Hooooowwwwwdddyyyy!!!
Hope we're all doing well.
We had such wicked engagement and conversation last week I'm excited to do this again. I've been away this weekend at a country music festival called the long road festival. Which was an absolute blinder. Ironically, the lack of internet signal, cost me my cowboy hat :( so I've got work to do to regain that.
Couple of interesting things to bring to you all from this festival (the festival topic wasn't originally going to be this week's theme but why the hell not)
Tim Hicks was great fun. And a great sport (if your on SN (ya never know) I was the muppet who jokingly yelled "play freebird"). I really enjoyed your set and would recommend people give Tim's stuff a listen. Ye to the Haw, was a great crowd pleaser.
Jackson Dean came out and lit the place on fire. He was rocking hard. Great job.
But the topic this week from me to you, is at a festival, have you ever been to see a band you'd never heard of and they just blew it out the water? I'm not talking headliners who are expected to be good, I'm talking middle of the line up groups or smaller stages acts. Who just absolutely set the place ablaze. Well I found one, a trio of girls called Chapel Heart (if y'all are here. God damn that was a cracking show). These girls came out with sooo much energy in a small tent stage and just. Wow. The crowd was booing when they had to go off at the end and went absolutely nuts when they were allowed to come back for one more song. That's when you know you've entertained people. Just could not get enough.
So then Stackers, who is your; "wait, who the hell are these guys" bands that really took you by surprise?
Chapel heart, y'all got my attention!
Mid 1970's my friends and I went to see the Doobie Brothers at the Nassau Coliseum. We got lucky and got seats in the 11th row. We weren't huge Doobie Bros. fans, but, a concert was a concert. Two warmup bands. First one I don't remember. Then, the second one came out. The energy was incredible right from the start. To this day one of the best sets I have ever seen. The crowd kept calling for encores. Everyone forgot about the Doobie Brothers. They didn't come out until after midnight. The band? Lynard Skynard
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Cricky sigs, you've been fortunate to see skynyrd as a support band! Sometimes talent shines through. It's not as if skynyrd went on to become nobodies eh? I'll bet that was a wicked experience!
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My memory was it was right before Sweet Home Alabama and Free Bird got huge, but not much before. People have told me since that what I saw wasn't unusual. They commonly upstaged bigger names.
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I'm sure 🤣 they turned out to be one of the biggest bands in the last 50 years. Instantly recognisable sound.
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Since we are doing a blast from the past. Fun fact the first concert I ever went to was the Beach Boys at the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) Bandshell. I don't remember it because I was 2 but apparently I really digged it.
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Never cared much for the beachboys but can't ignore the fact they were huge. I'm sure your folks thought it was great as they'll have the better memory of it 😉
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Not from any festival type shows but I've been to plenty of concerts where an opening act put on a great set to the point where I'd buy a cd to support
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Band named Anterior opened for a gig I went to (might have been all that remains) sometime in the mid 2000s. These fellas blew me away with the quality and the talent of their guitar playing. Awesome harmonies, intricate riffs and solos. Welsh band I think. Fair warning if you do decide to look them up, they're quite a heavy metal band.
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"You Can Have Him Jolene" has gotta be a hit.
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What's this?
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Haha that was a lot of fun. Very catchy song and I am a stickler for how artist end their songs and they did it perfectly. Repeated the chorus hook a few times to stick in your head but didn't let it drag on.
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That's the band that inspired today's music thread. I got a kick out of the title
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Oh I missed the connection of the name of the band in the post that put on a good show at the festival and the link you posted. Got it now.
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Yeah. They were that band that just came to bat and put up a century. Absolutely fantastic.
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Oh it was. Went down brilliantly. Tbf I didn't know most of the acts at this festival aside from blackberry smoke. But there were some exceptionally talented musicians, and chapel heart were very much deserving of the adoration they got from the crowd.
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I have completely missed the recent country music surge. I still listen to Hank Williams and the Carter Family. Maybe this will inspire me to enter the 21st century.
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If I remember from previous conversations, you're Canadian right? You'll enjoy Tim Hicks - Stronger Beer good fun song. I'm sure @grayruby may enjoy that one aswell.
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Siggy is an honourary Canadian eh.
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The true north strong and free
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I'm not Canadian. I'm from the U.S., but @grayruby is Canadian. I'll check him out.
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Yes, proudly Canadian until Trudeau was elected. I will check Tim Hicks out.
I guess I am still proud to be Canadian but disappointed in my fellow Canadians that they allowed this guy to pull the wool over their eyes.
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You'll like Tim Hicks - stronger beer. It's a very "oh Canada 🫡" song. There's a secret UK verse he adds for UK gigs apparently and he played that and I was laughing my ass off. Very entertaining.
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Ahh yeah. I remember speaking to GR about Banff and travelling things. I'd definitely take a look at some of the new age country, it's an awful lot better than some of the mainstream music the industry is churning out.
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I will. I didn't know that was even a genre. People my age (old) are all flocking to this new country crap. It's getting to the point that I dread going to barbecues. I need my old rockers.
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Jackson Dean was a bit more Country Rock than just country. You may like that aswell.
Saw Incubus at Red Rocks last year. Band that opened for them was named Animals as Leaders. They are an instrumental Prog metal band and they were incredible. On surface it's not typically what I'd listen to, but in the moment it was electric.
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I'll bet it was a great experience. That's what I'm talking about aswell. Bands way outside of your normal repertoire that just came out and knocked you for 6. It leaves you feeling really good and just up on cloud 9 for days afterwards.
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Not a festival but I saw a band called Big Ideas open for Pilate (later Pilot Speed). They were great. Oddly enough they were buddies with the audio engineer that mixed my band's second CD so I ended up meeting them and they headlined some shows for me when I owned my music promotions company.
They eventually changed their name due to a conflict but I can't recall what they changed it to so I have a hard time finding their music now.
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The music business scene is like that isn't it. Everyone knows everyone.
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Certainly at the independent level in a given city. Everyone plays shows at the same bars and clubs. Most of the audio engineers are either in bands or were in bands and then got into producing. Our situation was a bit different, the guy who mixed our second CD for us was actually pretty successful in the Toronto scene. He normally wouldn't have worked with us but did it as a favour because my ex wife (she was my gf at that time) had interned at his studio as part of her degree in radio and television arts. So she did most of the audio engineering on the CD but he did the final mix because she didn't really have the skill set to do that. Met some cool people through him. I don't know if you know the band Big Wreck, they were pretty big in Canada but I got to meet them through that same producer.
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Listen to this guy. Talk about "glory days". Dude's band was the opener for the opener for the opener for BTK (who????) once and he is talking like he ran shit in Toronto. I think he had 10,000 plays on MySpace but 9995 of them were from his parents. Hahaha.
One thing I know for sure is if his NFL picking skills are similar to his musical skills he will be lucky to make it past week 2.
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Ahahahahahaha very good 😜
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I don't know them no. But now I have something else to add to my list of listening.
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Haha don't bother. They aren't very good. They had one popular song called Peppy Rock, which was kind of catchy, but really nothing else. They headlined a new music showcase my band played at once. I just felt like trolling myself.
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Kudos for the "Free Bird." I still yell it at concerts, but I pick my spots.
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It was done as a little joke. And Tim Hicks took it well, and laughed it off with the crowd. Was good banter and didn't feel like anyone was being nasty so that was good. You're right though, absolutely have to pick your moments. Sometimes it doesn't land and you get a whole load of people hurling shit at you.
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Oh yeah. It's a joke. I swore I heard someone yell it a few years ago when watching the new Pope in St. Peter's Square on TV.
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Yeah for sure. When people take it well it makes the whole thing just better. Gotta be the right atmosphere.
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Honourable mention. Several years ago at download festival. Crossfaith came out and wowed everyone. So much energy, nobody seemed to know who they were, but they sure didn't forget their name. They were the talk of the festival after that showing.
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Sometimes I forget, the way I say things... Isn't... Commonly found. 🤣🤣
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