Big Rock Finish… reviews of independent music

August 2, 2008.

LONG WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing better than spending your long weekend away from your significant other. What? You mean normal people don’t spend 3 day weekends away from their boyfriend/girlfriend and would rather go camping at a rock festival?? Insanity!

So, Awaking State was invited to the Cutting Edge music festival. Something I’d never heard of before until about a week prior to the event. Alright, so it’s in some place called Grand Bend. What?! It’s three to four hours away (depending on who’s driving) and it’s a 4 day long event?? Do you think you’re crazy? I’m a seasoned couch potato (now THAT’s funny) and am not into the whole idea of camping.

Alas, the idea of media passes and all-access was just too thrilling, and I ended up finding myself in a car full of computer and drum equipment (and beer, lets not forget the beer) Friday night heading towards this mythical “Grand Bend” location. All other posting aside, seeing as how I wrote an entry about the event in general, let’s get to the show.

Awaking State was the exact first band to be playing. Good and bad. Good because once the band (and their entourage) is done, they have the entire rest of the festival to enjoy the sights/sounds and overall relax and have a good time. Bad, because they’re the first band playing, there really isn’t a lot of “walk-through” traffic to enjoy the sights and sounds of Awaking State, rather just their hardcore fans, and other bands were likely the ones to take in the music. Which is still good in my opinion.

I liked the set. The stage was MASSIVE. Biggest I’d seen in a while, especially for an independent band. Beer company sponsorship. Go figure. A generally new lineup included previously known Kent on guitar & lead vocals, and Brandon kickin’ it behind… the kicks. Danny was a great comedic lead guitarist, Andrew was one of the most chill bassists I’d ever seen, and all bassists seem really chill, and for the first time, Adam on keys.

Daytime stages are always so different for me personally, seeing as how most of my photography is done in the dark of a dingy back end bar. So it took me a little bit to get used to the idea of sunlight and the great outdoors, including having something burning in my eye for half the set. But my favourites are always the large vein in Kent’s neck that looks like it will burst at any moment. And I think he’s been working out, at least Awaking State-wise, because that vein gets bigger every time I see it.

So the first band at a festival probably isn’t the best spot in the world, but I do know that with their performance this year, they’ve already nailed a slot in next year’s Cutting Edge music festival. So here’s hoping that next year my photos will be more like the photos I always take, shielded from the sun!

July 25, 2008.

To most people it’s a day to have fun and frolic in the sunshine. To my friend Jana (www.jananas.com) it’s her birthday and she’s going to celebrate it Christmas-in-July-ified! Problem being, this was also the same night that Cousin Alex and Tynur were to celebrate their collective birthdates by throwing a big party at Smiling Buddha Bar including, if anything else, the chance to get up on stage and make fools of themselves in front of all their friends, family and well-wishers.

So what’s a girl to do? I go to both! The fun and exciting part is the fact that it will be a really relaxed environment and the bands are great. Wee Alex is in both which makes for some interesting wardrobe changes, if anything just so the photographers can properly tag which band is on stage at what time.

But seeing as how S.N.A.K. was the first to perform (of which I only caught a portion of their set, being late(!) to the venue) they played to some pretty hip and happening crowds that… for the most part avoided the dance floor like the plague. I avoid it too so I guess I can’t really say anything bad about them. But we get the dancing songs up, and everyone will come up and hang out violating the dreaded Toronto semi-circle.

As Wee Alex changes from a black t-shirt to a white t-shirt, Señor Kasio hits the stage with lots of fun songs about… lots of subjects. We have tattoos, bloody noses, stolen cars and Iraq or Afghanistan or something to do with fake turkeys. Midway through THAT set, of course you have Cousin Alex of S.N.A.K. and Steve of Señor Kasio doing the just-married intertwined-arm shooters, some bump and grind dancing between the both overly-sweaty gentlemen, before more members of S.N.A.K. start hitting the stage in funny sunglasses and overall crowding the very small centre of attention.

I have to admit, I had my doubts that the stage at Smiling Buddha Bar would be able to hold the collective members of both bands, and I was right! Tynur was off the stage the entire time, and Dave! and Steve both were running into the crowd to dance like the fools they pretend to be.

And I think my favourite of the night was the encore of “I Wanna Fuck” if all else, because it was requested by women in the crowd shouting “We wanna fuck again!”

Alright. It’s a holiday Monday, I’m sitting at home, dehydrated, not at all on a normal sleep schedule, sunburnt to the tits (actually, to be perfectly honest my tits are the one part of my body NOT sunburnt) and wondering “what the hell happened 72 hours ago?” I was at the Cutting Edge Music Festival.

I went there with no more than the intentions to take photos of Awaking State while they were on stage, off stage, and everything in between. Mission accomplished. I also saw a few other bands that I enjoyed, some I recognized, some I didn’t. Since Awaking State was the first band of the event to perform, it meant that after that it was just party time until it was time to go home.

Friday night all four vehicles of Awaking State arrived, picked a camp ground and proceeded to drink until it started pouring crazy rain that disallowed any more tent setup. As I slept quite uncomfortably in the van, I wondered how everyone was doing in tent city since they were not allowed to have their cars at the campsite (artists were allowed).

Saturday was Awaking State’s set, which was awesome, and a lot of my wandering around the festival afterwards checking out the vendors, taking photos of other bands, using my media pass to it’s fullest advantages. Just hung out really. Found out we weren’t even in the right camp ground (which explains why no one else was there. Although I find it surprising that the entire Awaking State group was directed to one area, while everyone else was pointed in the complete opposite direction) and we had to move campsites.

Saturday night I was dead tired and generally feeling a little burnt, drank some and wanted to sleep early. Completely repacked the travelling van so I had room to lay down in the back, and promptly fell asleep while the headlining act was playing about 500 feet to my right.

Sunday we had a mix of security issues, no hot water, and my giving up on a shower and just toweling myself off in a still generally clean washroom. Waited 3 hours for something to eat for breakfast since the boys were driving off into town, this being after about an hour and a half of trying to jumpstart a car with a dead battery. Finally after eating, we drank some more so I was able to finish off my alcohol, and more sitting and chilling, and finally packing of the van so we could leave. The rest of the group stayed until today from my understanding (Monday afternoon) but I had to leave early, so we did!

I liked it. I wouldn’t mind doing it again. I’m just going to make sure I bring less clothes (I totally overpacked in the clothing department) and more food & booze to not have to pay outrageous prices at the event.

Give me a few more days when typing no longer hurts my sunburnt shoulders, and I’ll tell you more about the bands.

This is a bit of an odd repost, but I really liked Fuscia. Currently I know Mikey S, who was the bassist at the time I knew the band, is playing bass for Nathan Down . And Shawn started a new band called If Looks could Kill. I don’t have any real updates on the other former members of Fuscia, but check out those two links, and try and I’ll see you later!

Oh, you have to see their live show. I didn’t really get to see Fuscia at Warped tour but I did get to see them May 5th at the Rim Rock in Ajax, Ontario. For a stage the size of my futon mattress, 4 band members, and 3 camera guys doing nothing but tripping all over the band members, these guys have an awesome live show.

They play with each other on stage. Not in *that* way you sick perverts. But there’s lots of movement, there’s lots of involvement, and of all the bands I’ve seen, it’s the first time I’ve heard Mikey sing. But it’s great to see bands where the members sort of say hi to each other while performing, instead of being super rigid and set in their little 2 foot square of personal invisible bubble.

I had gone to Lee’s Palace to see Harlot, who was headlining this particular show that night. And arrived just early enough to catch the last half of The Weather Underground (www.theweatherunderground.ca). Having missed half their show, this will likely be a short review.

I didn’t know any of the songs they played, except one sounded oddly familiar. Everyone’s convinced it was a cover, while I am not contesting it, I feel that I’ve watched them play at other shows before, which is why I recognized the song. (Not that I know what it is) Either way, the band sounded really good, really loud, and much the rock band that one would expect.

Most of my experiences with the band stemmed after the set. I went up to the lead singer to ask about buying a CD. I was two dollars short but he let me buy it anyways. I asked to have it signed, with a sharpie, and he searched high and low for a sharpie to autograph my cd with. Then searched high and low for the rest of his bandmates to also sign the CD for me. I even had the bass player autograph the cd “To eBay” for me.

I also met the artist who “designed” the artwork, he’s a painter who’s art they used for their coverart, and he got to see the CD for the first time and we talked about his art & where it’s displayed etc. I ended up leaving my CD with him while Harlot was starting.

Came back to find my CD had gone off with the artist’s girlfriend upstairs to Dance Cave so she could show all their friends his art, and I waited around to get it back.

The band is definitely filled with nice guys who are jokers, drinkers, and general musicians. While leaving and walking past the band as they were loading gear into their car we got to talk even more. I’ll definitely try to check them out again.

I’m working my way backwards from the beach party show that happened last month. First things first, Señor Kasio was last to go on. It’s never fun for me to go to a show on a school night, but for these guys I just had to. I wanted to see what the big fuss was about.

So Steve had been running around for weeks online promoting his beach party show, and something about some very large balls. As they were the closing band, it took a while to see this dream turn into a reality. Sadly, four metric tonnes of sand was not brought into the venue.

The boys took to the stage like fish being dropped back into their fish bowl. Always with the high energy, and hilariously in t-shirts, shorts, sandals and lei’s. I think the funniest was the lei’s. Or perhaps it was the sandals. Thankfully no one was wearing socks with them! I kind of hoped for Hawaiian shirts, because as Homer once said “Hawaiian shirts are for gay guys and big fat party animals… (and Bart doesn’t look like a big fat party animal to me.)”

I know all the songs by now, can attempt to sing and dance along with every one of them, and there was some sort of crowd even though it was a late night and everyone had work and/or school in the morning. The high energy in the singing and dancing on stage was always just enough to feed the audience the energy to keep going, and I do hope that we, as the audience, provide enough back to make being on stage worth it!

The large balls that Steve was boasting about was a 3 ft beach ball purchased online, and unfortunately there is a skill in beach ball mathematics that he did not learn until after his purchase. And while the crowd warmed up to the idea of tossing this thing around during the show, very few casualities were had.

The venue was somewhat empty, until the last song where it seemed everyone appeared out of the woodwork. Seeing as how Señor Kasio and S.N.A.K. share a guitarist, and generally are quite friendly, they seemed mainly to attack the stage, and add a more fuller feeling to the band… if not just simply sexually harassing them. They’re in a band, they should be used to it.

So in closing, the crowd could have been bigger, and it could have been held on a night that wasn’t a school night. I missed my unicycle club meeting for this show. But, as with all Señor Kasio shows, I’ll definitely be coming back again!

So I went to Lee’s Palace to see Harlot (www.harlotmusic.com) play on the 12th. I already wrote about another band I met there just prior to them going on stage. So here’s what I thought about Harlot. Before I begin, let me note that it was a Friday night, and there was this MASSIVE lineup to get in.

I’ve never been to Lee’s Palace before so I wasn’t sure what the fuss was about, I’ve never seen a line up to see a bunch of indie bands. But I stood in line, talking to everyone around me, when I realized everyone was in line for the Dance Cave that was upstairs. I walked up to the Bouncers and asked if the lineup was to see the bands, they asked how many people were “with my party” (just me) and let me in immediately.

I was also guest-listed which was awesome since I’ve paid for the first two Harlot shows. It’s not that expensive (I think the cover was $5.00) but considering how little money I brought, the extra 5 bucks went wisely towards the purchase of a CD.

Onto the show. Harlot are a very high-energy band. The lead singer I heard someone comment as “Wow, she really is only 3 feet tall” (she’s short, but not THAT short) but has a big voice coming out of such a tiny frame. I’ve always really enjoyed their music, while I don’t often do comparisons, they remind me of Evanessence, but a lot better.

Their music is a lot on the loud, angry type genre that I don’t listen to a whole lot, but when I do it’s because it’s well put together and really good to listen to. Their stage show is also pretty fun, since Annique (the lead singer) always plays it up with the rest of the band, singing and flirting with the guitarist, drummer, and the bassist (former Strap-On Tools bassist Mikey S)

I don’t know their songs exceptionally well because they’re a pretty new band (I think they were put together over the summer,) but their myspace provides some tracks and I’ve been to a few of their shows, so the songs I recognize I absolutely love every time. Their new songs are equally good, just not as familiar. And it’s a pretty long set to be so full of energy and being angry and jumping around for so long. I think in the end they played about 40 minutes of loud rock music.

The funny part was when Annique was drinking some water, I guess it went down the wrong way, and she started coughing/choking a bit. The band was starting the next song as she was like “Wait I’m choking!” So the guitarist came over to rub/pat her back a bit and as soon as he did… she burped. Quite loudly. Right into the microphone. Very ladylike. Heh. They obviously played it off and went about the show. But it was really funny either way.

Point of trivia, at their/my first Harlot show (I’ve been to all 3 shows they’ve played in Toronto so far) I thought Annique looked familiar but I couldn’t place it. After messaging her on myspace I finally realized, she went to my high school. I kept threatening to bring my yearbook to get her to sign, but I never feel like bringing it. But it would be funny I tell you what!