Car Free Day - Hits a home run in to the left field

The Car Free Day Festival in Vancouver originated on Commercial Drive - it stems from the rise of "green" politics on the east side of the city; seven years on the event continues albeit it has major competition internally and externally.

twidling my knobs in public

I love car-free day, my band Mr M & The All Nighters played it in 2007, it was raining that day but we had a good time and have the photos to prove it. Last weekend my new band Vertigo played the mainstage as its first ever public appearance and I got to supply the sound through my Adanac Sound for the whole day.


Car Free Day currently runs in 2 other locations; Main Street and Denman Street. The Main event expanded this year to 33rd Ave, making it by far the biggest of the three. Opposingly, by all reports the Denman event continues to dwindle, possibly due to the lack of support from the local BIA. The Commercial event continues, however it has strong competition from the rejuvenated Italian Days that is now just the week prior. Commercial Drive is known as for its "cool-ness" however some parts of the drive are "cooler" than others. South of 1st Avenue the event seems to get about a third of the crowds, this is a little bizarre since people arriving on transit have to get off at the Skytrain and or Commercial and Broadway. The mainstage is located at 7th and Commercial and it was powered by Fraser Valley Cow Poo

the view from the sound desk

As expected the day was a long one for fellow organiser Joel Liman and myself. we were basically loading gear at 8am and ended the day around 9pm loading the gear. Our stage was kindly supplied by Conrad Schmidt @ Vancouver Sound and Lights, special thanks to Devo for helping us put it together. This was the first time out for my PA system, so I was a little nervous as to its reliability, volume and quality. We had a bit of freak out 2 mins before noon when we had no monitors, however with a little help we got things off to a good start.

Vertigo - rockin' out

The bands were awesome, we had many different styles from bluegrass, rock, funk and soul. Coco Jafro had an awesome set despite Karl leaving his keyboard dongle at home, Kiki Em was in fine form and my PA did her justice. My mate Brian Harris made the trek from Maple Ridge to perform with his band "Ages". My band Vertigo did well for its first gig, a bit shaky in spots, but not bad at all for a first outing, at least we are still together and have not parted ways immediately after. Our next gig is July 6 at the Richmond Night Market. Joel and his various bands performed well with some impressive new singers in tow. Nice to see the lovely Rebel Valentine in her post natal repose back on stage.

Ages - doin' their thing

Once the bands were done it was time to pack away the stage and the PA, thankfully made easier by the volunteers that turned up to make it happen. My thanks to Joel, Conrad, Devo and all the performers for making it happen; after a few days rest and a few ideas to make the mainstage that much better,  I'm already looking forward to next year.

To see more photos from the Mainstage
 

East Van Soul meets Sassy Mama Burlesque

I always thought the pairing of soul tunes and burlesque would be a fine combination, a few Friday's back I got to witness it first hand at "Soul Mates". The combination of live music and burlesque has been on the scene in Vancouver for a few years, mainly as an add on. However, this gig on Good Friday was a complete gig with band and dancers playing equal roles on stage.

The event was produced by Rebel Valentine, together with dancers Ruthe Ordare, Valery Vyntage, Camero Luvroc & April O Peel, the ladies put on a fabulous show that the audience got in to and grooved along to the tunes.

The All Nighters band consisted of Eric on bass, Joel on guitar, Cris on drums and Mark on keys. The band got off to a bit of a shakey start as this was their first gig with the line-up but after about 30 mins they settled down and took command of the tunes. Some of the great songs we heard "Ain't too Proud to Beg", "Get Ready", "Mercy" and a rousing version of "I Just want to make love with you". Rebel's highlight as always was her interpretation of Tina Turner's version of Zeppelin's "Whole lotta Love", which still gets me thinking of Robert Plant in a leather mini and hi-heels !

The venue at the Sin Bin has seen some changes over the years. The last time I was at the location it was for a Green Party event and an Afro-Cuban drum troupe was playing. It's a medium size venue, close to Olympic Village Skytrain at the south end of the Cambie bridge, located at 295 West 2nd Ave. Not bad location wise, but they have to beef up their PA if they want bands there on a regular basis.

The same line up of luvly ladies will appear at the Great Bear Pub, 5665 Kingsway on April 20. Check out the event on Facebook.