Tonight the Canadian folk-rock band Crash Test Dummies from Winnipeg, were performing at the Tung Auditorium at the Yoko Ono Lennon Centre, from their ‘Celebrating 35 Years’ current tour. This dynamic high energy stage show did not disappoint its fans and featured their most iconic songs, and the acoustics of this fabulous auditorium lent itself perfectly to their distinct stand out sound.
Having one of the most recognisable voices in history, alternative rock band Crash Test Dummies are a three-time Grammy-nominated and JUNO award-winning group who soared to the top of the worldwide charts in the early 1990’s. Their cover of ‘The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead’ was a highlight of the soundtrack to the blockbuster film Dumb and Dumber and reached number 4 in the album charts.
Brad Roberts original band member, lead singer, guitarist and songwriter was influenced by British bands the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, XTC and David Bowie growing up. He was quoted saying that the reason we are on tour again is that ‘Surprisingly – at least to me - there are lots of people who many years later still want to come and hear us. Its humbling being in the confidence of so many people.’
Brad was joined onstage with other original band members singer and musician Ellen Reid, Dan Roberts - Brad’s brother on bass guitar, and drummer Mitch Dorge. Joining alongside them were guitarist Stuart Cameron and late newcomer Leith Flemming Smith on keyboard to form a six-piece band. Sadly, their special guest Gareth Dunlop was unable to join them as their supporting act tonight, but Scottish folk singer and songwriter Abigail Pryde joined them instead and gave us a beautiful emotive performance. With Brad Roberts unique deep bass-baritone vocal range and fusion with Ellen’s folk- rock vibe, brings about a clever mix of sounds and a compilation of music ranging from folk, rhythm and blues, jazz, 60’s, country and rock and roll, it had it all.
The band kicked off with ‘Ghosts’, Brad and Ellen harmonising whilst Ellen played the tambourine and Brad played acoustic guitar. Most of the songs they sang together but ‘A Little Something’ and ‘If I Had My Way’ were sung mainly solo by Ellen’s gorgeous dulcet tones, apart from their infamous rousing hit ‘Peter Pumpkinhead’.
Ellen also played the accordion during ‘Bereft Man’s Song’ and Brad played electric guitar on some of their songs, of which they performed 17 of them tonight.
During the performance the band gave a shout out to Stephanie in the audience, and they sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to her, inviting the audience to join in with them, which was a lovely touch. The auditorium atmosphere changed and went up a gear when the audience got very excited with their performance of ‘God’ and really got a full-on involvement from them, with some audience members being told kindly to calm down!
Other hits they performed were ‘Superman’ and ‘Coffeespoons’ and they came back onstage for an encore to sing ‘Feel It’ and the very melancholic ‘Heart of Stone’ a beautiful ballad, and their grand finale their biggest and most famous hit of all which peaked at number 2 in the UK charts, 'Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm' which had everyone up on their feet singing clapping and foot tapping along.
My personal favourite was a fairly new addition a song called ‘Sacred Alphabet’ sung by Brad and it had a very spellbinding almost ethereal feel to it and it had me mesmerised; it totally captivated me. The band sounded just as they had done in their heyday and the audience absolutely loved it; it was like being transported back in time. A fabulous evening.
The band are on tour in UK until 17th October 2026, and on tour in Australia next year, for further tour information check out their website, https://www.crashtestdummies.com/
Reviewer: Jill Ollerton
On: 10/10/2026
