After another lap around the sun – and planet – Ziggy Alberts has returned to North America with his ‘New Love’ world tour, and album of the same name.
On Monday, June 2, 2025, Alberts played The Danforth Music Hall in downtown Toronto. I love catching shows at the Danforth, in part because it’s a great, relatively intimate venue, but also because it means I can stop in at my friend Russ’s bar and restaurant, The Edmund Burke, just a few steps away for a quick dinner and/or drink before the show! (Russ and I went to journalism school together, but both ended up finding other means of making a living in the face of a struggling print industry, and ever-increasing costs of living.)
This was Ziggy’s third time playing Toronto in as many years, with the COVID-19 Pandemic having put a pause on his (and many other artists’) performances for a few years there.
Luckily for fans, the independent singer-songwriter did put out a number of albums, through his own Commonfolk Records label in the time between, including 2021’s ‘Searching for Freedom,’ 2022’s ‘Dancing in the Dark,’ and a few different cuts and versions of a number of his songs.
The album ‘New Love’ was released earlier this year, with some songs, including the title track, having made their debut online and on Ziggy’s previous tour, in 2024.
My favourite thing about Ziggy’s shows are the giant smile he has across his face throughout much of his performances, and his infectious energy which is nearly impossible not to get caught up in.
He played a mix of songs from the new, and recent albums, and some old favourites, including Love Me Now and Runaway, which got everyone singing and dancing along.
Alberts also covered Avril Lavigne’s debut track, Complicated, which he had recently released a version of online, and promised to perform in the ‘motherland’. He played this one with his guitar in his lap, using the guitar for a fun mix of string and percussion which is a playing style he uses for some of his own songs, and one of the things that first drew me into his music.
Helping to ensure everyone had a memorable night, Alberts snuck around to the back of the auditorium part way through the show and played a few songs close up for the people who didn’t make it close to the front stage. He then ran through the crowd back to the main stage to finish out the performance.
Ziggy always brings great guests to help open his shows and/or sing along with him, and last night was no exception. 24 year old Steph Strings from Australia opened the show with a few originals and a cover of Xavier Rudd’s Follow the Sun, demonstrating her dedication to her craft with great guitar work and a beautiful voice to accompany it. Like Ziggy, Steph also shared a big smile with the audience through most of her performance. I think it really does add something to the show to see the performers enjoying themselves on stage, just as much, if not more than the audience members. If they’re not having a good time doing what they do, what is even the point? She shared with the crowd that Ziggy Alberts was her favourite musician as a high schooler, and what a joy it was for her to join him on tour now, just a few years later.
In 2024, Ziggy had brought along Garrett Kato, a Canadian-born singer, songwriter, producer, and sound engineer who now calls Australia home, to play a soft and charming set, and Kato, in turn, brought out the Milton, ON based internet sensation, Billie Ann, to sing their song Easy, which was honestly stunning.
In 2023, Ziggy brought out Sarnia, ON musician, Donovan Woods, to sing their song The Sun & The Sea (who I had the pleasure of seeing perform an intimate show of his own this past year with opener Billy Raffoul at the Algonquin Theatre in Huntsville, ON) to the thrill of many attendees. His opener that night was the talented Kim Churchill from Australia (who I also got to see again last summer, performing an intimate show at home-turned-sometimes-concert-venue, Dead Horse Canyon run by a couple of gems in my hometown of Bracebridge, ON, which offers concerts through Dan Mangan’s Side Door Access Platform. They also had Dan play their house, which was amazing, but I devastatingly didn’t make it to that show!)
I always have a great time at Ziggy’s shows, and of course last night was no exception. It makes my world a little brighter to catch him in concert and resets my focus on what matters in life. He sings about environmental issues, and love – both of which are dear to my heart, of course – and he does it in a soothing way that reminds us that there are people in this world who think, and care, deeply about these affairs more than it may seem at times. And he’s just fun to sing along with!
I first heard Ziggy’s music on an indie-folk playlist at work, and then looked up his songs through YouTube videos while trying to figure out how to quit my office job and live a life of more purpose, back in 2019. Not long after discovering him, I found his website to see if he would be touring in my area any time soon, and lo-and-behold, that is when I saw he was playing at the 2019 Mariposa Folk Festival, in nearby Orillia, ON, just a few weeks later. I signed up to volunteer with Mariposa, and I got to watch his set during my downtime!
As an aside, volunteering at festivals is a great way to get in for free, especially if there are only a few artists out of the many performing that you want to see; you just have to be willing to trade some of your time to help run things behind the scenes for part of the festival. The organizers are pretty good about letting you off to see whichever particular acts you’re most drawn to, so in my books it’s well worth it. In 2019 I helped out with the greening crew, which basically positioned people at the garbage, recycling, and compost bins to help ensure waste got sorted into the right receptacle. One of the many great features of Mariposa is its dedication to running an environmentally responsible festival… but more on that in another post (when I cover this year’s festival)!
Anyway, in 2019 at that festival, Ziggy shared the stage with Hawksley Workman (who is actually from the town I live in now, which is Huntsville, ON, though he currently lives in Australia), and Canadian singer-songwriter Steve Poltz, before performing his own set later on in the day. I remember his tour van rolling in beside the table where us greening volunteers had our home-base, and seeing him and his entourage playing hacky-sack in their downtime on the grass beside their van. After his solo set that evening, he met fans at a merch table, set up behind the audience area of the mainstage where Jason Isbell was about to perform. I went to watch Jason Isbell instead of meeting Ziggy, which is something I somewhat regret, BUT Isbell’s performance brought me to tears, so I was glad to be up near the front of the audience for it. Just prior, Colter Wall had performed, with his stunning, stop-you-in-your-tracks baritone vocals, and I was thrilled to have caught the end of his set too. (Wall then came around to watch Isbell perform and stood right behind me while I balled my eyes out, to If We Were Vampires. I was hoping no one noticed, but another guy in the crowd, who was very kind, called me out for crying, in a nice “that song must have meant a lot to you” kind of way, and invited me to join him and his partner and friends in dancing along to the upcoming act, My Son the Hurricane. I declined and locked myself in a porta-potty until I could regain my composure.)
All of these are the moments I live for, and I love the inter-connectivity of it all. It’s exciting to see live music and shows what can happen when people push through obstacles, work hard, and follow their hearts. Ziggy, for example, started out as a busker and has now toured the world many times over with his albums, while also running a successful record company. It’s the stuff dreams are made of.
But even if all that’s not your jam, I think we can all agree, music at least breaks up the monotony of everyday life, and gives concert goers something to look forward to. It puts us in touch with what’s realist and deepest in our hearts – or at least takes us away from what’s not.
I will be basking in the glow of Ziggy’s performance for some time to come, but I also do already have another show lined up for this Friday, which I plan to blog about as well. That one won’t be posted right away, because my cousin is getting married the next day, and I’m so excited to share the day with him and his wife-to-be and the rest of the family, but I will update as soon as I can after!
In the meantime, happy listening!
Lisa goes to shows 