Halifax Pop Explosion 2014
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Wednesday Reviews Our overview of day number two
Tokyo Police Club, Glory Glory, Coyote, Take Part at Olympic Hall Geoff Tobin
Telstar Drugs at The Carleton Jonathan Briggins When Telstar Drugs took the stage, people gathered
Reviewing a concert as tight and energetic as last night’s at the Olympic Hall is equal parts exciting and reductive.All four bands brought their A-game, and surely satisfied loyal fans and newcomers alike. The venue sounded great, and the evening was an indie-rock master-class. To give those who missed it and want a quick and dirty taste of how it felt, here are three verbs to describe each band of the night:
around the stage at the Carleton, a venue that typically caters more towards the sit-down crowd. Chairs had to be removed, tables were pushed out of the way and the music began. And then it stopped. Some technical difficulties with an amp slowed things down, but nobody seemed to really care. The Montreal via Calgary band patently repeated guitar hooks, bass lines and drum beats, changing slightly and building to the point where suddenly everyone was the passenger on an exhilarating ride of fast
Take Part: harmonious, hilarious, nostalgic Coyote: triumphant, sweaty, arena-ready, Glory Glory: frenetic, impressive, handsome, Tokyo Police Club: transcendent, invigorating, skinny Seriously, if you haven’t yet done yourself the favour, check out Halifax bands Glory Glory and Take Part as soon as possible. And next time P.E.I.’s Coyote play a show nearby, be sure to make them feel at home. And, lastly, if Tokyo Police Club comes to town, maybe consider kidnapping them to be your own local party band because holy smokes, they are fun.
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guitar riffs.
The Everywheres at The Carleton Jonathan Briggins
After Telstar Drugs finished, the crowd barely thinned out and the front of the room remained full. And before I knew it, I was being led through a reverb heavy psychedelic journey by a man with a big beard, long hair and a floral patterned shirt. The Halifax band pulled in the sounds of yesteryear San Francisco and brought them home in a sort of sad but definitely exciting sonic adventure. The Everywheres played with authority and freedom, like the weight of the day wasn’t as important as the present moment. Take my hand and lead me through a journey anywhere, the Everywheres.
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Kestrels at CKDU Michael McGrath Kestrels tore through an intimate set yesterday in the lobby of CKDU. The band played to a modest number of people in the small room, but that didn’t stop Chad Peck (guitar, vocals) from dominating his guitars and his pedal board to create a wall of sound I wasn’t sure was capable of being made in such a small
Jr and Swirlies would sound like if that baby was raised on just a little bit of punk rock, too. The band moved with calculated chaos last night, seeming to make the room stand in awe of things like the drummer Tom Burke’s playing style and the speed and precision of the songs. But at the same time you could feel some of the room not understanding what they were watching. I think that’s OK with Soft Spot, though.
room. Kestrels are one of those bands that almost feels like it’s just one person despite there being a whole team of people in front of you playing instruments.
Solids at Gus’ Pub
When you watch Kestrels perform, you tend to get
Michael McGrath
lost watching Chad make his guitar do things that you may have never seen a guitar do before. On one hand, Kestrels are truly a shoegaze worship band channeling the best of early Creation Records. On the other hand, Kestrels are merely a really talented band who understand what it takes and what it
This is Solids’ second year at Halifax Pop Explosion in a row. Last year when I saw them play, they were during an odd and early hour at Reflections opening for Metz and secret guest The Plan. When they played last year it was an amazing set that made new fans of the few people in the room and had people lining up
means to write a catchy pop song.
at the merch table to buy their 12”. Now, exactly one year later, Solids are with us again playing by their own messed up rulebook headlining their own show at Gus’
Soft Spot at Gus’ Pub
Pub.The Montreal two-piece have come a long way in
Michael McGrath
the past year, and last night’s show confirmed that for
Soft Spot are a unique band with a unique brand of don’t give a shit. When their set begins, you’re not exactly sure what you’re watching. It’s loud, fast, abrasive and has a take-no-ears-prisoner approach. They start with an oddly timed, almost off-tune sounding chord that pierces into the centre of your eardrum. I’ve seen Soft Spot before and as they begin there are always a few fresh faces who look at each other and think “is it supposed to be this loud?” The answer is yes, absolutely yes. Soft Spot basically sound like what a baby between My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur
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me completely. They sound somewhat like a highway robbery - it’s fast and thrilling and it fills you with a sense of excitement and dread. Last night’s show took all of those emotions to another level, with people in Gus’ Pub dancing their feet off and jumping all over each other it truly felt that Solids were hitting their stride in Halifax. Last year when they played there were only bobbing heads, this year there was crowdsurfing and people yelling the words back at the band.
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was in the Carleton on a Wednesday after midnight,
Teen at The Carleton
hearing a band blast through jazz-infused psychedelic
Jonathan Briggins
rock. The mood swayed anywhere from chill tap-
Teen are a band that have fancy blue check marks
on-the-splash-cymbal jazz vibes to hitting-cymbals-
on both their Facebook and Twitter accounts to
so-much-everything-rings vibes. The music had the
indicate they are verified; the official Teen. “We’re
potential to be excessive yet have the attention span
from Halifax but we’ve never played here before,”
of a pop song. On a more somber note, the band had
said vocalist and guitarist Katherine Lieberson,
their gear stolen in San Francisco recently and told
former keyboardist for Here We Go Magic. The
the crowd about their online campaign to recoup
three Lieberson sisters in the band were born in
some of the funds from the thousands of dollars
Halifax and seemed excited to be making their Hali-
worth of gear they lost. Teen increased their Halifax
debut. I’m sure there were lots of distant cousins in
show total by 100 per cent tonight when they play
the room or something. I didn’t really believe I
once again the festival at the Marquee at 12:30 a.m.
Teen at The Carleton -
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Photo by Ming Wu
Telstar Drugs at The Carleton -
Photo by Ming Wu
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Telstar Drugs at The Carleton -
Photo by Ming Wu
The Everywheres at The Carleton -
Photo by Ming Wu
Soft Spot at CKDU -
Photo by Ming Wu
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Kestrels at CKDU -
Photo by Ming Wu
Soft Spot at CKDU -
Photo by Ming Wu
Teen at The Carleton -
Photo by Ming Wu
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Teen at The Carleton -
Photo by Ming Wu
Teen at The Carleton -
Photo by Ming Wu
Mix Pick Thursday Get pissed off with Hag Face Words by Michael McGrath
Hag Face’s EP Rag Face starts of with the words “I’m your worst nightmare”. The lyrics echo through the recording as if they’re being howled from six feet underground in a forgotten punk cemetery. They have tags on bandcamp such as “witch punk” and it’s kind of perfect as the EP sounds like it was recorded inside of a cauldron just big enough to let the music bellow out like pure garage-punk smoke. The whole aura of the band is somewhat creepy and perfectly fit for HPX being so close to Halloween. The four women of the Calgary band are a group of weirdo witch-punks make you feel uneasy in the best way possible.They’re not just angry, they’re pissed off, they want destruction, they want to see their enemies dead. On the song “Rag Face” the words “Fuck you buddy/ Don’t fucking call me doll/ I kinda want to stab you/ I wish you’d just fuck off/ Fuck you man/ I’m not a fucking drag/ It’s not my fucking fault/
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That I’m on the fucking rag” sound like a rallying call against men who speak out of turn when their opinion isn’t asked for. It sounds like a call to arms. It sounds like war. They’ve only been a band since early 2013 but in that time they’ve released two EPs, a split with Vancouver band Shearing Pinx and a live collection recorded at Calgary’s “CJSW” radio station.They’ve played shows with Death, Tough Age, the Soupcans and Bleached. They just finished playing Pop Montreal with Halifax favourites Monomyth and Crosss. They’ve been using their black magic to barrel through show after show and tour after tour. And lucky for us, they show no signs of slowing down. You can catch Hag Face on Thursday at 3:30pm at Gus’ with Negative Rage, MAICAMIA and WHOOP-Szo or at 11:30pm at Gus’ with Veneers, Kestrels and Swearin’.
MIXTAPE HPX 2014