Above image via Spotify: The Blue Stones
Giovanni Mori | Posted May 16th, 2025
If you’re ever in doubt about rock music still hanging on to its wild and rebellious spirit in present day 2025, look no further than a Canadian garage rock duo called The Blue Stones. Consisting of vocalist and guitarist Tarek Jafar and drummer Justin Tessier, the band has taken everything fans love from the raucous style of music and made it flexible with other genres including blues, hip hop, pop, and more, giving listeners the best of all worlds. For the past month, the band has been touring the US to support the recent release of their fourth studio album, METRO, and will continue playing shows for the next month and a half according to their promo.
Above image via Instagram: @thebluestones
On May 3rd, the Metro Tour stopped at Mr. Smalls Theater in Millvale PA, just outside the city of Pittsburgh, and kicked the evening off with support from a groovy funk trio called VEAUX. The opener’s 40 minute set was full of vigorous dance numbers that warmed the crowd up, and was the second to last performance for the band on the tour. Below is their track “Bad Omen” from their 2024 EP, Love in the Midnight.
YouTube: VEAUX
It wouldn’t be long before The Blue Stones put their imaginary sunglasses on, and fiercely attacked the start of their set with METRO‘s previously released singles, the fuzz filled “Your Master” and stoner rock inspired “Come Apart.” The band may seem very limited in their sound at first glance with only a couple of microphones, drum kit, guitar, and even a piano off to the side between just the two members, but their massive tone effortlessly filled the entire room, giving each audience member that kick in their chest and making the hairs on their arms stand up.
Passionate fans were very receptive to the band’s performance as they followed Jafar from one side of the stage to the other, and continuously shouted back the words to many of the setlist’s hits and deep cuts including the bluesy and energetic “Be My Fire,” the expeditious “New Immigrant,” and the ethereal sounding “Magic.”
YouTube: The Blue Stones
The evening’s midway point was the perfect time for the more mellow part of the set, typical for a high energy band that can flawlessly keep hundreds of concertgoers’ attention for seven whole songs. The audience was treated with much needed cooldown songs like the vocally impressive “Happy Cry,” the Black Sabbath-esque “Jesse James,” and the third eye opening “Healing,” with the now seemingly hypnotized theater still singing back every word to each verse.
As far as the music’s subject matter goes, METRO is about going through an existential crisis as The Blue Stones ask themselves and the listener some of life’s toughest questions like “Who are we? What are we doing with ourselves? What’s the point of anything we do?” The theme echos in each of the album’s sixteen tracks, and became even more poignant as Jafar gave a brief speech about the band finding themselves with their own record label upon the album’s release, then proceeded to introduce its emotional final track to sum it all up, “Falling Leaves.”
YouTube: The Blue Stones
The band concluded their rotation of METRO‘s tracks and filled the remainder of the evening with powerful singles from their three previously released albums, starting with their most popular song to date, “Black Holes (Solid Ground),” another high energy tune that calls back to other legendary early 2000s indie garage rock duos like The White Stripes and The Black Keys. More high streaming hits soon followed including the percussive “Rolling with the Punches,” the dance breaky “Don’t Miss,” and finally closing it all off with one of their heaviest songs in their discography, the moody “Shakin’ Off The Rust.”
YouTube: The Blue Stones
With a current 760,000 monthly listener count on Spotify, it’s certain The Blue Stones can only go up from there. The Metro Tour will continue to make many stops in the US until the end of June, as well as some dates in Europe in early 2026 according to their social media. Check out one of their many upcoming shows if you’re able and be sure to listen to METRO on the way!
Sources
“Come Apart (Official Lyric Visualizer)” YouTube, uploaded by The Blue Stones, 15 Jan. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIflXM–TKU
“Falling Leaves (Official Audio)” YouTube, uploaded by The Blue Stones, 28 Mar. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKCfzdlNLyY
“The Blue Stones – Black Holes (Solid Ground) (Official Music Video)” YouTube, uploaded by The Blue Stones, 27 Nov. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToNMrcuudMA
The Blue Stones. METRO, New Weapon Records, 2025. Spotify app.
The Blue Stones [@thebluestones]. Tour Promo. Instagram, 28 Jan. 2025, https://www.instagram.com/p/DFYKsPAP9tv/
“VEAUX – Bad Omen (From the Belafonte)” YouTube, uploaded by VEAUX, 9 Dec. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNtzR6apit0
