June is turning out to be a busy month, helpful since the Vancouver tv and movie industry has ground to a significant dead stop since May.
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| Adam @ Prophouse Cafe |
Earlier this month [June 9th] I got on my bike and caught two great performances on Commercial Drive. The first visit being Adam Farnsworth-Lautsch's CD release party at the
Prophouse Cafe; Adam is a crazy kat, a sort of mash-up between Frank Zappa and Cab Calloway in his stage presence. He sings about the crazy stuff that happens to him, such as a case mistaken identity in his song "Marathon Life". His new CD is "Semitone Off" and
you can download it here.
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| Baby Harry @ Falconetti's |
My second stop was a few blocks away at Falconetti's. Now for the record I have to say I'm not big fan of venues that generally don't pay their live acts, I've been boycotting the Libra Room for some time now. However, my mate Baby Harry was playing and he convinced me it was in best interest to see him play there.
Baby Harry was on form, but I'm not keen on the venue at all. I realise it is tough to be a venue at the best of times, especially on Main St and Commercial Drive, but I just get the feeling this kind of venue is contributing to the demise of live music in East Vancouver in some way by not paying it's performers. The debate rages on nonetheless....
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| Live from the Drive |
June 17th saw East Van Soul Club take to the streets and play its first ever live show at the
Commercial Drive Car Free Day. We were first on the bill at the Tribal Harmonix Stage, the rain stayed away and we were able to broadcast live via wi-fi supplied by
Bump and Grind Coffee. My thanks to Tim and Garth for making it happen and to
Tim Wisdom for inviting me down in the first place.
June 21st saw my two piece band "
AI Vertigo" play at the
Make Music Festival in Gastown. Last year my soul band Mr M & The All Nighters played the inaugural event. This year had 150 acts and they managed to close off Water St from 6pm onwards. Luckily we got down early enough to find out our stage 17 didn't exist and we ended up being moved to another stage and bumped ahead in the schedule; we also ended playing in front of a punk band with volume issues. This ended up being the main complaint from the performers, too many stages in a small area, however at least 30,000 people attended the event making it considerably larger than 2011. AI Vertigo play the Richmond Night Market on July 1 at 945pm.
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| Make Music Festival in Gastown |
June 23rd saw East Van Soul Club out in Coquitlam at the Roo Pub for a night of soul tunes and burlesque. Sadly, this was also an UFC night and the combination did not really work [duh]. The audience was a bit mystified by the site of nearly naked women in their local boozarama; its a common sight in Vancouver but folks in the 'burbs are just getting 'lectric light and 'tinternet, so there is a bit of an education curve involved.
Dear Suburbia - it is ok to cheer and applaud at burlesque !
On a final note East Van Soul Club Radio
is now available for podcast here.
And on a final, final note here's a great video from East Vancouver's
High Society
High Society - One Day from
Cinemanifesto on
Vimeo.
Or
go to this web site to see it if you cannot see it above.
