The Crowd is Ready

As the biggest city in the Maritimes, you would think Halifax would be regularly hosting its own major concert series on an annual basis.   Instead we regularly find ourselves staring out at the world, as smaller markets play host to these big ticket shows.    That is until 2025 when Sonic Concerts partnered with MQ Concerts (the folks behind the NL based Churchill Park Music Festival) to announce the Halifax Music Fest concert series on the Garrison Grounds, effectively bringing back the Concert on the Hill experience.    Over the years the Garrison Grounds has played host to major concert events, including acts such as The Tragically Hip, Rise Against, Father John Misty, Bon Jovi, The Foo Fighters, and Smashing Pumpkins to name a few in more recent years.  It came as a welcome surprise when Sonic Concerts rolled out the opening night lineup featuring Nickelback in the headlining slot, with supporting acts The Glorious Sons, Big Wreck and Tenille Townes.  

When that initial announcement was made, the addition of Tenille Townes did feel a bit out of place as the only lady on a testosterone heavy bill, and the fact that she has made a name for herself in Country Music.   Tenille took to that stage undeterred and proceeded to win over a crowd that may have largely been unfamiliar with her work previously, it reminded this writer of a similar slot that Carrie Underwood filled on the Guns N’ Roses bill in Moncton, and much like Carrie, Tenille crushed her spot on the bill.   The Grand Prairie native delivered a fiery set of tunes that included covers of Jessie Reyez’s “Roses”, “Learn to Fly” by the aforementioned Foo Fighters, and Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”.   As an added bonus, Tenille saw local legend Leith Flemming-Smith take his spot behind the keys and play his first show with the band.   She won over a lot of folks with her opening set, and was a great way to kick the event off. 

Ian Thornley

The bar for the evening had been set with Tenille’s performance, and next up on the bill was none other than Halifax favourites Big Wreck.  Ian Thornley and his crew are no strangers to the East Coast, as they have been regulars on the stages around town, most recently playing a headlining gig at the Light House Arts Centre back in December of 2023, and now the band has landed on the massive Halifax Music Fest stage.   There isn’t much else I’d rather do on a warm summer afternoon, than settling in on Citadel Hill with a few thousand of my closest friends to listen to Big Wreck rip through a tight 7-8 song set.  The setlist on this early evening set was stacked with these bombastic blasts that gave frontman Ian Thornley to showcase his guitar prowess, including newer tracks such as “Bombs Away” which served as the opening salvo, as well as the charging “Locomotive” and fan favorite “Albatross”.  Surprisingly, the set also included the 3 massive smash hits (“Blown Wide Open”, “That Song” and “The Oaf”) from the band’s debut album In Loving Memory Of….  The crowd was starting to build at this point, and there was a solid contingent of Big Wreck fans in attendance, but this performance should have easily solidified the fandom of more than a few Haligonians. 

The last band to take to the stage ahead of Nickelback, was the Kingston based sextet The Glorious Sons.   This is a band that is also not unfamiliar with Halifax, having made the capital city a regular tour-stop over the years, working through the stages in the city like they were trying to complete a bingo card.  The first time the band landed on a Halifax stage was as part of a Canada Day show on Alderney Landing across the harbour in Dartmouth alongside Arkells, and have played over at 2037 Gottingen a couple of times in the Marquee Ballroom, as well as performing at Dal on the Studley Quad with the Beaches back in 2018.  On this afternoon, front-man Brett Emmons worked the stage like a seasoned pro, all the while taking fashion notes from Jeff Bridge’s The Dude.  You could tell that this Halifax crowd was definitely a pro-Glorious Sons crowd, as it hung on every word from this fan favorite set which featured cuts from the band’s entire discography while focusing primarily on their debut album The Union with “Heavy”, “Mama” “The Union” and “White Noise”, but of course the prerequisites “Mercy, Mercy”, “Pink Motel” and “S.O.S. (Sawed off Shotgun)” were all featured.  It is always a blast when these guy perform in Halifax, and this show was no different. 

As it has been the case with every other Concert on the Hill,  you did see the occasional Cop or Paramedic spring into action to deal with the patrons who over indulged, and there was definitely some static popping up on social media from the folks who headed down to the concert grounds late (after presumably pre-gaming) ahead of headliners Nickelback and got stuck in line due to some day 1 hurdles.  Things definitely seemed to be running a lot smoother on Days 2 and 3 of the inaugural year for Halifax Music Fest.  By the time the lights came up for the Albertan rockers, there was a crowd of 22,000 strong in attendance, all ready to sing their hearts out and get a little rowdy.  

Nickelback

Say what you will about these post-grunge Albertan rockers, but they certainly deserve their flowers for carving out a 30 year career for themselves and becoming one of the biggest bands in the world.   Much like the huge conglomeration of Haligonians on the Garrison Grounds, this writer/photographer is also a long time fan of Nickelback, having met the band way back in 2000 at Edgefest in Barrie, Ont. not long before the band released their life-altering album Silver Side Up in 2001 and the world got hooked on “How You Remind Me”, while that was the breakthrough album, it would take another 5 years before the band unleashed All the Right Reasons  which contained the beloved and heavily memed single “Photograph”, in addition to the raucous “Animals”, and the catchy earworm “Rockstar” as well as equally massive hits “Savin’ Me” and “Far Away”.

Nickelback

On this warm Friday night in Halifax, the band unleashed a set that kicked off with the band’s latest single “San Quentin”, a semi self-indulgent offering before giving the crowd what they came for, 4 of the 5 hit singles from All the Right Reasons, saving “Rockstar” for later in the set when the band brought out Sunnyvale’s finest Trailer Park Boys.   Giving Chad a breather, Ryan took to the mic and performed the Don Henley classic “Dirty Laundry”, before kicking things back into gear.   When “This Afternoon” hit, the vibe on the hill was laid back and palpable, a great tune for the Concert on the Hill setting.  The set was literally and figuratively fiery as the band made sure to bring the heat with an impressive pyro array throughout the show.  The Nickelback crew closed out the main set with the breakout single “How You Remind Me”, before stepping away for a moment.   After a momentary reprieve, the band returned to perform “Gotta Be Somebody” and closed the night out with the bombastic Dark Horse cut “Burn It To the Ground”.

All in all, the first night of the Halifax Music Fest was well attended, and certainly revealed some areas of opportunity for the nights to follow, but otherwise could be considered a success.    You will always have the folks who go a little too hard, and need a little outside intervention, but those folks were certainly in the minority.  It was great to have another Concert on the Hill taking place, as it was something a lot of folks needed and wanted.   We can now add a few more names to the storied list of acts who have performed on the hallowed Garrison Grounds, let’s hope we can get together and do this again next year. 

Nickelback

Glorious Sons

Big Wreck

Tenille Townes