Wednesday night at the Winnipeg Folk Exchange, the renowned folk trio from Newfoundland, The Once, took the stage in the corner of the small brightly coloured room, and went on to perform yet another magical show. This was their fourth such show on their current tour of Pop Up shows, promoting their second album Row Upon Row To The People They Know, in smaller more intimate venues across Western Canada, and it was simply incredible. No other stage could be more suitable for the power and honesty, the poise and wholesomeness produced by The Once.
A near twenty song set with ten songs played without amplification made this unlike any normal concert, but more of a family gathering in the host’s kitchen; Newfie hospitality is unmatched. True to their roots, The Once played several of their own compositions, half a dozen or so traditional songs from the Maritimes and the British Isles like “By The Glow Of The Kerosene Light,” and of course their own priceless covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Coming Back To You” and “Anthem,” Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”, Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend” (which they originally took on for a wedding), and Al Pittman’s “Cradle Hill” and “Nell’s Song.”
The stories they told about the history of the songs ranged from the truly heart wrenching tales of Geraldine Hollett’s father’s brushes with death as a fisherman which were retold in “Three Fishers” and “Charlie’s” to Phil Churchill’s playing his first shows in St. John’s pubs and ordering a beer from the beautiful bartender in “A Round Again,” and Andrew Dale’s explanations about the Feast of Cohen which lead to The Once performing two great Cohen songs.
Artistically I have no doubt that The Once could take any song and produce a cover that combines warming ingenuity and strong resemblance to the original; likewise for their own creations. Individually any member could have a strong career as a musician, but together their voices and instrumental abilities create remarkable sounds that are crisp and thoughtfully cultivated to bring audiences to a dead silence practically begging for yet another note to be struck. Beyond the impeccable musical and vocal abilities of the trio they have the stage presence to make any show memorable with casual banter, Andrew’s especially witty remarks, and personal conversations with young audience members. The best moment from this particular evening was when a young man with an infectious laugh was invited to the front of the room so he could have a better seat. There is one negative thing, however, that I must say about this show and the limitations of The Once in general: they’re only in Winnipeg for two shows—so disappointing! Jesse Blackman
“Bone Thugs-N-Harmony” // 10-21-11 // Marquee Lounge
Photo by Mike Chiasson at the Marquee Lounge in Winnipeg.
By Andrew Mazurak
Sound Republic brought in Kray-kray-zie Bone and Wish Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony to Winnipeg’s Marquee Lounge & Event Centre a few Fridays ago and the night was not so tame. At midnight we arrive to the front doors to find a couple wasted girls verbally brawling a couple bouncers. One gets taken down to the pavement out front as the other screams.
Ouch..
Continue reading ““Bone Thugs-N-Harmony” // 10-21-11 // Marquee Lounge”
Zombie Walk // 10-14-11 // Pampanga Banquet Hall
By DJ Stone
Mmmmm brains, brains nom nom nom nom!!
On October 14, thousands of bloody, rotting zombies were seen limping and crawling towards the Pampanga Banquet Hall (old skool rave location) after the Winnipeg Zombie Walk. There were zombie cheerleaders, business zombies, rabbit zombies, and some lady in a blood soaked wedding dress holding her aborted fetus still attached with the umbilical cord :-/
The location of this nine p.m. ’til six a.m. rave was TBA (oooo, secretive) until tickets went on sale, brought to you buy DV8 Audio Visual Productions and Jsquared Entertainmynt. It was a 16+ event; however, they did have a licensed area upstairs for the rest of us who wanted to get our drink on.
This was a two-room event, with the legend himself Dieselboy, as well as ill.Gates, Johnny Narcotic and a slew of local “zombie” DJs as well. Well, it was what everyone came to see, a lot of loud, heavy, bass-blasting, dubstep with a touch of drum-n-bass. I was kinda hoping Dieselboy would have played some of his older drum-n-bass stuff, but I guess dubstep is what the kids want to hear these days.
Who knew the dead could dance so well?! It was pretty packed on the dance floor, rotting bodies flailing around, an overall good party. I give it eight out 10 zombies.
In Tents! // 10-22-11 // The Warehouse
Photo of SoHoly HeadCase by Taylor Burgess.
More or less, as typed into Taylor Benjamin Burgess‘ CrackBerry throughout the night:
In tents! Some people have brought tents to sleep over for this night, the last show of Absent Sound, as Rob Menard is relocating to Montreal. It seems to be a pretty low-key artsy thing, with film loops being projected on the bands. The ten dollar cover definitely is going to weed some people out—but the motley lineup and the legacy of Absent Sound is sure to make an interesting night, if nothing else. Continue reading “In Tents! // 10-22-11 // The Warehouse”
Arctic Monkeys + Smith Westerns // 10-1-11 // Walker
Photo by Andrew Mazurak at the Walker in Winnipeg.
The Arctic Monkeys came through Winnipeg with Chicago’s Smith Westerns at the Burton Cummings earlier this month and it ended up being a verrrry surprising affair.
Let it be known that Stylus was among the (small?) fraction to see Smith Westerns and we agreed with the majority of this fraction that it was not an overly satisfying part of the evening. It may have been that the band was on a larger stage than their look/sound/performance could handle.. but this was only the seventh show on a stretch with the Arctic Monkeys.. so there is really no excuse for such a drab Winnipeg showcase. And this is coming from many attendees who fell for their 2009 self-titled debut and this years stellar Dye It Blonde..
Continue reading “Arctic Monkeys + Smith Westerns // 10-1-11 // Walker”
Frank Turner + the Andrew Jackson Jihad + Into It, Over It // WECC, 10.21.11
by Sheldon Birnie
Once in a while, a rock n roll show is just perfect. It takes you for a ride, lifting you out of the struggles and strife inherent to living as a human being on Earth. It reaffirms your belief in the power of rock, reaffirms why you’ve spent hundreds of thousands of hours listening to records over and over again, shilling out thousands of dollars over the years to buy those records or attend rock shows, buy t-shirts and beer koozies and other useless shit from your favourite bands. Leaves you feeling pumped up and ready to take on the world when the lights lift and the band goes home. Makes you feel alive. Continue reading “Frank Turner + the Andrew Jackson Jihad + Into It, Over It // WECC, 10.21.11”
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart + Suuns // 09-28-11 // Lo Pub
Photo by Mike Chiasson at the Lo Pub in Winnipeg.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were recently in Winnipeg to play an amalgamated show with Montréal’s Suuns at the Lo Pub. Opening for these two would-have-been separate shows were Jersey’s Big Troubles and Montréal-based Valleys. Tons of the Stylus fam was on hand to take in this faux Battle of the Bands: National Edition that saw each act compliment one another as if it were a single renegade tour of rising face melters.
Continue reading “The Pains of Being Pure at Heart + Suuns // 09-28-11 // Lo Pub”
Frenchies? Swooooooooooooooooooooooooooon
KARKWA W/ AIDAN KNIGHT
@ WECC
Thursday, September 29, 2011
By Victoria King
As if there weren’t already loads of benefits to knowing French, (eg: a decent-paying government job, an upper hand in travelling abroad and a couple nifty pick-up lines to whip out once and a while) now there’s Karkwa.
I really shouldn’t say ‘now’ though. The guys in Karkwa have been playing and recording together for 14 years, with their most popular and recent album of being 2011’s Le Chemins de Verre which earned the band the Polaris Prize. And FYI, that year’s nominees included favourites like Tegan & Sara, The Sadies and Broken Social Scene. Before I’d listened to their latest album earlier that day, I really wasn’t too sure of what to expect and was only looking forward to the opener of the show, Aidan Knight. Not a big deal, but I sorta fell in love with LCDV not long after hitting play.
Continue reading “Frenchies? Swooooooooooooooooooooooooooon”
Ample Hula-Hooping, But Not Enough Fist Pumping: MEME 2011
MEME (Manitoba Electronic Music Exhibition)
Saturday, June 25, 2011
@ The Cube in Old Market Square
By Shanell Dupras
Free, good music that you can hear bumpin’ all through The Exchange? Check. An entertaining audience to watch while you tap your feet? Absolutely. Sounds like a great night? Yes, and no. Unfortunately I could not make it for the entire concert, but I did get the chance to see three local acts: JNL, Sisk, and Phaze-M. Keep in mind that these kinds of concerts are hard to review due to how they make their music. It seems difficult for them to mess up their sets unless they accidentally press the power button on their MacBooks.
The first DJ that I saw was JNL. His music had insane bass lines that I couldn’t help tapping my feet and bobbing my head to. With a great beat, always come interesting dancers of course. It was the typical rave dancers: neon everywhere, the constant smell of weed and… free hula-hoops for everyone! Thankfully the dancers were entertaining, because JNL failed to do anything interesting at all. I understand it may be difficult to move around during a set, but even a fist pump would have been exciting. JNL wasn’t the only victim to this though, all three DJs I saw that night were not entertaining to watch at all. Maybe I’m just nitpicking, but concerts should be entertaining to watch, not just to listen to.
Following JNL was DJ Sisk. One great things about these kinds of concerts is set up time in between artists is under five minutes. Sisk was the DJ of the night that could hook me in with extremely catchy melodies that I found myself humming afterwards. Apparently others thought the same since the crowd grew during his set. My only complaint with DJ Sisk is that at times his loud and obnoxious bass lines began giving me a headache from the vibrations.
As it began to get dark, the Cube began to light up in neon colours that complimented the dancers’ outfits. This made it more of a spectacle since the DJs still weren’t moving around at all on stage. By 8:20 Phaze-M had started his set, the neon lights changing to the beat of his songs. His first song had vocal appearances, which was a nice change of pace from the bass oriented songs from JNL and Sisk. Sadly, as his set went on it began to sound more like those two: bumping bass lines with simple, yet catchy, melodies. Which isn’t always bad, just repetitive. At least there was a slight change, right?
I ended up leaving after only three sets because after three hours of bass that could be heard all through the Exchange and beyond, I was beginning to get a headache. Overall, MEME was entertaining, although this music might have been better suited to their club shows, where alcohol may make more people motivated to dance. (Beer gardens just aren’t the same.) The music was worth it, although it is strange to say that I stood out like a sore thumb amongst all the neon coloured dancers.
trolling so hard
ENSIFERUM, FINNTROLL, and ROTTEN SOUND
February 17, 2011
@ the Zoo
By D.C.S. Murray
Last night I lived out a fantasy that I’ve had since I was about sixteen years old, to see Finnish folk-metal act Finntroll perform live. Finntroll play a unique variety of extreme metal blended with traditional Finnish polka music called ‘Humppa’, they sing about the exploits of the troll-king ‘Rivfader’ and they dress up in full troll regalia when they perform live. Combined with the opening band Ensiferum (also Finnish, but these guys dress up and sing about Iron-age warriors instead of Trolls). I was sure that I was headed into a dark and nerdy place that would leave me in desperate need of some D&D afterward. I was definitely surprised.
The show was happening at the Zoo, a venue that I ashamedly had never been to before. Due to an unfortunate scheduling conflict I arrived late, missing the first band, Barren Earth. We entered just as “Rotten Sound” was getting into full-swing. Even though they were by far the least nerdy band there I do have to mention these guys. It was grind music at it’s absolute best; uber-fast and ultra-heavy, ballsy enough to break straight into a D-beat for no reason at all, and mature enough not to be wearing corpse-paint and Mayhem t-shirts. They were the exact opposite reason I was there, nonetheless I enjoyed it immensely and would definitely recommend them to anyone who is bored of entry-level death-metal and fashioncore.
After a short cigarette break and several very confused partial conversations, we found out that Finntroll would be coming on first and playing a shorter set due to the entire band being under the weather. This was about when I noticed it: You would think that a show where three out of the four acts have something or other to do with ancient mythology the crowd would be a rather homogenous group of 18 to 20-something males who all knew each other from Comic-Con, but as I stood staring at the excited faces I saw something very different. Woolen-capped hipster babes sat astride the shoulders of behemoth vikings, and men who looked like my 51-year-old father sporting celtic-knot t-shirts were playing pool with long haired death metal kids. On my way to the bathroom I accidentally bumped into a very-large biker type and almost spilled his beer. Being the spineless whelp I am, apologies began tumbling forth from my mouth. He smiled, let out a hearty-laugh and said the smartest thing I’d heard all night. “Don’t worry about it, Bro. We’re all here for the same thing.” It was true, as I made my way through the crowd and the band began to play my fantasy commenced and everyone in the audience became one.
Guitarist Skrymer was sporting war paint that curled down his face, chest, and back like the gnarled roots of Yggdrasil while vocalist Vreth commanded us to do his bidding from his perch on top of the monitor. Snot poured from the nostrils of these men like fountains and dark bags under their eyes were apparent through the make-up but that only seemed to make them play more intensely. Though their set was only about 45 minutes and consisted of a lot of new material that I was unfamiliar with, every moment of Finntroll’s performance was engrossing. Filled with chunky polka bass beats and some seriously soviet vocal breakdowns, they proved that a little influenza will not stop an army of angry Trolls. I emerged from the mosh-pit drenched with the collective perspiration of what now felt like my family. I was 16 again.
My last surprise of the night came in the form of Ensiferum, the band that was supposed to open for Finntroll. I had earlier dismissed Ensiferum as “uninspired garbage metal that all sounds the same.” I would like to take this moment to apologize to Ensiferum and all of their fans. They were not only fast-loud and loaded with songs about traversing the frozen wasteland (a subject that we’re all too familiar with) but they also have melodies simple enough that anyone in the audience can and are encouraged to sing along with. The musicianship was complex but not masturbatory. Even though the lyrical themes are so specific, the music and the atmosphere of this band seemed to grab everyone in the room, get them blood-drunk and rally them together into a rag-tag army of misfits.
In summation, Rotten Sound gave me something to think about, Finntroll gave me release and Ensiferum gave me a swift kick in the ass that I won’t soon forget.