What Is It Like to See Faber Drive Live?
Eleven songs, an hour and change in a sweaty club, and the whole room screaming "Tongue Tied" back at a band they last heard on the radio in 2008. This is nostalgia night for Canadians who grew up on these singles.
What to Know Before You Go
- 1"Tongue Tied" closes it out
Their biggest singalong is the set-ender, and at a club this size there's no arena-style encore, so do not wander off before the last song.
- 2"G-Get Up and Dance!" is when the floor moves
The Platinum hit is the designated jump-around moment. Position yourself for it if you want to be in the middle of that.
- 3Expect a cover or two
They regularly drop in Cutting Crew's "(I Just) Died in Your Arms," Wheatus's "Teenage Dirtbag," or a Cars cut. It's part of the show, not a one-off.
- 4Watch for the Powfu moment
Frontman Dave Faber's son is the rapper Powfu, and the band reworks his viral hit "death bed (coffee for your head)" live. It's the one genuinely surprising song in the set.
- 5It's a millennial-Canadian room
This is people re-living 2007 to 2010 on Canadian radio, not a young discovery crowd. Lean into it.
- 6The VIP is unusually worth it here
For $100 you get an unplugged mini-performance, a meet-and-greet, a signed poster, and early merch access. That's real face time, not just a line-skip.
- 7Opener is TBA for 2026
The anniversary dates are billed "with Special Guests" with no names announced yet, so check your specific venue listing before you plan when to show up.
At a Glance
- Show Length
- 1h 15m
- Songs Per Show
- 11
- Costume Changes
- 0
- Setlist Variety
- Singles fixed; covers and seasonal songs rotate
- Punctuality
- Expect a long gap after doors (doors 7:00, stage 8:45)
- Venue Type
- Clubs
- Career Shows
- 38 documented
- Touring Since
- 2006
Shorter than most artists
Leaner set than most artists
Relatively few shows to date
Faber plays shorter shows, fewer songs per show, and fewer career shows than most artists we cover.
What It's Actually Like
The Set Is Short and the Singles Do All the Work
Faber Drive at this stage play tight club rooms, and the set is built to match. At the Fox Cabaret show in Vancouver on December 4, 2025, they played 11 songs, took the stage at 8:45 PM, and were off by 10:00 PM, a set of 1h 15m per setlist.fm. Their singles carry it: setlist.fm has "When I'm with You" showing up across 12 documented shows, "Second Chance" and "Time Bomb" 11 apiece, and "Tongue Tied" 10, and that's the spine you'll hear. If you're going for one specific song, it's almost always the last thing they play.
Dave Faber Guilt-Trips You Into Singing Louder
Faber's between-song habit is to bait the room. At the 2013 Singapore show that Popspoken reviewed, he paused mid-set to tease the crowd for not singing loudly enough, and the fans answered back "at deafening volumes." The band has said on record that "Tongue Tied" and "When I'm With You" are the two moments the crowd out-sings them and gives them "chills every night," while "G-Get Up and Dance!" is the one where the floor physically moves, people jumping with their hands up. This is a frontman who works you, not one who plays straight through and leaves.
“Faber Drive Came to Town And Made Me Feel 16 Again”
It Is a Time Machine, and the Band Knows It
For a band whose entire current draw is people who were teenagers in 2008, the show does not fight the nostalgia. The 2026 run is literally built on it: the Seven Second Surgery 19¼ Anniversary Tour celebrates their 2007 debut, and the festival promo copy ("bringing back all the pop punk anthems and energy," per Playback Music Fest) tells you exactly what you're walking into. Newer country-tinged material like "Life Out Here" and the 2025 Lifeline EP shows up, but the emotional center of the night is the old singles. Nobody is here to discover a new song.
The Powfu Curveball
The strangest, best moment in a Faber Drive set right now is a family thing. Dave Faber's son is the rapper Powfu, whose "death bed (coffee for your head)" was a genuine streaming-era smash, and the band reworks it live. It was in the December 4, 2025 Fox Cabaret set, sandwiched between a Cutting Crew cover and the new "Lifeline," and it's built into the 2026 tour. Watching a 2000s Canadian pop-punk band fold a viral bedroom-pop hit into the set by way of the singer's kid is the kind of thing you don't see coming.
The Room Is Millennial Canada
The crowd skews late-20s-to-40s Canadians who grew up on MuchMusic and CFOX radio, the same Vancouver station whose Fox Seeds contest launched the band back in 2005. Because most dates are Canadian and the chart history is Canadian (Junos, MMVAs, the Canadian Hot 100), this plays like a hometown reunion rather than a national tour stop. Fan discussion in English outside Canada is thin, and the rooms are small enough that you're never far from the stage.
Seven Second Surgery 19¼ Anniversary Tour (2026)
A cross-Canada headline run celebrating the 19¼-year mark of the 2007 debut, per Exclaim! and 604 Records. It starts September 30, 2026 at Cabaret Foufounes Électriques in Montreal and wraps October 24 at Fortune Sound Club in Vancouver, hitting 14 cities across eight provinces. These are clubs and small theaters, a step down in scale from the arena support slots the band played in its 2000s peak, closer to a room like The Pearl Vancouver than an arena.
What the Night Looks Like
Expect a debut-album-forward set with the new Lifeline EP material folded in and the reworked Powfu "death bed (coffee for your head)" as the curveball. The December 4, 2025 Fox Cabaret set is the best template for the current sequence: Time Bomb, Second Chance, 24 Story Love Affair, then a Cutting Crew cover, "death bed," "Lifeline," "You and I Tonight," "When I'm with You," a Hillsong United "Oceans" cover, "Silent Night" (a December-only inclusion), and "Tongue Tied" to close. Covers rotate, so you'll likely get a different one or two than that list.
The VIP Is the Real Value
One venue listed general tickets at $25 advance and $30 at the door, with a $100 VIP package on top. The VIP includes a meet-and-greet, a personal photo, a signed poster, an intimate unplugged performance, a commemorative laminate, and early merch-shopping access (Showpass). At a club this size, that unplugged mini-set and actual face time is a genuinely different experience from the main show, not the usual big-tour line-skip.
Who's Opening
As of mid-2026 the dates are billed "with Special Guests" and no opener names had been announced. Check your specific venue listing before deciding when to arrive.
Fan Culture and Traditions
Before You Go
"Tongue Tied" Closing Singalong
The Gold-certified closer is the song the room came for, and the crowd out-sings the band on it.
At the Show
"G-Get Up and Dance!" Jump-Around
The Platinum single is the designated jump-and-hands-up moment in an otherwise mid-tempo set.
The Powfu "death bed" Reworking
The band reworks Dave Faber's son Powfu's viral hit into their live set.
Merch
Faber Drive merch runs through 604 Shop (the store of longtime label 604 Records) and the tables at shows, with the 2026 run centered on Seven Second Surgery anniversary items tied to the debut album's near-two-decade mark, plus Lifeline EP material. There's no evidence of numbered limited drops or city-specific poster variants at this level, so this is catalog-and-tour-item merch rather than scarcity merch. The one real timing edge is the $100 VIP package, which includes early merch-shopping access before general admission gets in. Per-item prices (tees, hoodies, posters) were not published in the sources available, so grab what you want at the table or check 604 Shop online after.
Tour History
Seven Second Surgery 19¼ Anniversary Tour
14 cities across eight provinces, Sept 30 to Oct 24.
Festival & Reunion Era
After activity stalled around 2014, the band reunited December 4, 2016 at Hard Rock Casino Vancouver and has run independently since.
2000s Peak Touring
The era the whole thing is built on.
Frequently Asked Questions
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This guide is based on fan accounts, touring data, and community discussion. It is not sponsored by or affiliated with Faber Drive.