CanCon

This morning I woke up to hear Billy Talent being played on Triple J, the Aussie radio station that Phil and I have taken a liking to. Last week I woke up to City and Colour. It warms my heart to know that Canadian bands have a reasonable following here and garner a fair amount of respect. Triple J plays regular homage to Tegan and Sara, Feist, The Arcade Fire, Dallas Green, Ron Sexsmith and others. Simple Plan was all over the cover of a music mag in Sydney. And Jeff Martin is touring here with a tremendous following. Go Canada!

Waves of Sound

For your reading pleasure, a quick review of the Soundwave music festival that took place at Sydney Park on Saturday.

Highlights:
1. The general appreciation by the crowd for Alexisonfire and the fact that they’re Canadian.
2. Fast moving lines for beer tents and being able to drink our beer in the general stage area.
3. Stage 1 and Stage 2 set up side by side to minimize changeover time for bigger acts.
4. Incubus’ entire set. And singing along to every word with the crowd.
5. The Offspring’s set.
6. Alexisonfire’s set.
7. Using an umbrella as a sun shield.
8. Seeing a dude wearing a Cancer Bats t-shirt.
9. Extra trains and security at the end of the show.
10. Bats soaring overhead as we walked back to the train station.

Lowlights:
1. Poor set up of the entrance resulting in huge waits to get through the gate.
2. Terrible organization of the band lineup and schedule. Both changed several times right up to the last minute; performance schedules were not available; schedules that were stolen off the internet were wrong; none of the five stages were signed to indicate which stage you were watching. Absolutely brutal. We spent a good part of our day running from stage to stage trying to figure out who was playing.
3. Missing most of Dallas Green’s set due to the aforementioned lineup issues. And having to strain to listen to him as The Plain White Ts rocked in the background.
4. The lack of banter or introductions from Incubus and The Offspring.
5. The searing sun! And sunburns.
6. As usual, being forced to buy merch that is much too big for me. Why don’t more bands offer shirts that fit girls?!
7. Overlapping sets that forced us to miss a lot of the Aussie content.

It’s been ages since I last saw a band live, and Soundwave was a much needed reprieve from the musical drought I’ve been experiencing. All in all the day was incredibly fun although I did miss having a group of friends to hang out with. In particular, seeing Alexisonfire made me incredible homesick for the Canadian music scene. The line up of bands was excellent, all of the sets that we watched were great, and at the end of the night I went home happy and relatively unburnt. And I finally got to see Incubus live. Yes.

Photogs…

Fall of Troy

Fall of Troy

Thursday

Incubus

Goodnight and Farewell

Yesterday the world said goodbye to an incredible woman. Farewell great grandma B. I am forever blessed for having met you and your inspiration will carry on through the Thomson family until the end of time. May you rest peacefully.