if you're totally sick to death of hearing about it, press delete now, baby.
however, i finally got through the four metric tonnes of email i had
while i was away and it seems there were only a few reviews. i thought
i'd write a bit about some of the things that stuck in my mind. i think
i'll do this in a few small installments so my brain doesn't turn inside out.
the first show i got to see was the bar show at birdland on wednesday.
the fire engine red van pulled into halifax around 2 am.
thank god everything goes really
late in halifax or we'd have missed lil orton hoggett. despite feeling
completely sad about missing sloan/trike/state champs and the chinstraps
earlier on, i was very excited about seeing lil orton, one of two acts i
wanted to see this summer but didn't get to. (sloan, of course, being the
other). did i mention i was excited to see my halifax friends too? :)
by now everyone knows lil orton is matthew murphy, and the ten cent wings
are charles austin on guitar (he's a WICKED guitar player, even al tuck
says he's jealous of him), tracy stevens on bass, and chris murphy on
drums with a bad german accent.
lots of swearing in this show. what a bunch of foul mouthed hicks.
i nearly split a gut laughing at charles' hokey accent while he talked
about only smokin export a's when they pay the bills or some such
silliness. they played a lot of old time country classics. while this was
a great show and was much fun, i have to agree with the people who were
wondering why a side project (essentially a joke side project) was
headlining at atlantic canada's only alternative music festival. no
offense meant to them, it was an event and a half, but it must have felt
weird to some other legit bands who couldn't even get on the roster
(bands i got to speak with on the way home), but are successful enough to
be touring europe and the states. but anyway.
the next morning, i could barely get out of bed, i was so exhuasted.
that's what happens when you wake up at 7 am in Hamilton, Ontario on
Tuesday and hang out in Toronto all day, sell merchandise and schmooze :)
until 2 am, load gear into the van, and drive like hell towards Halifax
for 21 hours and then stay up visiting all night.
But Fire Engine Red, my hometown boys, were up first at the all ages show
at the gravitee club. a more insulting slot they could not have asked
for. considering they were the only band from the prairies and
considering how far they had travelled, it was a little disheartening to
have them opening for bands who had to cross the bridge (New Brunswick)
or walk down the street (Preppy Relatives) at a time slot when most all
ages type kids are um in school. again, no offense to those bands at all,
i enjoyed their sets immensely, it just seems like f.e.r. were pushed
aside and not taken as seriously as they might have been. peter rowan did
apologize to them, though, which was cool. it was nice to see colin m. in
the crowd during their set. anyway, their set was actually decent
considering how little sleep they'd had, although it had nothing on their
toronto performance. they are a meat and potatoes rock band, kids,
wearing their influences on their sleeves quite proudly (the
replacements, uncle tupelo, buffalo tom). they're in debt big time.
new brunwick were a good straight ahead band, but nothing stood out from
their set. of course, i was busy meeting some sloan net kids for the
first time and hangin with old friends, too, so i guess i'm not in a
position to judge. strawberry were just like they were this summer. if
you know their single, you know their set. nice quiet pop, but nothing
really really special.
preppy relatives. i had missed their performance at the geek love fest
thing this summer. what a mistake. they were sooo warm sounding, that's
the best way i can sum them up. simple but innovative. pick up their
tape, go see them. people talk about them a lot here, so i'll just stop.
i left after that set, i HAD to get ready for the sloan net get together...
tara
--
"A lot of people think Matt's Kato Kaelin."
- Drew Yamada, the Super Friendz
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