be like $20 for 2 pieces of chicken and fries from Mary browns.

The range of people coming to today’s show is very wide, from young to old, to even little kids and shit. I saw a few people even in wheelchairs and shit. The population demographic I think is like 80% white, with the remaining 20% split between Asians, browns and black folks. It’s not as diverse as the Hanabie show that I saw this year that’s for sure but what do you expect, this is in Etobicoke, white people central.

Making my way back to the mall marking lot. It would really be nice if the parking here here, wouldn’t have to go that far.

The strike guys are still there, blocking the way, I think probably to prevent uber rides and shit. Well, most people heading this way for public transit and the like to or their are parked in the mall. Once I get into my car, I exist and go home, not bad like 30min drive.

Merch time, one of the shirts I got, very nice. Legends is a concept album where each song is about some famous historical figure, this illustration has some of said historical figures fighting each other. It’s a shame they didn’t sing more of the songs from this album which is really bizarre in my opinion, like the entire tour is called “Legends on Tour” you kinda expect them to sing their newest songs but yea. I mean, they have a song about Lu Bu, Miyamoto Musashi and even Vlad the Impaler, Egyptian Pharaohs, why notttt FGO songs todayyyy.

This tour is basically just North America tour only, I think they also do European tour next year in 2027 and then probably by early-mid 2028 they will have a new album and then repeat the process of touring again lol.

The other shirt I got is a bit more discrete, with the dragon logo which I have no idea they came up with for this tour, which is odd, since they don’t even sing any LU BU songs or asian songs and the dragon is kinda asiany. I dunno man, but still looks nice.

The back is more basic but still nice. Overall the first shirt is the better one imo but this is the one I will likely wear more often since it’s less flashy. They had another shirt that was kinda purple white, I couldn’t see the illustration but it was the ugliest of the tour shirts, looks like it had a wizard or something on it. But man, still both these shirts cost me $140 damn.

All in all some final thoughts, this Sabaton concert was a long time coming and it was overall a great how but I am not so sure about the seated seats. Seated seats are good for some types of music concerts but for a show like rock or metal, you gotta stand up man and cheer, just like a idol/hololive concert, you don’t sit man, you gotta stand. The fact that the venue space itself is so clearly divided that way makes it even worse and evident. I sometimes looked behind me during hype songs and I see everyone sitting, looking tired, it’s like man, you came all the way here and paid alot of money for tickets, the least you can do is stand up while they perform. The venue itself is fine, and the sound acoustics better than some others but still not the best, they still got a bit of echo static going on, maybe it’s just me that I am used to more pristine polished sound from studio recorded albums but I haven’t been to a metal concert yet where I can say that they sound better live lol. The setlist was quite surprizing to me since I thought they would play almost all of their new songs from the Legends alumn but they only played like 3-4 wow, and pulled from their large catelagoe of older fan fav songs. Perhaps this is because they haven’t toured in so long here and wanted to give people what they want, instead of promoting their newest shit, which while very good, doesn’t resonate as much as some of their older material for some. Great energy and performances from the band themselves, Wings of Steel kinda shit, Pop Evil kinda good, Sabaton good shit. My experience with Woodbine racetrack was bad since I lost $20 but I understand now how horse racing works, it’s a thing. As for the entire complex itself, it’s alright, it’s not Vegas but what can you do, I didn’t’ even explore the Casino area but who knows, if I’m ever back here again I’ll try to. The parking situation is honestly shit and annoying but it could have been so much worse, lucky for the good parking I got at the mall across the street. The merch is damn expensive but it’s the world we live in, sad. Good show and concert overall, would again, just wouldn’t buy a patty again and drop it on the floor.