Awaking State - Live at the Groove Lounge
This was the long lost fabled debut show for Awaking State. Knowing the members of the band is always a plus when it comes to getting into a show for free. For this I was hired as their photographer, which works for me in that I didn’t have to pay to get in (although it was a really decent cover). For some reason Awaking State has a tendency to piss off Mother Nature, as their last show was cancelled due to an upcoming snowstorm, and this show was also scheduled for a snow-storm. Alas, the show must go on, and snow storm or no snow storm, Awaking State was going to hit the stage.
I think the funniest for me was that I arrived too early, and rather than go into a venue too early and look like a jackass, I proceeded to attempt to nap in my car for a few minutes. Of course Brandon (the drummer) happen to be outside at the time, watched me pull up, and proceeded to wait outside for me to come in. Finally giving up and coming up to the car to see why the hell I wasn’t going into the venue. I was, however, presented with my media pass to grant me access to the night’s festivities.
The first band, Blind Fire, went up and were pretty awesome. Had a good crowd going on early in the night and obvious they were a local favourite. Then the intermission as some generic rock music pumped through the speakers and I went to grab a beer.
Awaking State hit the stage with lots of effects I don’t expect at a live show. I know they’re very electronic based but it’s rare to see musicians come up with more than just instruments. I also noted there were more instruments than band members on stage and realized that was supposed to make sense. Awaking State started off strong. Going into songs that I have come to think of as favourites since they were released onto the internet. It seemed unfortunate that the sound person was having some difficulty knowing exactly what was required, as requests were made by Kent to change some things regarding sounds of this or the monitor in that. There was also a moment of laptop kerfuffel as Brandon had to jump off the drums to see what was going on.
The extra instruments were mainly a keyboard off to the side. Where I watched Kent, with a guitar strapped around his neck, to then go to the keyboard and play a few bars while singing into an extra microphone. I also found it just a little amusing that while Kent early on broke a guitar string, then went to change guitars, he seemed to have given up on a normal 6 stringed guitar, and went back to playing his first choice of guitar, which included said broken string.
The Toronto Semi-circle that was non-existant during Blind Fire’s set, happened during Awaking State. A perfect half circle of dead space in front of the stage that had a radius of about 5 or 6 feet. I was told later this was likely due to the fact that enough Torontoians were imported to Oshawa, is the reasoning for it. Although I will admit, being right up to the musicians was irritating as the stage lights hung pretty low and I’m sure if I was more careless I would have bonked my head!
I do look forward to seeing more Awaking State shows.
I do not look forward to driving home in 4 ft of snow the next day.
