I noticed my mini vacation was soon coming to close so I decided to make the most of my last day regardless of how hung over I may have been. My flight was at 6AM (not including the 2 hours to the airport) so the plan was: no sleep til Toronto.
I was anticipating the zine fair very much! As I arrived to the church, which was filled with tables and venders from all across the country, I was just overwhelmed! I soon felt depressed about the small amount of cash in my wallet. I browsed through the t-shirt companies, zine makers, photographers, record collectors, comic book authors, and exchanged friendly words with the wide eyed merchants.
There was a great costume maker from Montreal who unfortunately I forget the name of and a wonderful t-shirt company called Breathing Bears (who doesn’t have a website up yet) displaying their shirt art. It’s great to see all this culture in one room. When I’m out doing my thing in Toronto I try to research and collect as much as I can, but lots goes unnoticed. And I know this was only a tiny fraction of the independent art that Canada has in it!
Now, HPX does something great and that is, offers a slew of all ages shows. Sometimes bands play twice, one all ages showcase and one showcase at a 19 plus bar. This is great! Not only do the youngsters get to hear some great noise they otherwise wouldn’t, you can see an early show AND a late show in the same night. And we all know more music = more fun? Yea. So I caught Islands play an early 4 o clock set at the Pavilion, which is a venue devoted only to all ages music! Respect to that! If you’re under aged the best bands you get to see in Canada is Sum 41. Sad, I know.
Moving on, I wasn’t too excited about seeing Islands play. I had listened to their albums and always felt generally unenthused by them. Boy was I in for a surprise! Their orchestral frantic rock shook the tiny venue and left me a converted believer. The songs swelled and convulsed. Front man Nick Diamonds gazed out at faces with his honest blue eyes while nonchalantly making the walls melt. Complete with oboes and vocoders –their set couldn’t have been a better display of pure Canadian talent.
They closed their short set with ‘Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby’ and the eloquent ‘Swans (Life After Death)’ off of Return to Sea, which made me realize lots of their songs have a kind of Spanish mamba cha cha cha undertone in them. Very flavourful and worldly, these guys are in it for the long haul and I am proud to have witnessed this raucous moment in time. It’s easy to realize they aren’t just famous anymore because they are the remains of indie iconoclasts The Unicorns. They are much more than that.
For some mid-evening entertainment I decided to stop by the stand up comedy event at the Citadel hotel. I usually veer away from stand up as it’s very hit or miss. But I’d heard good things about this local Halifax group that goes by the name, Picnicface. Now, as I am in no way a comedic critic all I will say is that I laughed a lot! All young performers, their pop culture references were charming and well received. Definitely google these cats if you’re a fan of independent stand-up comedy. Is there a subculture for such things? Excuse my ignorance!
I could have caught Islands again that night at the Marquee with Sebastian Grainger… but decided to hit up the Fuzzy Logic Recordings showcase instead. Although mainly comprised of bands I can see in Toronto often, it was nice to show some support!
I didn’t want to push my luck that night although there were a few remaining performers. I said goodbye to HPX and finished my night off with a friend and an acoustic guitar singing into the night…. Without shutting an eye I made it to the airport at 6am and landed safely in T.O after one of the most intense naps a human can have. I got home and slept for 9 hours, woke up for 2 hours to eat and feed my cat, and went back to bed. Before I knew it, it was time to go to work on Monday morning. Recovery complete! Festival season 08 comes to a whooping close. Can’t wait til next year!
