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!”

Name: Alyson Greenfield
Album: Tuscaloosa
Released: 2008
Members:
Alyson Greenfield – piano, guitar, keyboards, tambourine, handclaps, vocals
Jason Mercer – bass
Geoff Hug – drums
Denise Barbarita – background vocals, bowed guitar & guitar
Rich Kulsar – percussion
D-Sharp# – Viola

Website: www.alysongreenfield.com
Favourite Song: School (Track 4)

Again, an artist who was actually happy with the idea of me reviewing them, enough to send a second effort to me. I’m honoured and grateful! Since it’s getting tough to get music from the masses (seeing as how… well what can I say, Myspace kind of sucks these days) so here we go. Let’s listen to some more Alyson Greenfield! Oh, but one thing I just have to mention. I hate plastic wrap. Drives me insane because it’s nearly impossible to open. I received a CD opener as a gift from a management company that has been invaluable (sorry to them, I scratched the name off!) but it wouldn’t work with Alyson’s CD since it didn’t fit. And it took me… about 20 minutes to get the plastic wrap off since I had no sharp utensels at my disposal.

You know I probably won’t agree with any type of label that Alyson Greenfield has set for herself? Every song sounds so different from everything else. And every song I’ve heard so far from her defies logic. The strangest thing is her songs remind me of how the Simpsons are written. How… the beginning of a song and the end to a song sound completely different, and only in hearing the whole thing at once will you be convinced it’s the same song. But there’s no defining moment where it changes.

Honestly, anyone who knows me knows that I was made to play the piano for many many years of my life. And I never found anything beautiful about the music that would come out when I sat near the thing, because I never really considered myself a musician. And because of that, I think I am always in a type of disgusted awe where beautiful music is able to come out of the instrument, and how I was not one of the people able to do it. Quiet jealousy probably.

Alright, so where I would listen to Alyson Greenfield, I honestly don’t know. I can think of a pretty wide collection of friends of mine who would really love to give a listen, and I’ll probably pass the CD along to at least a few of them. I’m starting to think of new music in terms of who else might enjoy it. And at this point, I’m thinking of the people who are a little bit hippy-ish, and those who always have had a penchant for all things “on the strange side of normal.”

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!

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.

One of many jemo (www.jemo.net / www.jemounofficial.com) shows that I have gone to in the past year, without exception this was a great show. Ciao Edie Roxx is a small little place just off of College and Bathurst in downtown Toronto. Has an oddly shaped room, stage, and a smoke machine, caters to what I would classify as a more up-scale, pay $10+ for a martini (I’m taking a wild guess at price here) where people would venture to after work.

The set was great. jemo as always sounded very tight, well put together, and had lots of fun. Songs that I recognized I have no problem singing along to, and new songs are always great to hear and remember for when they are finally recorded and released.

They also played a new (to them) R&B cover this night, “Crazy” By Gnarls Barkley. Which was surprising and really good. I’d only heard the song a few times (even though it was a top song very recently) and the way jemo interpreted it, and changed it around just enough to fit their style of music, was truly inspirational.

Not much else to say other than it was a great set.

Edit: There’s more to this story!
Alright, more than a year later I’ve got more to say!
I still think this show was awesome. It may not be a surprise to all of you, that I run the jemo unofficial fan site due to Jeff’s unfortunate lack of HTML abilities. And it’s there I posted a clip of the show from that night. Truly a great way to sing a song, make it your own. I believe it was the Barenaked Ladies (a great Canadian band) that made mention to bands doing covers, to not try and be the original artist, it’s much better to be your own artist with their song.

And other than that, that’s always been a GREAT venue. It’s really tucked away and not very noticeable. I do know that the drinks are just a little bit pricey, but overall, I miss going there, and need more musician friends to play at that type of venue.

I was supposed to go to the first Awaking State (http://awakingstate.com/) show of the season, and of this particular line-up’s career tonight. Unfortunately Mother Nature decided to step in and dump a proper Canadian Winter upon us. While that meant I was able to weasel my way into staying home from work, it also means I am forced to stay home from the show as the venue will not be opening for the event.

The show has been re-scheduled for March 7th, 2008 at the same venue.

The band had this to say:

Dear friends, fans and well wishers alike…….

I unfortunately have to send out this message canceling tonights event due to Weather complications. The club will be shutdown, and therefor none of the bands will be playing tonights event. Thanks to everyone for taking such an interest, and the bands Suburban Sunrise and TennFold who will see some dates with Awaking State yet…..

The make-up date is FRIDAY MARCH 7th at Groove Lounge, and this might very well be our album release party as i’ll be back from California with the straight fucking goods….Sylvia Massy seems to think i got something going on and seeing as she’s done Tool, Econoline Crush, red hot chili’s etc…i get the feeling she knows what shes talking about.,….
Here is to a big 2008!

Until then
i urge all of you to join our fan page so that we can keep you posted on what we’re doing and so we can let you know about other events, offers, giveaways and all that other fun stuff that comes along with supporting this band and my projects….
join it here > http://www.facebook.com/pages/Awaking-State/20829154896?ref=share

All the best! be safe in this weather!

Kent DS-1 of Awaking State

Their Bio is as follows:

AWAKING STATE – A Biography.

Moody and angry. Electronic music with a powerful Hard Rock edge.

Awaking State is the brainchild of Kent “DS-1” Martell (Lead Vocals, Guitar, Piano and Programming). Kent has been signed to Toronto’s longest running Drum & Bass label, Furious Records, since the age of 19 and has gone on to be one of the top Drum & Bass artists and DJs in Canada over the past several years. During that time, he experienced extensive club play, chart topping songs and a victory in Toronto’s Edge 102.1’s Nine Inch Nails [Only] Remix Contest.

As well as garnering tonnes of airplay on 102.1 and putting him face to face with his greatest influence Trent Reznor, that victory planted the seeds of Awaking State in his mind.

Kent began writing songs, while at the same time hunting for band members who shared his vision. What transpired in the following year and a half became Awaking State. Long time friend Jason Iwanko (Bass Guitar and Backing Vocals) was the first to join, a chance meeting in a bar produced Justin Lant (Lead Guitar and Backing Vocals), and an extensive search of the internet brought Brandon E.M. Savage (Drums and Backing Vocals) into the fold.

Together, these four musicians mix Rock, Industrial, and Drum & Bass with a Pop sensibility that comes through to deliver the hooks. The melodies of Awaking State could grace the airwaves of any radio station, but with their distinctive electronic edge they are separated them from the cookie-cutter music that circulates through the main stream. Their music is mixed with a beefed up live show that isn’t expected from an independent band and always leaves the crowd wanting more.

Watch out; Awaking State is coming for you…

Awaking State features:

Kent Martell – Lead Vocals, Guitar, Piano and Programming
Jason Iwanko – Bass and Backing Vocals
Justin Lant – Guitar and Backing Vocals
Brandon E.M. Savage – Drums and Backing Vocals