Music

Halifax Pop Explosion 2011: Day five roundup

by Nicole Villeneuve

Waking up Saturday morning knowing it was the last day of Halifax Pop Explosion meant two things: I was still tired, and 2.) I had to get out for another daytime walk around this beautiful city when I had a few minutes. So I did just that. I went back to the water where, perhaps not surprisingly, a ton of people were out enjoying their Saturday morning, looking significantly more refreshed and rested that I, the late-night rock-club dweller. Hi.

That chunk of land you see in the distance is George’s Island, used in the 1700s to hold imprisoned Acadians during the expulsion. But anyway! Halifax is the kind of town where, if you know people, you will most likely for sure run into them, which I did, and they suggested I walk another 15 minutes or so to the Halifax-famous Farmer’s Market, the oldest in North America in fact, but housed now in a new, open-concept, sustainable building, instead of in the Alexander Keith’s brewery. So I did. And it was pretty neat.

But none of that is very rock and roll or whatever, is it? The afternoon found itself filled up rather quickly, and with the early start time of the all-ages show at the Pavilion (which was already decently full) I headed straight there for the start to the night. I caught a bit of Halifax’s Envision, cornerstones of the city’s punk scene for over ten years now. Next up was another Canadian punk-rock classic, Chixdiggit. If their music didn’t always cheer you up, their constant between-song comedy revue will. Amazing. And of course the headliners of the…well, afternoon, modern-day Canuck punk legends, Fucked Up. Frontman Damian Abraham didn’t take long before asking the crowd if anyone had a copy of Out of The Fog, a rare Halifax compilation from the late 80s. “I’ll trade you,” he said. “I have good shit. I don’t mean like ‘I’ll give you two Fucked Up records.’ I have good shit.” No one took him up on it. But he still proceeded to lead the band through a good number of David Comes to Life tracks, along with some older stuff, and the front-row crew knew every word to everything. A kid crowd surfed. Like, I think he was ten. His life is probably changed, now. Just another day at Halifax Pop.

After that, it was off to the Palace (where Fucked Up would actually be playing again in a few hours, though I wouldn’t be staying for it) to see Halifax’s Long Weekends. They wore matching plaid shirts! And were great. Some jagged little dark punk numbers with enough bounce to keep it out of any done-to-death bedroom-band territory. Affix no ‘wave’ to their name, please.

St. Matt’s church was at capacity for the Find the Others/Rural Alberta Advantage show, as was the Tribeca for the secret Chad VanGaalen show, so I went back to the Palace for No Joy, which I’m ecstatic happened because I’d never actually seen them and they kind of blew me away. Like the best of 90s grunge/indie-punk nostalgia but in no way a direct rip of something. Which is a good kind of familiar. Would see again.

After No Joy, I decided to stick around for some of PS I Love You, a band I’d seen before but not since before they’ve toured their lives away this past year. It took so long to set up two people, I’ll say that. But they sounded as huge as I remembered, if not a little hastened. The increase in speed is maybe good, though, as it had a full-fledged dance party happening in a little pocket of people about half-way back. You don’t see that at rock shows very much.

Another day of quality music had to come to an end early for matters of working and packing, and so even before Fucked Up could start again, or before I could get rejected from any other capacity venues, I retreated away into the night. Another Halifax Pop done. You were wonderful, old friend. See you again sometime.