The local rock radio station, CFOX, puts on a big ol’ semi-outdoor festival in the springtime each year… or at least they will be. The event is only a couple years old. This year’s headliners were the Offspring, which impressed just about nobody. The bulk of the crowd was there to see bands like Billy Talent, Bif Naked, and the Trews.

However, the show was an all-day festival type of thing. Another annual thing CFOX does is have a competition between local bands, with five winners (this winning structure has changed many times over the years) who become the CFOX Seeds bands for the year. So on this day, a second stage was set up alongside the main stage where those five Vancouver-based bands could strut their stuff for a potentially new and quite large audience. It seems like a great idea, right? So why couldn’t the event planners find a better way to set up that second stage to make it a bit more visible? It was set up slightly touching, but behind and at a forty-five degree angle to, the main stage. The space between the front of the small stage and the side of the big stage was packed with gear cases and other random stuff, and the main stage speaker clusters were hanging down pretty much in direct line with the second stage. So any fans who were staking their spots along the front of the main stage barricade couldn’t see the second stage at all, and those around the back up by the merch booths and vendors, had a clump of giant speakers in the way. Add that to the pretty atrocious sound in this glass-roofed, open-sided venue, and it makes that side stage deal not quite as cool as it could have been.

But they did give it a shot, and the bands seemed pretty happy to play in that sort of environment anyhow. There’s been talk over the years about whether or not there’s politics involved in the selection of Seeds bands. That’s not to say they aren’t all good bands in their own right, but just that there’s often very little branching out in styles, and oftentimes the bands run in the same circles. But anyhow, that’s something for a separate article. State Of Shock, The Solution, Tourist, Everything After, and Suspect were part of this stage’s festivities, were all introduced by CFOX DJs, and began, in the latter stages, to swap sets between them and the main stage acts. The sun was beaming down on these bands, who all put in a huge effort to win over a muchly-disaffected crowd. The Plaza of Nations was not packed by any means in the early goings, and most were just waiting around for the main stage acts, but there was a cheering section of people gathered near the side stage to check out the Seeds bands. Generally, big new-rock, guitar-driven loud music was what we heard from these bands. Lots of tattoos, ball-chain necklaces, and wide-legged stances.

At some point, the radio folks began releasing dozens of black and white beach balls into the audience. These things are both festive and fun, and super-annoying. They bounce all over the place and fill up the media areas, until people in the crowd beg security to throw them back out.

The first main stage band was The Start, a troupe of rock-goth boys with a gal singer. The short-cropped black-and-blonde hair, red slash eye makeup, and a little corset-style top that adorned her looked almost out of place in the afternoon sunlight. They went off though. I’m not sure how well they were received by the crowd, but they let loose.

The Trews were on after that on the main stage. I personally think these guys are wonderful. They were a definite black sheep of the whole show though. They are still loud, which fits the bill, but they have such a fun and bluesy vibe to them, I just don’t think they were entirely in the right environment for their music. I observed some confused looks from the audience, and overheard a few people basically going, “What the fuck…?” but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a great band. Guitarist John-Angus MacDonald is intense, sliding on his knees to the edge of the stage, gesturing to the crowd to get moving, spinning his hair around. And singer Colin MacDonald ends up being a lot more dangerous than he appears. He seems to be a meek little man, but once behind the mic, he goes nuts. The one thing about the Plaza of Nations is that, despite the crappy sound, everything looks really cool there. The stage is nice and big, and the linear qualities of the glass roof give everything a really cool dynamic. That’s a bit unrelated to anything, but basically I just mean, it makes the show look huge.

Then came the spectacle that is Billy Talent. By far the most energetic and entertaining set of the whole show, these guys started off with a yell and vocalist Ben Kowalewicz grabbing his heavy weighted mic stand, raising it over his head at the back of the stage, sprinting like a maniac with it still over his head, and hurling it at the stage floor when he got halfway across. It bounced twice, rolled, and got stopped by a monitor before it could fly off the stage and smack me in the face, but I froze temporarily and missed the moment on film because I honestly thought I was about to die - the whole sequence took about two seconds. Anyhow, the guy is just a fireball. He moves so fast up there, back and forth, perching on monitors, sneering at the crowd, all the while with this absolutely possessed look on his face. His nasally squall, and the chopped-up, mechanical, growling backing vocals (from Ian D'sa and Jon Gallant) went over very well with the throngs of all-agers, who suddenly came alive and began moshing and fluctuating and flying over the barricades by the dozen. A couple of songs in, gear started to die on them, and then everything just cut out. Kowalewicz, his momentum halted suddenly, began tugging at his shirt and explaining that they think they must have blown the power. It took a couple of confusing minutes, but everything got back in working order, and the band got back on the ball. Literally - those beach balls were on stage with them and they definitely kicked a few around.

By this time, the side stage was finished hosting bands, and the gear had been cleared away from it. The area was now packed with people - other band members, label reps, girlfriends, media folks - watching from that odd vantage point the proceedings on the main stage. Billy Talent was still going at it, and I started to think that the view from that side stage wasn’t so hot - what with all the equipment and guitars in the way.

Bif Naked was up next. She’s been such a Vancouver staple for years, and her popularity hasn’t died out as has been the case with so many other locals who came into their own around the same time in the mid-90's. If anything, she’s gotten ragingly more popular, with guys who love the tough, tattooed, take-no-shit chick, and from girls who idolize and aspire to be as such. She’s a great performer, showing off her well-toned abs, swinging her black locks about, and using her hands a lot to emote. Who can forget Scotty "The Body Too-Hotty" McCargar off in the back, drumming with this perpetual smile on his face. He knows everyone in Vancouver loves him. And her bassists are always insane. I've never seen her without a thoroughly-entertaining bassist. She's also long-since plucked guitarist Brittin Karroll from Live On Release. Karroll's a little spooky. So Bif Naked was pretty fun. I hadn’t seen her play in ages, and it’s nice to see she’s still got it. The kids in the crowd went nuts for it.

After that was over, I waited patiently for the Offspring, despite my waning interest in hanging around to photograph their fifth song only, as per manager’s instructions. What a pain. Five minutes before they were supposed to go on stage, the event media coordinator tracked me down and told me that the manager for the Offspring had changed his mind and decided not to let anyone photograph. Hey, thanks for the advance warning buddy. I’ll make sure not to bother in the future. That frustrated me to hell, and since I had more interesting places to be, and many people in the crowd were leaving anyhow to avoid the Offspring, I took off and headed back into downtown to the Commodore.

Metric was just about to go on stage when I arrived. After their own engaging and spirited headlining show the night before, they had been slotted onto the bill to open the Hawksley Workman show. They impressed once again. Singer Emily Haines is a natural at keeping people in the show. She just has such magnetism. But there’s a full review coming soon, so we’ll leave it at that. Other than at this show, suddenly they started pulling people out of the crowd to play the keys and sing along. Haines taught a guy to play a simple keyboard riff, and he went to town, then bounced across the stage and started dancing with everyone.

So I guess based on that, between sets, a couple people thought it would be okay to crawl on stage and just stand there at the side. That was really weird. Two people just clambered up in stage and stood leaning against the wall, casually chatting and pointing out things in the room like it was perfectly acceptable to do so. Security was on them pretty quick.

Workman was fabulous as usual. He also uses his hands a lot as he plays, sings into the sky, just gets really into his music. And you know, really, just about everyone from that CFOX show at the Plaza of Nations showed up here at the Commodore (which was strangely not too full). Many of the band members and label reps from FoxFest came in to make the rounds. So really, not a bad night. There was a ton of waiting around for things to happen, but in the end, there were probably half a dozen bands that really were worth seeing for one reason or another, and a few more who had marginal merit. Vancouver wins sometimes!

Elsewhere

By Andy Scheffler
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Metric photos from April 9, 2004 show at Richard's
Published : May 26, 2004.