Rifflandia Recap in Pictures : Friday Night

Aidan Knight

Tegan and Sara

Zeus

The Most Serene Republic

Click here for the complete set of photos, as well as Thursday night's set on my Flickr.

Summary: Article One at Coastal Church

(Please excuse the poor quality cellphone photos)

The 2009 Juno-nominated band Article One, from London, Ontario, played a free concert in Vancouver August 12 as part of the Coastal Church REGeneration series of bands and speakers. They brought a high energy set to a beautiful venue, getting a whole crowd of 300+ people dancing and bobbing in between them uncomfortable pews.

My highlight of the show was definitely seeing Matt Piche's energetic (/frantic) fiddling. The bow looked just about snapped in half and strings were flying off in every direction as it seesawed to their brand of up-tempo pop rock. Now that's what I paid (well, $0) to see!

Below is a set list of that show.

Without You
Say
Searchlights
500
Blessed
I Am Free
If The World
No Time
Above All
Never
Mighty
All Because
Everlasting

Article One is composed of brothers Nathan (vox, guitar, keys) and Matt Piche (violin, vox), Dave DeSmit (drums, vox), and Nolan Verner (bass). Their name was inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was prominently displayed when they attended the U2 Vertigo tour in 2005/6.

Speaking of U2, here's hoping that with their three-part harmony and strong violin presence, that Article One can break out of the mold that so many contemporary Christian rock bands tend to fall into -- the whole shimmery guitar build-up sound.

With two albums out (Self Titled & Colors and Sounds) and one on the way, these guys have toured Canada and the US extensively to promote their music, and had been on the road for more than 200 days in 2008. They've toured with Christian mega-band the Newsboys, and are going on tour through Canada from end of October through November to support another fellow 2009 Juno-nominated Canadian band Starfield.

Their latest album, Colors and Sounds, is available on iTunes, and from MapleMusic as well.

Find them on Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace.

Photos: Joel Plaskett Emergency at Surrey Fusion Fest

Saturday, July 18th. It's 8:00 pm. You've just missed Said The Whale's 7:00 pm set, racing from the Vancouver Folk Festival from one side of Metro Vancouver, to Surrey, in the 'burbs.

But you know, even after you've had a rough day-- your friend's car's been towed, you're severely sunburnt, hungry and exhausted,

You end up at this concert, see Mr. Plaskett and his amazing band the Emergency play (for free nontheless),

And you know...


Everything will Work Out Fine.

More photos from the Joel Plaskett Emergency concert on my Flickr.


And here's the set list from that amazing show.
(minus Come On Teacher, as the emcee jumped the gun in returning to the stage. Boo.)

(Maybe I should start calling my blog earbuds and set lists or something.)

Bluesfest: Day 2

July 9th was my favorite night of Ottawa Bluesfest.
It was better than Day 1 mostly because I knew the bands/musicians that were playing on Day 2.
I had a great time running over from stage to stage.

The acts that I got to see:
Kyrie Kristmanson
Kyrie was totally amazing live. She wore her famous white fuzzy hat during Song X but took it off after it.
Nice to see her back from France for the summer.


Holy Fuck
Loved hearing Milkshakes and some new tracks.
They were absolutely amazing live and I was happy to catch Lovely Allen at the end.


Metric
Seen them alot of times now. Glad that they sang "Help! I'm Alive" live.


Iron & Wine
I wish I got to stay longer for his set.
Sad that I missed out on Such Great Heights


Ben Harper and Relentless7
All I have to say that he was totally loud.