The Meds, photo by Justin Roy

Hey peeps, this is the second part, and final part to my recap of the East Coast Music Week in Charlottetown, if you would like to see the first part, you can scroll down the main page of the site (it shouldn’t be too far). Like I mentioned earlier, it didn’t take long for the festival to get into full swing, with a show happening at every corner of the city. By Saturday morning, I was starting to feel alittle worn down, but with so many shows going on Saturday night that I wanted to see, I had to soldier on.

East Coast Music Week – Saturday Night

I was pretty excited about Saturday night’s line-up happening at the Delta Prince Edward. If you haven’t been to the Delta Prince Edward, it’s as big as the Cunard Centre in Halifax with a back bar. It’s a perfect place to watch a show since there is so much room, and stage is well lit. Every year East Coast Music Week seems to have a sponsored rock show that features some of hottest hard rock bands happening on the east coast. This year they had Jessie Brown, The Meds, The Town Heroes, Rain Over St. Ambrose, Tom Fun Orchestra, The Motorleague, & Slowcoaster, so you know I was gonna stay for the whole show.

First act up was Jessie Brown, and her band. I didn’t know too much about her music, having only seen her once perform a year ago, opening up for The Stogies. She has a pretty good following in the Halifax music scene. So I wasn’t gonna miss her, and I’m glad I didn’t. Jessie Brown, and her band opened up really hard that night. One of my favourite shows. I just love how she carries in voice in a soulful way, and her band just nailed it. One of the songs I recognized was “Ten Paces”, which sounded so good.

You know who else sounded great? The Meds, who were playing new tunes from their up & coming album, “South America”. And also The Town Heroes, who while playing, I think I heard a fan in the crowd saying, “they’re only a two-piece band? they’re fucking good!”. And yeah, I’ll definitely agree to that.

I also enjoy the second-half of the show with the rockin’ Rain Over St. Ambrose, and the Tom Fun Orchestra who are practically East Coast Music Week regulars, I just love the amount of depth to this band, with each of the 8 members playing an instrument. They have a unique indie rock/east coast sound, they’re like the east coast super-band simliar to that of the Broken Social Scene or The New Pornographers, they’re all talented. The Motorleague turned it up a notch with their performance, and I felt that they’re should have been a bigger audience when they came on, and really, for all the performance that were happening with this line-up of bands, there was just so much good music happening. Maybe there was a lot going on elsewhere for the festival, and festival goers with the passes couldn’t decide. But man, they should have been here. And topping off the show, was Slowcoaster who jammed the crowd into a dancing frenzy. All in all, this was my favourite line-up of bands at the festival. I’m pretty happy, cause once this was all said and done, I’ll be looking forward to seeing these band play back in Halifax through out the year.

 

In Dreams, photo by Justin Roy

Now that I’ve mentioned my favourite line-up of bands at the East Coast Music Week, I’d like to mention my favourite performance of the festival which opened with In Dreams at the Electronic Stage happening at the Hunter’s Ale House right after the rock show. I had previously seen In Dreams at East Coast Music Week in Halifax last year, which was enough for me to download a few of their songs since they sounded pretty good. And there was a chance, I was actually gonna skip this show for another, but since I missed their show the previous night, I’d go see them. And I’m quite happy that I did. For all of you who don’t know, In Dreams (Nick Fowler and Susan Colwell) is an electronic/indie pop duo from New Brunswick, with the addition of a drummer that night. They’re performance that night was simply amazing. They had this colourful, high-energy, dancing vibe going. It was awesome. For the 20-minute set or so, that they had, they were mind blowing. The crowd was into them, and they really set-up the vibe for the rest of the night. If you haven’t seen them yet, I highly recommend you see them, since chances are, they’ll be playing a longer sets next time.

The fun didn’t stop there, with Joshua Van Tassel, and his electronic instrumental band. They had this electronic dreamy jam going, the sorta music that you’d get lost into. You can pull so many comparisons from this band, from Broken Social Scene, Boards Of Canada, early trip-hop, the list could go on, and on, but would come back to just being Joshua Van Tassel. They’re performance was great continuing the night of some good music.

After the Electronic stage, I did stay for a bit of the Hip/Hop Stage before I was really to head out. I got to check out Ambition, who was a lot of fun, but I should have stayed a little longer, regrets… maybe… yes. One of these days, I’m gonna show a little love for the hip-hop community, cause the fans sure do, and when they come out, and see their shows. It’s like a reunion, man.

East Coast Music Week – Sunday Night

Onto Sunday night, which was the night of the East Coast Music Award Gala. I’ve made it personally clear that I dislike award shows, but this show in itself does bring many acts, of all sorts of music genres together, in one magical, nicely packaged showcase. The show was hosted by Seamus O’Regan, that guy from Canada AM (I don’t watch TV), but he was pretty funny, and the performances that night at the award show were really good.

The performances kicked off on the main stage with Cam Smith, Neon Dreams, Kayo, & Quake Matthews, and the center stage with some female dancers. It was a good way to start the night, with something high energy that the crowd could get into. David Myles played a fun song with the band. Paper Lions played, “My Friends”, where lead singer John MacPhee goes into the crowd, shakes everyone’s hand. It’s sort of a song gimmick, you realize that after seeing so many of their shows. The Town Heroes again, another good performance by playing their latest hit, “Berlin Wall”.

 

Jay Smith Tribute, photo by Justin Roy

There was an amazing tribute to Jay Smith who passed away last year, with members from various rock bands such as Slowcoaster, Carmen Townsend, David Casey from Gloryhound. The feeling in the building that night was very emotional, especially from the friends and family of Jay Smith, guitarist of Matt Mays, and Rock Ranger. There was a lot of support from the crowd. His mother, Nancy Smith received an honourable achievement award for her son. And there was tribute to artists like Rita MacNeil & Stompin’ Tom, who have been inspiring east coast musicians for many years.

There were a few more performances I could remember from Les Hotesses d’Hilaire, a francophone rock band, who their lead-singer Serge Brideau has such a stage presence. If I understood French, I’d listening for his hilarious written lyrics. They would later play a pretty good show at the after party. And of course, The Motorleague ended off the night with a killer performance.

So yeah, that’s it. That is my recap of the East Coast Music Week in Charlottetown. Next year, the show will be in Newfoundland. Whereabouts in Newfoundland is undecided. Last time it was in Cornerbrook, but this time, I’m thinking it will be back to Newfoundland’s capital of St. John’s. But until than, stayed tuned to HAFILAX.com, there are more festivals to cover this year.