Canada Day; Surrey Style!

Every year now, Surrey celebrates Canada Day with a large one day festival that has more then 100,000 people pass through each year. The day starts off with children musical acts, to a parade with the Mayor in which leads up to the Mayor and council giving out cup cakes which formed the Canadian Flag. From then, it goes on into acts that appeal to more older audiences as the day goes on, usually ending with a band that appeals to the 30+ crowd.

I was there to cover it this year, for my school and the City of Surrey. It was a long 12 hour day, but it was filled with fun. Around 3:45pm, the first of the two country bands came onto stage. First up was Ridley Bent. While I'm not a country person, I actually enjoyed this guy. He makes some good music. Next up was Jessie Farrell. She wasn't all that bad either, and covered one of my favourite songs too. Van Halen's Jump!

After that, around 5:30pm, Dragonette came on. Now I've heard of her, but never actually listened to her music. One she got on stage, and started to play her music I was stoked. It was some great stuff. Different to my usual listening pleasure. I highly recommend checking her out. Next up was the ever so popular Stereos. They made it HUGE after being on MuchMusic's show DISBAND. Before this band went on stage, the pit in front of the stage got crazy! So many people filled it who were special guests/VIP's that security had to intervene and push them all to one side. You can see almost all of them in the photo below.

Stereos put on a pretty good show, despite me not being a big fan of them. I give them props. I give the nine year old kid props who called out the lead singer of the band, telling him he had a bad voice. If only more people had the same guts as that kid! I think the crowd was the most lively during Stereos set, it was nuts out there!

After them, came the Odds. Now it was my kind of music. These dudes killed it on set. I never actually heard of them until I saw them perform. Then I knew I have heard their music. That seems to be a joke for them, as it happens a lot! If you've ever seen the show Corner Gas (it's a Canadian show), then you've heard their music. They were on a long hiatus before this as well. If you ever get a chance to see them perform on stage, I recommend it. Their set is filled with energy, and they make great music.

Now was for the headliner, Honeymoon Suite. One for the older people, hahah. This band has been around for a long time, and it shows as they are great on stage. Full of energy, and they make good music as well which is always a plus.

Surrey's Canada Day Celebration is one of the biggest in Canada, and is the biggest in Western Canada. They put a TON of work into this event, and I recommend going to it. It's a blast.
Next up, Surrey's Fusion Fest. July 17-18.

Now onto the photos. Click for bigger as always!



















































You can view all my photos on my flickr.

Thanks for reading,
Ryan.

Heinali and Matt Finney's EP (Free download!)

Heinali and Matt Finney have released an EP, titled Lemonade. It's pretty good, and I recommend you check it out. It's free, or you can donate money as they are doing this without the backing of any label or that and if you do donate, you get bonus material!




You can check it out, and download it here: http://heinaliandmattfinney.bandcamp.com/

Thanks,
Ryan

Youthink Best BC Teen Band Contest

Saturday, May 1st was the final of Youthink's Best BC Teen Band Contest. The Knots, Split the Silence and High Life Scenery all battled it out with a 4 song set composed of 1 Canadian cover songs, the song they submitted to the contest, and two new original songs. They battled it out for judges, who are in the music industry currently.

The day started out for these bands with them showing up early for a meet and greet with music industry people of all sorts from Production companies, to LiveNation, and getting in an before set interview with a Youthink Student Reporter. They got to learn a bit about the industry and what may be in the future for them from chatting with these industry professionals, and learning a thing or two what an interview may hold for them. Then as the day progressed from this, family members, friends and fans started to pour into the venue, which was Tom Lee's Music Hall on Granville Street in Vancouver.

The more people that came in, the closer the show arose for these bands, which they would be playing one of their most important sets of their life. The bands rushed backstage, into the worlds smallest dressing room that could barely hold one band in there. Then, the house lights dimmed, stage lights came on and the MC (Shaun from Wide Mouth Mason) came onto the stage to discuss what is happening and what the bands would be competing for. He left the stage, and Split the Silence took it in full force.

They performed their hearts out, and put on a killer set. They covered Arcade Fire's song, "Wake Up" but with their own added twist to it. Slayed that song. Their other songs where also great, and were about many things like the bass player's girlfriend from Grade 9. He wasn't all that happy with the mention about it, which made for a laugh! Their set ended and High Life Scenery took the stage.

These guys won the online part of this contest, which was fan voted. It showed in the audience as well, with how many fans that tagged along to show up for them! In their set, they covered K' naan's song " Wavin Flag" and although a few vocal notes got a bit mixed up, they fought through it and ended their set with the next song that got the crowed pumped up for the rest of the show and the last band, the Knots!

The Knots, whom are an indie-alternative band, are from Burnaby. They opened their set with an Arkells cover song, which was "Deadlines" and then went on to play their most valuable set as a band for them currently. They also made it clear that their set was all about the music, and not the contest, which is what it would be all about. The music! They finished their set, and left the stage as then everyone had to wait with anticipation for who would be the first winner of Youthink's Best BC Teen Band.

The winner was:
The Knots!

In second place was:

Split the Silence

and in third:

High Life Scenery

All these bands absolutely played great, and I think will have great success in the future with their music! Congrats to the Knots on the win.

You can read more about the day and what they won here.

Thanks,
Ryan Rose

Now photos! Click for bigger.