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!

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.

Name: Awaking State
Album: (not yet named)
Released: (not yet released)
Members:
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

Website: www.awakingstate.com
Favourite Song: Love, Fuck.
Photo by: Adrianna Rependa

I vowed to never review music that wasn’t in CD or mp3 format for this website, because I was interested in seeing what a band could put together as a package. And these days, if it isn’t already painfully obvious, music alone does not sell records. And generally, if according to pop culture, music is barely even on the register with regards to selling records. And I’ve been met with generally very understanding bands when I say I want to review an album or EP from them, so I can say to the world “Hey! Go listen to these guys and buy their album!” And it’s extremely difficult to do that if they only have mp3′s on myspace or similar networking sites. I digress, in that for Awaking State, I was willing to give up this rule temporarily, and I will state right here and now, that I will never give up this rule again. Online players rarely work, don’t work the way I want them do, and generally are irritating because they depend on so much processing power from my poor little 3 year old computer that they generally are cutting out more often then they are playing. And that’s just plain frustrating. And honestly, you do not want someone frustrated trying to listen to your music… to review it.

Anyways, That was a bit of a digression. I’m doing this for Awaking State because I know just how big of a deal it is that they (well, half the band that I know of anyways, Kent and Brandon) were able to fly to California for somewhere between one and two weeks, depending on who you talked to, to record and mix with a woman named Sylvia Massy. Now that name means not a whole lot to me, not being all “with it” when it comes to the music scene, but this was obviously a big thing for them, and I can tell this was a very big deal, thus, a pre-quel of a review.

I think after a year of doing these reviews, I’m starting to be able to differentiate between different genres of music. I still think it’s basically the band just saying what they are… but I when I first hit play to a song that would play for more than 3 seconds on Awaking State’s Facebook fan page, I could actually tell that “Industrial” should be one of their titles. “Rock” is a given since… well if it’s not rock, what is it? And finally, I didn’t pick this one up right away but their myspace page states “Drum & Bass”. So the final verdict according to Myspace? Rock/Drum & Bass/Industrial. Final verdict according to Facebook? “Electronic Alternative” They all make sense, and I’ll just go by what they say.

Seeing as how at the time I write this review there IS no album, I thought I should at least let everyone know the songs that I was listening to to write this review, and they are as follows:

• Out There
• These Things
• Next in Line
• Ordinary Days
• Love, Fuck

And generally, as with any artist, I start to feel that yes, the songs are all from the same artist. (Hey, sometimes I feel like they’re not! And it weirds me out!) These songs all being from the Sylvia Massy mixing extravaganza, makes them sound much more polished than the previous versions that I had listened to before in passing. That’s a definite. It almost amazes me sometimes, how more of the bands I am writing about, aren’t already in the tops of being rich and famous. They definitely got “it”, as Awaking State obviously does… and yet they aren’t being handed keys to various high ticket cars and recording contracts worth millions to sit on, and scratch, their bums.

As for favourite song from Awaking State? I don’t really have one. Seeing as how I always pressure myself to pick one, I’m pretty certain I only picked “Love, Fuck” because there’s swearing in it, and I can be quite childish with regards to the idea of swearing. Like OMG! A swear word?? Is that allowed?? But yes. I very much like all the songs that I’d been listening to, now that they’re playing properly on my computer. The Drum & Bass and Industrial side (I’m assuming) of the music lets me believe this is a band that can be aggressive and not someone you want to bump into in a dark alley. Something just a little bit dangerous, that I’m sure will get the girls going crazy. And many of the boys.

I’m beginning to think that Awaking State would do well in the extreme sports market. Depending on the director of the video, any one of the songs I listed above could be played while people are wrecking themselves and their vehicles of choice trying death-defying stunts. If only there was someone currently doing a new extreme unicycle DVD! And…okay, I am currently very impatiently waiting for the beginning of March which should be Awaking State’s first show, and possibly their CD release show, where they had to cancel their February show due to a giant snow-storm. I believe the date announced was March 7, 2008. It’s somewhere in Oshawa, Ontario. To be honest, I have not a clue what the venue is. But I’m sure if you keep up on their website, you’ll find it.

Name: [Perversion] Album: Collapses Released: Halloween 2006 Members: Brad J Bakelmun – … written, produced and performed by Alex Brule – Lead/Additional Gtrs C.H.A.D. – Additional Drums Marc-L “Boomer” Porter – Drums on “Halfway” Amanda Sebastian: whisperer on “the universal truth” Website: www.perversion.ca Favourite Song: masochist [track: 6]

Is it weird that I would call music haunting? [Perversion] kind of creeps me out sometimes. It’s a good kind of creep-me-out though. One of those makes-me-think sort of music. Songs go back and forth from pretty slow, to pretty fast pretty quickly and easily, it’s always unexpected what’s going to happen next. It’s a total mood changer.

I’ve been told that [Perversion] mimics some popular bands in the rock-ish-era. Not one for being much into music that’s commercially released (hence this blog I do believe) I wouldn’t have been able to piece them together. The lyrics in the songs always make me wonder what the artist was thinking when he was writing, since the words are so… “out there” sometimes.

My favourite song just called me a manipulative damaged whore. I believe I just found my soul mate. Anyways, is there ever a time to want to feel aggressive? That’s when I would listen to this. With my knowledge of gothic clubs, I would envision [Perversion] being a big hit at the DJ booth. And surprisingly enough, I’m already trying to figure out how to work a few of the songs off this album into a 15 minute, dual-position flesh hook suspension performance. Of course I’d want to be the one to perform it. I’ll be sure to send the band a message if and when I do.

Name: [Perversion] Album: Collapses Released: Halloween 2006 Members: Brad J Bakelmun – … written, produced and performed by Alex Brule – Lead/Additional Gtrs C.H.A.D. – Additional Drums Marc-L “Boomer” Porter – Drums on “Halfway” Amanda Sebastian: whisperer on “the universal truth” Website: www.perversion.ca Favourite Song: masochist [track: 6]

Is it weird that I would call music haunting? [Perversion] kind of creeps me out sometimes. It’s a good kind of creep-me-out though. One of those makes-me-think sort of music. Songs go back and forth from pretty slow, to pretty fast pretty quickly and easily, it’s always unexpected what’s going to happen next. It’s a total mood changer.

I’ve been told that [Perversion] mimics some popular bands in the rock-ish-era. Not one for being much into music that’s commercially released (hence this blog I do believe) I wouldn’t have been able to piece them together. The lyrics in the songs always make me wonder what the artist was thinking when he was writing, since the words are so… “out there” sometimes.

My favourite song just called me a manipulative damaged whore. I believe I just found my soul mate. Anyways, is there ever a time to want to feel aggressive? That’s when I would listen to this. With my knowledge of gothic clubs, I would envision [Perversion] being a big hit at the DJ booth. And surprisingly enough, I’m already trying to figure out how to work a few of the songs off this album into a 15 minute, dual-position flesh hook suspension performance. Of course I’d want to be the one to perform it. I’ll be sure to send the band a message if and when I do.