blog post Halifax Pop Explosion - De-briefing

And now for part 2 of He Said, She said

Lisa: The final moment of the Halifax experience - a donair from the King of Donairs at 4 a.m. Craig, Don and I ate ours in Don's room after a brilliant night at the Marquee. The show got off to a bit of a rocky start, after a small (okay, rather large) technical hiccup caused us some grief, and as I was warned, the night went by so fast. Kicking off with Toronto's The Diableros, and ending at 2 a.m. with Cadence Weapon still onstage. I have to say this one of the best bills I have ever seen - and one of the biggest treats for Halifax Pop Explosion audiences. And I know what you're thinking "she's exaggerating,"...

Craig: OK, let me jump in here; Lisa's not exaggerating at all. From the beautiful pop of The Diableros, through the frenetic sounds of Ducchess Says and We Are Wolves, the earthy sing-a-long revival of Jon-Rae and The River right up to the blistering set by Cadence Weapon, the night was a microcosm of what CBC3 does everyday. A diverse, eclectic night of music, and the packed house was more than ready to come along for the ride. A highlight for me was Annie (above) from Ducchess Says and her...ah...er..um..onstage "weirdness". Riveting, and fun. Sorry you can't see that on the audio, but there are lots of pics that capture it. (More after the jump)

Lisa: It was a pretty busy night, too. Bands took to the stage every 15 minutes and we did a lot of interviews in between.

The Diableros started off with a tight, hook-filled pop-rock set that sadly didn't get out to the world beyond the Marquee due to the aforementioned technical glitch (but will be available on line). Duchess Says and We Are Wolves made us all remember that whole Montreal excitement a few years back putting their electro-rock out there on full-seductive assault. Jon-Rae and the River took the already hyped audience up even higher. It was an amazingly-gratifying feeling to see how hungry and appreciative everyone one was to Edmonton rapper Cadence Weapon after Jon-Rae's twang-filled revival rock show. But a music fest audience knows only one thing - and that's a good show, screw the genre. And this audience did not need much prompting to get their fists high in the air as they were called upon by one of the most intoxicatingly-menacing and charismatic performers in this country. Craig and I had the nasty job of telling everyone the show was over just after 2. No one was happy to see us on that house-light filled stage, I can tell you that. But we did get rid of the last of our X-Large t-shirts after the audience was directed to the swag.

The Marquee likes to wrap up right after a show - and I mean right after! Security guards were turning the chairs over as the audience milled about. Luckily for Craig and I, Alexandre of We Are Wolves shared some of the band's beer. Sorry Steve, Don and James. And that pretty much wrapped up the night since all of the bands across the whole city wrapped up well before our show ended.

Luckily we had Friday night to hit the clubs and see a bunch of shows. Highlights: Their Majesties at Hell, Land of Talk at the Marquee, Iron Giant, billed as Motorhead meets Sabbath, at The Attic. Craig was nice enough to come along with me and wait out a set by the Netherlands hard rockers The Spades that included a visit on stage by Bionic front man Jonathan Cummins. I picked up a bunch of free Jagermeister items for the kids (that sounds wrong, doesn't it?). We then braved the insane wind and rain outside for a trip to the Seahorse for the Barmitvah Brothers (Craig is such a hometown boy), and then to Stage Nice to see Toronto hardcorers Fucked Up. We got there just in time to hear the lead singer tell some story about a party he went to in Toronto that he described as "the kind that Broken Social Scene might be at". Much booing from the crowd. Then he said he saw Chris Murphy of Sloan who - to much admiration from the crowd - explained that he knew almost everything from the Bad Brains. Not sure how that came up, but I wasn't at the party.

There were a lot of shows I wish I could have seen but missed. Memphis cancelled, Joel Plaskett and the Halifax symphony was sold out and Raising the Fawn and the Golden Dogs and Uncut played the same night as our show. You can only do so much.

But how could I ever be disappointed? I think our bill. It really represented some of the best bands in this country across the whole spectrum of indie music. My favourite moment came when Jon-Rae and one of his band mates gushed about being followed by a hip hop act. They were so darned thrilled that we did it and how well it worked. Me too.

Craig: I'm not a coastal boy. I have never really been exposed to gale force winds. That is until Lisa and I hopped from bar to bar on Friday night. Seriously - umbrella destroying winds. Perhaps Lisa was worried that I wasn't enjoying the metal at The Attic. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was odd, though, after seeing Iron Giant and The Spades, to be told by some girls outside The Seahorse that "the Barmitzvah Brothers kick ass". I don't even think that the Barmitzvah Brothers say "ass".

It was striking for me to see the wide range of musical styles at HPE. Hardcore is rarely represented at these indie fests, but HPE brought it.

In closing, I think it's important to note that Lisa used the "f" word up there. She's a rocker.