So it's been a while since I've said anything.... so I'll try to quickly sum up my time at Canadian Music Week. I will do so in point form. I will be dropping names.
-Danielle's mom didn't want guys and girls in the same hotel room so she bought Devon and I our own room, that was sweet. (huge props to Mrs. Doyle). Too bad it was in the ghetto-ass Bond Hotel.
-We went to the Indie awards on the first night. It was possibly the most poorly organized event I've ever seen. It was hosted by Jully Black, so yeah. I met Darren Jones from MTV Canada/The Buzz outside and I was like "I remember you from YTV", good times.
-Bands I saw perform at the Indie's: DJ Champion, Neverending White Lights, HelloGoodbye, Cadence Weapon, Priestess, Rough Trade, Wolfmother.... possibly others, I can't remember.
-Dave Marsden said hi to me after the show. I love that man.
-Next day we saw a few of the conferences at the Royal York.
-My shift didn't start until 10 so I went and saw Lye play at the Horseshoe.
-I got to my shift as assistant stage manager at The Kathedral early and ended up working security and stage hand stuff for Comeback Kid, that was pretty sweet.
-The first night of my venue had a few bands from the east coast, a reggae band called The Jolly Llamas who had a mandolin player, they were actually really good, and a really sweet R&B style band called Kae Sun that I really liked.
-On the Friday I met up with Tara and she, Devon and I went around Yonge street looking in sweet stores like North Bound Leather then we saw Finger Eleven play acoustic at Edge 102. Here's some pics of us with them:
-Shift started again at Kathedral that night but this time I was pretty stoked for the bands, the first 2 bands were straight from Japan. They were called HY and The Emeralds. HY was apparently like Superstars in Japan, they had press releases with pics of them playing to a bunch of woodstock style audiences and getting mobbed by fans, and there they were at Kathedral. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be on their North American tour DVD since I intentionally got in frame with the camera guy and was setting up some of their equipment and junk. Also, I was the first person to sign their tour flag thing so the camera guy was right there filming while I signed it. I can't wait to get that DVD.
-When I opened the doors to the Kathedral there was like 200 japanese girls waiting at the doors. Some straight from Japan, they used their passport to show ID, it was nuts.
-The Emeralds were friggin great, blew me away with their fast talking Japanese surf/garage music and leather glam outfits.
-Then some other band... Hunter Valentine, weren't bad but I did get a random e-mail from them about a videoshoot. No dice.
-Then Fuck The Facts played! That was the band I was waiting to see the most. They were fucking awesome. Mel is fucking cute too, I don't expect that in a singer for a grindcore band. They were the only band without a crew so I paid some special attention to them and got them to sign my CD and junk. Good times were had.
-I want to pretend that the last 2 bands on friday didn't happen. Bobnoxious pretty much made me hate music. They brought a drum riser, a lighting rig, a smoke machine, a gigantic banner, a curtain rig for the front of stage, like 12 boxes of merch, a busload of weird ass cougar fans, and they even brought their own supporting band. They put so much work in their image that I knew the couldn't possibly live up to it with their music. And I was right, it was the most generic punk rock I've ever heard. They are to punk what Warrant is to metal.
-On saturday we went to see Chuck D speak, he's great.
-I met The Birthday Massacre's manager at the german market panel, he's sending me an autographed poster.
-My last night at Kathedral was pretty awesome, the bands weren't as great overall though. We had a few bands from Chris Smith Management play first so you know with that comes some big names in Canadian music. Cheryl Murphy (manager of Nelly Furtado & K-Os) showed up with Chrissy, Cameron, and Jamie, Fefe Dobson came, Darrin Pfieffer's wife, and a few other guys like festival organizers and various business people for the industry. Too bad the Chris Smith bands weren't that good.
-The big draw for the night were the punk bands Cauterize and Seconds To Go, they were pretty solid I tell ya.
-My favourite band of the night and possibly the whole time there was The Hedrons, an all girl scottish rock band. They fuckin' rocked the place and I was glad they were the last band I saw while working there. I got a shirt and cd from them and got them to sign it.
Various other points to mention:
-I got about 30 free cd's and 2 DVD's
-I found a new appreciation for energy drinks (Full Throttle tastes like Gummy Bears)
-I discovered the greatest food ever: Doubles. It's chickpeas and curry inside some roti. Only $1.50 each at Alberts across from the Kathedral.
We did so much, I'm sure I'm missing some huge points.
-Danielle's mom didn't want guys and girls in the same hotel room so she bought Devon and I our own room, that was sweet. (huge props to Mrs. Doyle). Too bad it was in the ghetto-ass Bond Hotel.
-We went to the Indie awards on the first night. It was possibly the most poorly organized event I've ever seen. It was hosted by Jully Black, so yeah. I met Darren Jones from MTV Canada/The Buzz outside and I was like "I remember you from YTV", good times.
-Bands I saw perform at the Indie's: DJ Champion, Neverending White Lights, HelloGoodbye, Cadence Weapon, Priestess, Rough Trade, Wolfmother.... possibly others, I can't remember.
-Dave Marsden said hi to me after the show. I love that man.
-Next day we saw a few of the conferences at the Royal York.
-My shift didn't start until 10 so I went and saw Lye play at the Horseshoe.
-I got to my shift as assistant stage manager at The Kathedral early and ended up working security and stage hand stuff for Comeback Kid, that was pretty sweet.
-The first night of my venue had a few bands from the east coast, a reggae band called The Jolly Llamas who had a mandolin player, they were actually really good, and a really sweet R&B style band called Kae Sun that I really liked.
-On the Friday I met up with Tara and she, Devon and I went around Yonge street looking in sweet stores like North Bound Leather then we saw Finger Eleven play acoustic at Edge 102. Here's some pics of us with them:
-Shift started again at Kathedral that night but this time I was pretty stoked for the bands, the first 2 bands were straight from Japan. They were called HY and The Emeralds. HY was apparently like Superstars in Japan, they had press releases with pics of them playing to a bunch of woodstock style audiences and getting mobbed by fans, and there they were at Kathedral. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be on their North American tour DVD since I intentionally got in frame with the camera guy and was setting up some of their equipment and junk. Also, I was the first person to sign their tour flag thing so the camera guy was right there filming while I signed it. I can't wait to get that DVD.
-When I opened the doors to the Kathedral there was like 200 japanese girls waiting at the doors. Some straight from Japan, they used their passport to show ID, it was nuts.
-The Emeralds were friggin great, blew me away with their fast talking Japanese surf/garage music and leather glam outfits.
-Then some other band... Hunter Valentine, weren't bad but I did get a random e-mail from them about a videoshoot. No dice.
-Then Fuck The Facts played! That was the band I was waiting to see the most. They were fucking awesome. Mel is fucking cute too, I don't expect that in a singer for a grindcore band. They were the only band without a crew so I paid some special attention to them and got them to sign my CD and junk. Good times were had.
-I want to pretend that the last 2 bands on friday didn't happen. Bobnoxious pretty much made me hate music. They brought a drum riser, a lighting rig, a smoke machine, a gigantic banner, a curtain rig for the front of stage, like 12 boxes of merch, a busload of weird ass cougar fans, and they even brought their own supporting band. They put so much work in their image that I knew the couldn't possibly live up to it with their music. And I was right, it was the most generic punk rock I've ever heard. They are to punk what Warrant is to metal.
-On saturday we went to see Chuck D speak, he's great.
-I met The Birthday Massacre's manager at the german market panel, he's sending me an autographed poster.
-My last night at Kathedral was pretty awesome, the bands weren't as great overall though. We had a few bands from Chris Smith Management play first so you know with that comes some big names in Canadian music. Cheryl Murphy (manager of Nelly Furtado & K-Os) showed up with Chrissy, Cameron, and Jamie, Fefe Dobson came, Darrin Pfieffer's wife, and a few other guys like festival organizers and various business people for the industry. Too bad the Chris Smith bands weren't that good.
-The big draw for the night were the punk bands Cauterize and Seconds To Go, they were pretty solid I tell ya.
-My favourite band of the night and possibly the whole time there was The Hedrons, an all girl scottish rock band. They fuckin' rocked the place and I was glad they were the last band I saw while working there. I got a shirt and cd from them and got them to sign it.
Various other points to mention:
-I got about 30 free cd's and 2 DVD's
-I found a new appreciation for energy drinks (Full Throttle tastes like Gummy Bears)
-I discovered the greatest food ever: Doubles. It's chickpeas and curry inside some roti. Only $1.50 each at Alberts across from the Kathedral.
We did so much, I'm sure I'm missing some huge points.
*sighs*