Ok so yesterday was Scene Fest 09 in St Catherines On. For those of you who don’t know Scene is a 1 day outdoor/indoor, Punk, emo, indy, hardcore, hip-hop, fun festival that takes place in various bars in the downtown core of St Catherines. For $25 in advance or $30 the day of, you get a wristband that allows you to freely navigate the downtown and go in and out of what seems like EVERY bar. The day consists of about 200 bands and and maybe 10 venues with 20 stages.
On the morning of Scene I woke up to find the skies grey graphite and knew it wasn’t looking good for the day. Although most of the stages are indoors, there are 3 or so that are unprotected including the main stage @ Market Square. Upon arrival to the market square area where all the bands do merch, I could easily notice the event had been greatly effected by the weather.
I had expected this years Scene lineup to be the largest one yet and was disappointed because I knew the complications that would arise should the skies open up.
The first band I saw at Scene was Polar Bear Club on the main stage. Rockin as always and expected. Please check this band out if you haven’t yet! They are the sweetest dudes ever and are so easy to get on with. They had a great crowed and I think made a lot of new fans. This band is very deserving.
Dinosaur Bones @ Merchant Ale House
I’m not sure exactly how long Dinosaur bones has been a band but I think this was their first time playing Scene. The band is, in my mind, kind of like a Killers meets Strokes indie-party band. The Ale House was completely packed and people were outside packed around the open street windows. This band rules. Very explosive and ambient. Great live show and crowed involvement.
Cancer Bats @ Market Square
By the time the Bats took the stage it was starting to rain. I think this would have put a damper on anyone else’s set except the Cancer Bats and their engaged fans seemed to thrive from it. The messier it got in front of the stage the more the band seemed to get pumped up and the more the fans threw down. As soon as their set was done kids split in two directions, half into the merch area, and half to shelter from the rain. Liam from the Cancer Bats arrived in the merch area shortly after and graciously bowed atop a table to the kids going wild beneath. This band has come a long way from jammin at Ruminel.
Scheduled to play after The Cancer Bats on the main stage was Every Time I die. But it was instantly clear things were not going to work out because of the rain or at least be delayed. I was talking to my bassist Chuck and overheard a rumor the ETID was going to now be playing @ L3 (where I played 2 hours previous). So i booked it to L3 and right after I did a swarm of every kid in the Niagara region rushed the door and caused the club to be locked down. I hung around for a few but it wasn’t looking good for me so I dipped around back and used my band wristband to get into the club. Once inside I realized they weren’t letting anyone into the club and that the Johnstones were about to play to the fans of theirs that had already gotten inside.
The Johnstones @ L3
The Johnstones are fucked. I see these kids everywhere promoting the fuck out of their band. They are kinda like a ska punk party band? They all have eccentric looks and act erratic to the max on stage. They do covers, Originals, trade off instruments, the works. The band kinda got robbed though because they were set up at 9:25 to play but weren’t suppose to go on til 9:40 so they waited for more people to come in, but the club had already been rushed and the doors closed while the police tried to gain control on the street of the kids and the line-up. The Johnstones were asked to cut their set short and I had the best seat in the house for ETID.
So after the Johnstones ended I was hanging with Ian Stanger and we were waiting for ETID or to at least find out what exactly was going to happen and when. We had heard so many rumors by now and nobody really even knew how 1000 kids would get into a 300 cap. venue to see the band they all most likely shelled out $25 bucks to see. At about 10:30 I decided I had waited enough and dipped out of the venue. I still don’t know what happened with Every Time I Die.
What I do know is Scene Fest is a good thing, and as long as people are willing to put on shows, I’m willing to go to them and to play them. Music is the greatest thing in the world. For me one of the best parts of Scene is seeing all my friends in bands that are out working hard all year long.
Shout Outs to Bryan from A wilhelm Scream, Polar bear club, goose and Sights and Sounds, The Reason, Stereos