Victoria To Seattle

If you have been to Victoria, BC you already know that it is a lovely area to be in. When the weather is sunny and loving you sure can feel it in everyone around you. People are smiling and the ocean banks seem to glimmer a bit brighter than usual.

Anyone else think that Peacocks in the park is awesome?

The art in this capital city arises beyond my imagination, it seems to flourish everywhere I look. From artist drawing on the ferry, graffiti on the streets and even down to the art shops down by the docks. I was inspired to draw, paint and express myself in as many ways as possible. Even I picked up my pencil a more times than usual to see what one could create when surrounded in such lovely atmosphere.

Our purpose for being here during the early September times is for a festival called Rifflandia. The 10th year celebration of 10 venues with musicians rocking out every stage, an ample amount of music provided by the city. I highly recommend going if you have the opportunity in the years to come.

Full on 4 days and 4 nights of amazing artists preforming throughout with little tidbits of activities and many other events happening in the city. I couldn't imagine a better place to live, then again I do love coastal cities as much as mountain towns.

There was a 10 year anniversary called One Wave the international indigenous arts and culture celebration at the legislative grounds which was really informative. Most of all eye opening to see how elders and modern day society have flourished together.

After visiting some friends and family we were ready for a quick departure to Seattle. We were ferry bound to Port Angeles and from there we took a bus to Seattle airport (SEATAC). A lovely rainy evening in with a bath and take out, to prepare ourselves for the long haul journey ahead of us. 

The Wedding and Beyond!

To continue on from the previous post, if you can call it that since it was mainly for me to get back into the groove of things.

I got married! <- Click for Album

After all these years of seeking the perfect mate and traveling around the world I really thought that I would get hitched to someone that didn't speak English as their first language. After all of that I ended up with someone from my own country, who would have thought? 

I am super thankful because what I have learned after all these years of traveling and relationships is that you really have to be on the same wave length as your partner in all things you do. From our mistakes we obtain lessons to make us ready for the person we are meant to become and most of all be with. As long as we know ourselves we can make a difference in all that we do. 

Now where was I?

Right... after a wedding many people suggested that we buy a house, move into an apartment and get one of those jobs which I am quite good at avoiding. I dabbled in the idea for awhile and seriously at that, visited an apartment and even applied for jobs so much that I got myself an interview. 

When push came to shove, moving into the apartment didn't really jive with me and even saying no to the interview at the end of it felt like the right thing to do. There was no need to rush life, I am not saying that it isn't ideal to have some stability and start building a marriage in a financial sense. I can value the importance and most of all the sensibility. I ain't knocking it, honestly I should probably be doing it.

Raise your hand if you think you know what I am about to say. :P

I decided that the trip wasn't over, the wanderlust in me wasn't about to retire quite yet or ever.

"People ask, when do you think you will stop traveling? Would you ask an artist or a musician when they will stop creating? No, it is just a part of who they are. Sometimes we set it aside to do other things that require our attention but it never goes away, we adjust it accordingly."

So here I am riding the high of the wedding and most of all ready for a honeymoon. Adam surprised me with a short weekend camping trip at Serenity Harvest Music Festival in between cleaning up from the wedding before taking off to Victoria, BC. 

Thanks for reading it has really been awhile since I have written much, I sure feel out of practice. :P

Birmingham and Brand New

Woke up without enough sleep, off to the train station we went. I slept on the train. Yay, new place!

First, we got off the train and escaped through a cold shopping centre, instantly found a map. Now onwards to wards the first bookstore. i bought Warm bodies and World War Z, since we watched the Walking dead earlier in the week.  It was excellent to cash in on my birthday present :)

City Counsel building. 

Went to the farmer's market. Apparently British farmers breed ostriches, the smell and look of the pastries there were nothing short of appetising.

Now I have a picture of the queen. 

* Went to the museum and art gallery, too much renaissance art, queues too long for 10 da Vincis

Lace Exhibit: I have forgotten the name of the exhibit but it was my favourite art display I have seen since I have arrived to England.

Went for lunch. Dimsum and candy towers buffet. In the China town guide we wandered in search of a store that does not exist. MuMu's stationary.

Can you see that bubblewarp building, oh yeah and the cathedral. 

To Millennium Point which was horribly designed, it was such a long walk to get into that building...instead we hit up a Starbucks, read new books. It was time to head over to 02 Academy, met simon and zoe

Brand New 

A late train back into Derby and then a saunter back to the bed. A good day out!

Flogging Molly at Rock City

Opening band The Mighty Steff. They have been travelling with Flogging Molly for the past month, they even got a personal shout out from the band.

The Minutes a band from Ireland. (I thought they were a bit generic)

Dave King!

Danny and Nat with  Bob Schmidt (I'm not in the picture since I was the one holding the camera. 

After seeing Flogging Molly at Sasquatch on a huge stage I was wondering how it is going to be at an indoor venue. I was on the floor dancing so this view is from far up...I did take note that all the band members are quite far away from each other.

Another fantastic show.

The Floyd Effect

Now who doesn't like Pink Floyd? Or doesn't know who they are, fix it now.

At The Flower Pot we saw Fred Zeppelin l put on a wonderful performance tonight we got to enjoy another fantastic evening with eight brilliant performers on stage presenting Floyd's best.

Starting off with 'Shine on you crazy diamond' with the eight member of the band stepping on stage with his saxophone. Followed by 'What do you want from me' off of the division bell. They played 'In the flesh', 'Another brick in the wall', 'Mother' and more from The Wall. An hour and fifteen minutes went by it was time to let the band and crowd gather their thoughts for act 2.

When we returned from intermission we were blown away by their awesome entirety of Dark Side of the Moon. If you closed your eyes it was like you were listening to Pink Floyd in the flesh. After being wowed again and again by the female vocals (you know the song-The great gig in the sky)  the saxophone player brings out his alto and tenor sax to fill in where he is needed. The bass player danced intimately with his guitar and the second guitarist amazes us with his twelve string talent. Keyboard/synthesizer and sound effects guy was nothing short but eccentric even with his mac book and the drummer bringing the whole show up a notch with his flawless percussion skills. Don't worry I didn't forget the singer, I have no words. This stage of eight brought Pink Floyd back to life for everyone in the crowd, if you see The Floyd Effect on a flyer as you walk by make you put it on your to do list. You won't regret it.

Oh I almost forgot, they finished with 'Wish you were here' and 'Comfortably numb' with a final encore.

I wanted to post my videos but for some reason I am having troubles loading them. So I will link you to some youtube videos!

Amon Tobin In London

Where to start, I had seen Amon Tobin years ago at New City Suburbs in Edmonton throwing down one of the most memorable sets I had been able to witness at the time. I even got to meet him in the VIP room because my friend at the time was working at The Drum Shop, they had lent the equipment for the show giving VIP tickets as a thanks I got to tag along.

When I heard that he was going to be playing in London, I got Danny on the internet to buy tickets to experience the show that I remembered. What I had forgot is that over time artists change to adapt or play to the crowd. I believe the word 'modern' is what he was going for.

Below is the a video I found of the Canadian pavilion rendition of the projectors on the cube structure that I saw at the Shanghai expo in 2010. 

To begin with instead of a traditional dj on the stage he brought a new but seen before 3D visual aid to the stage. I'm not writing it off completely but we have all seen visualizations on media players that are all psychedelic and very mesmerizing. Now he has added a live performance...yes yes it was timed to his music.

When he first came onto the set I was a bit wowed by the size of his visually stimulating stage cubes but the music that he decided to play for the first hour was disappointing. It wasn't nearly as melodic as his past work, it was slow inconsistent sporadic sounds. I am a huge fan of IDM but when you attend a show at HMV forum fitting 2350 you expect something you can dance to. The first hour of his set you learn that he plays from within the structure, people applaud their sensory overload with strobe lights in your face and short bass lines. Now people ask yourself would you rather watch a music video like The Wall or would you rather stand that bored stiff (smoking their joints) waiting for the moment when you can break out into that flail tearing up the dance floor. I don't think a single person had the opportunity to break a sweat.Cept for the naturally sweaty people.

I personally thought that after an hour when he escapes his 'dj booth' to take a bow and take in the huge cheers boosting his grand idea that his set was over. Luckily he has a small redeeming factor for his set was he stepped back in a played another 15 minutes with some emphasis and cut his set 15 minute short. Only playing from 9pm-10:15pm his set was over and I felt like there was a gaping hole that was never filled.

BUT he will always have a place in my musical Rolodex for Mission.

Fred Zeppelin

It was due time to set off into the weekend night life and we had come across a flyer saying that there was a Zeppelin tribute band playing right in our own backyard. Of to a place called The Flower Pot. I thought it was an odd name for a venue but when I stepped inside I realized that this place couldn't fit more than 50. Danny tells me there was a sign above the door saying that the capacity was 250, I really doubt that.

They started their show at half past 9, I seriously thought that they would begin their show later but I guess here people want to make it back home before midnight. However they did play a full 2 hour set with no intermission.

The drummer was an old bald man with a translucent drum set that I found mighty mesmerizing, to be able to watch his hands while he played out his solos. The bass guitarist was 25 pointed out to the crowd by the lead singer. The guitarist did his part in bringing some flare to the stage, with over the head riffs and him playing a long winded outro with a violin bow. The lead singer Fred Zeppelin had his own personal touch but in the end I wish his voice was as powerful as Robert Plant. i was a little sad that they didn't have a keyboard as part of their set. To be honest I'm not really hacking on them at all it was a nice reminder that classic rock will on even when 90% of the people at the gig was about mid 40's doesn't mean that the younger generation cannot appreciate the live production of something that changed the souls of the past.

Bringing some awesome classics: (in no order) Whole lotta love, Tangerine, Stairway to heaven, Communication breakdown, Dazed and confused, Kashmir, Black Dog, Misty mountain hop, Rock n' Roll, Nobody's fault but mine, Immigrant song...and so on. I really wished that they would have played D'yer M'aker.

Now I have to say that I have been lucky enough to have seen 'A Whole Lotta Led' at Pemberton. Since this show reminded me of them I went ahead to take a look at their future gig dates and found that they will be playing in England. I hope that we can catch them whilst they are touring Europe. Side note: On this search for Zeppelin tribute bands I found that there is a full girl band called Zepparella, after youtubing them I found the urge to pay them a visit too. I'll have to wait until I make it back to the states before that will happen.

Final note: LONG LIVE LED ZEPPELIN.

No Thanksgiving, No Problem

Good ol' Facebook status posts informed me that Canadian Thanksgiving would be landing on the Sunday. I very shortly after reciving this news I was told that they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in England.

Instead of looking forward to my usual Thanksgiving at my friends house. We had already made many plans for this weekend. However Lex did make a turkey curry and one darn magical apple crumble in honour of Sunday.

The Goose Fair = K-days (Capital Ex) it is almost the same minus the bands and the agricom with all too many vendors.

 

One scary looking spider

Main Room at Rock City

Holy Shit NERO

One of Danny's friends invited us to a dubstep dnb show that I couldn't say no. After dinner we went to pre drink at a friend of a friends house, time to meet more people. Beer Pong away! A brisk walk downtown to a  three room event hall having a capacity of 2451! (Starlight Room is only a 1000) So bam, Sunday show 3pm-3am...Detonate Alldayer :

Nero (Live)
Skream
Friction
Netsky
D Double E (Live)
Jakwob
Loadstar
SGT Pokes
MC's AD, Texas, Script

Basement: Shogun Audio - Way of Warrior LP launch...
Friction
Alix Perez
Icicle
Rockwell
Transit Mafia

 Alright I'm tired I'll have to write more later.

Dub FX

I had to look up what his real name was Benjamin Stanford (DUB FX) from Australia who started as a regular street preformer. After joining a band he eventually struck out solo and moving to Europe.

His magic comes from an effects petals, beat boxing, live looping of his own voice and singing. <3 His sound is made from his soul making it organic but giving it the touch of synthetics that we all love and crave. We also cannot forget his Flower Fairy (his fiancee) you could see how much she loves him and creates even more energy on stage singing and dancing.

It was at the Empire which I haven't been to since they changed the name and renovated the venue.

 The line up to get into the venue was mighty slow even though it seemed organized, there was only two people searching everyone coming into the show. If they weren't so thorough people would have gotten through faster. They even checked the inside of my wallet! After we made it in you were free to come and go with ease. There are a couple of the things that I have to make note of which I have already started telling people was that I love the fact that there a fans pointing the dance floor. It was so well ventilated I didn't feel like I was going to over heat once. On the other side of the coin though water was $4.50 I don't even want to know how much an alcoholic drink would burn my wallet. The videos that I did get of him on stage were not of the best quality so I will find one via youtube.

Love me or not by Dub FX ( My favourite)

 

He sang "What I got" <3 enff said.

If you ever get a chance to see DUB FX, DO IT. You will be happy that you did.

The Pixies

This was an all ages show it started fairly early in the evening, I showed up about an hour after doors opened at the Shaw Conference Center. (7:30pm). Met up with some fabulous friends to watch the opening band. 'Imaginary Cities' (A Canadian Band from Winnipeg) just wasn't my cup of tea. Instead I got myself a coffee to entertain and give me something to do while I wait for the headliner.

This post was originally going to be more about the music instead it turned into one long, short joke. Ha ha.

First of all 'I am short'. I know what you are thinking 'THIS IS BRAND NEW INFORMATION' Over the years I have learned that glasses, loose fitting shoes and dangle-ly bits just aren't your friend in the pit. Tonight was a great example why being short doesn't suit concerts, as everyone could have already guess the ability to see the stage for me is pretty much nil. Being short gives you the advantage only if you are willing to play this to the max.

ex. I tap several very tall boys in front of me and he decides 'Yes, you are short enough that I can still look directly over your head and clearly see the show, so you may stand in front of me.' After a certain number of times this method looses it appeal. This doesn't work when they do a full 360 right over and then proceeds to tell their friend how short you were after the second attempt to get his attention. I think its sad that people don't look up or down when things are happening around them. How oblivious.                          >.<

Eventually I made it one person away from the front. Now usually being in the front is ideal since there is literally no one to block your view. Downside is the crowd behind you is going to push you into the bar dislodging your orgasns. Also without eyes on the back of your head there is no way to see when there is an incoming crowd surfer. Again, being short gives me a bit of an awesome cop-out regarding crowd surfers: 1. I can't reach them so I don't have to help hold them up. 2. I'm am usually too short for them to kick me, I have however been kicked because I happened to reside in that empty space that their legs dropped into leaving me with a steel toe boot in the face. Luckily not at this show. 3. No a single soul will ask me to help them go up.

Here we notice that I have not yet gotten over the fact that I love the negative look.

This was how close I was to the stage, no zoom kids.

Back to the original thought, after placing myself into the front so I can take the most optimal photographs I felt the pressure. This pressure is of everyone of all sides pressing my organs into places where they do not belong. It wasn't natural relocation of my innards. This felt very similar to what I believe a garbage compactor would feel and smell like if I could survive being pressed into a cube. Enduring this for about 45 minutes I had to back out at least a couple rows.

Roughly four rows from the front people were just flailing up and down, I'm not going to sick around in this area. I wasn't planning to get an elbow on top of my head or in the eye, this is the biggest dangers for someone of my height standing in this area. I have suffered both those injuries before so if I can avoid it I will. Off I go, now I am back at the end of the crowd there is ample space, a cold breeze that I can actually enjoy and a near by water fountain. (instead of playing nasty concession prices) Now I don't like to be a bleachers person but as we all know there is a totally different atmosphere when you are far enough back to see the entirety of the show.

Here is me taking a photograph from the farthest bleachers

All in all this show was pretty good since they played the 'Dolittle' Album and presented us with two encores.