Date: July 9th, 2006
Location: Downtown, St. Catharines, Ontario
Line-up: (120 bands – see lineup at bottom of post)

Review:

I had the pleasure of attending the S.C.E.N.E. music festival in St. Catharines, Ontario, this past Sunday. While it was my first SCENE, I had high hopes as I had heard good things about the festival from years past.

Major highlights of the show: City & Colour and Alexisonfire both put on great shows, as per usual. The Black Lungs were incredibly entertaining. Ken Reaume’s acoustic songs were perfect for the setting in which he played. Sail Boats Are White have an INSANE amount of energy. Johnny Truant packed the venue like I’d never before seen, and did not disappoint.

Disappointments of the show: Crowded venues prevented from truly enjoying the music, because you were constantly dealing with pushing, and sweating. I missed two of my favourite acts due to venues that were at capacity, so it may be important to re-evaluate who should play where, to ensure as many people as possible can see their favourite bands.

The great thing about SCENE is its concept. There are 120 bands, a whole bunch of venues, and a main market where all the merch and big shows go down. If you’re one of the first however many to arrive, you get a free festival CD. The customizable schedule, and easy to read maps make it easy to navigate, even for out-of-towners such as myself. I was also pretty surprised at the quality of most of the venues. Not one dive bar in sight! For a smaller place, the bars seemed great!

The staff of the show were like none other. We had a minor ticket fiasco upon arrival, and though I didn’t get her name, the woman in the red shirt that seemed to be in charge took great care of us. Instead of brushing us off, she apologized profusely and even went so far as to get us each a free autographed City & Colour t-shirt, and some Alexisonfire pins. Definitely above and beyond the call of duty. The security and venue staff were all very friendly and able to help when seeking venues, etc.

As far as bands go, there were only a few disappointments. While I obviously didn’t get to see all 120 bands, the few I did make it to see were exceptional.

City & Colour had yet another stellar performance. The one drawback lay with whomever was mixing the sound on this set. There was far too much bottom end, which completely drew my attention away from the guitar and keys, as well as the soft vocals. It would have been nice if the problem had been corrected but unfortunately it continued throughout the set, at no fault of the performers. There was also a fair amount of feedback, and as Dallas Green put it, ‘a thunder storm in my monitor’. (www.myspace.com/dallasgreen)

After City & Colour, we went to check out The Black Lungs. This band is simple: Wade (from Alexisonfire), and Sammi Bogdanski (on keys). While Wade carried the show through his guitar, vocals, and on-stage banter, Sammi’s piano skills did not go unnoticed. The bar was packed for this set, and I loved the venue, but was fairly upset when a group of people at the back took to cheering for the World Cup over paying attention to the set. It was nothing less than rude, and even Wade brought that to light several times. Regardless, the music was great. (www.myspace.com/dirtyblacklungs)

After the Black Lungs, we tried to get into a venue to see Casey Baker (lead singer of Sleeper Set Sail). Unfortunately, the venue was at capacity long before we arrived – much to our disappointment. Luckily, I have seen Casey’s set before. While often awkward on stage, his songs fortunately compensate. He’s definitely worth checking out. (www.myspace.com/caseybakermusic)

After Casey, we managed to work our way into the Johnny Truant set. PHENOMENAL. These guys are THE next big thing in metal. Recent album release, great stage presence, and tight music. Although the venue was INSANELY hot and overpacked, it was well worth it to catch just a few of their songs. (www.myspace.com/johnnytruant)

Post-Johnny Truant, we made our way back to the Market Square. We were tired, and there were too many bands left to choose from, so we decided to chill and see what was going on at the main stage. Much to our pleasure, we caught some freestyling from Bukue One. Though not the biggest hip-hop fan, I have to say he was great. He stayed on with Del Tha Funky Homosapien, and while it’s my understanding that Del is the more popular of the two, I have to that Bukue was the one with the ‘wow factor’.

An unlively performance by Magneta Lane followed. While the girls sounded great live, the constant look of boredom on the bass players’ face simply made it look like they weren’t enjoying themselves. How can fans enjoy themselves when the musicians aren’t even into it?

After them, Alexisonfire took to the stage. Energetic, lively, and loud – they were polar opposites to the Magneta Lane set. Always great live performers, the guys didn’t disappoint. They played a mix of older songs, as well as three off their upcoming album ‘Crisis’. The only disappointing part of the set was the general disregard for others that came from the crowd. Lead singer George made a point of telling everyone to help each other out, but the crowd was overly rough to the point that those of us standing farther away were even getting trampled unnecessarily. It was a great preview of the new album, though, and that more than made up for the beating I took.

Next we wandered off to see A Northern Chorus – another chill band I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live before. Good thing – their WAY TOO SMALL venue was at capacity. This is definitely a band that should have been given somewhere bigger and more prominent to play, and it was sorely disappointing that so many missed their set.

We checked out a few songs by Sailboats are White – whom I can be blunt about. The music is amazing; the vocals leave something to be desired. I’m not usually one to misunderstand music, but this concept leaves me out in left field. I just downright don’t understand the appeal. But hey, to each his own.

Following them was Ken Reaume. My first time seeing him live, and he didn’t let me down. Soft-spoken and quiet, the music was relaxing and well-played. Though because his set was not well-attended, many missed out on some great songs.

Though we wanted to stick around for Raising the Fawn, we had a two hour drive before us, and work in the morning. So sadly, I missed them as well, but I am trying to catch a set sometime in the near future.

Overall, SCENE was draining and entertaining. A long day, but definitely worth the money (only $25! HOLY CRAP!) and the time. One of the best indie festivals I’ve been to.

Band listing:
11 Minutes Away
4 Barrell
A Minute Till Midnight
A Northern Chorus
Alexisonfire
Andy Moog & The Sausage Party
Arise & Ruin
Attack In Black
Baptised In Blood
Black Lungs
Boys Night Out
Brett Friesen & The Great Lakes
Bronx Cheerleader
Cadence Weapon
Cain And Abel
Casey Baker
Ceremonial Snips
Cities In Dust
City And Colour
Clothes Make The Man
Crush Luther
Damn 13
Dance Yourself To Death
Dead Letter Dept.
Del Asher
Del Opener
Del Tha Funky Homosapien
Die Driving
Die Mannequin
Disgruntled Employees
Dodger
Doris Day
Eden Ants
Erick Von Erick & The Raving Psycho’s
Everlea
Everything Was Perfect
F.Y.I.
Femme Generation
Fever Out!
Fucked Up
Fuzz Bug
G Spot Unit
Groovy Food
Hardcore Warrior
Holiday
Hostage Life
Inferis
Ion Dissonance
Jamie Hunter
Jay Maillard
Jesse T. Reid
Johnny Truant
Keep It Up
Ken Reaume
Kendra Ford
Kover
Las Tarantulas
Late Fallen
Levee
Magneta Lane
Marco Defelice
Mark Vida
Matinee Slim
Maximum RNR
Means
Meesh
Million Dollar Marxist
Momentus
New World Son
No Buddhas In Texas
Overfiend
Policies And Procedures
Public
Rad Affair
Ragni
Raising The Fawn
Rammer
Random Projectors
Romeo Liqour Store
Rosesdead
Rum Runner
Ruth’s Hat
Sail Boats Are White
Scandalnavia
Screamin’ Black Cadillacs
Shade
Shock Nagasaki
Sights Unseen
Siren Street Shutdown
Skullkrusher
Sleep The Season
Slute
Soap Opera Coma
Socialight
St. Alvia Cartel
Starlit Lounge
Summer Of 92
Surplus sons
The Anti-Q’s
The Artist Life
The Audio Visuals
The Bang Theory
The Bob Heath and the Staggering Drunks
The Cheap Suits
The Creepshow
The End
The Februarys
The Flatliners
The Gorgeous
The Infinite Machine
The Junction
The Mahones
The Matadors
The Minatures
The New Cities
The Perms
The Reason
The Regards
The Ride Theory
The Satelite State
The Stick Up
The Terminal Wally’s
The Video Dead
TheCauseâ┚¬Ã‚¦IfAnything
Throck Morton
Tokyo Police Club
Trigger Incident
Truth And Rights
Two Knives
Vanmarines
We Want Barrabas
Word People

This year I had the opportunity of attending the great Cornerstone festival in Bushnell, IL. If your not familiar with the festival I highly suggest heading to their website and dive into all the content for one of the largest christian festivals of the year. The festival has been an annual event for over twenty years now and each year great new events are added to the bill. Not only is the festival filled with the hottest christian bands but also with many independent bands that play small tents and even bands that come and set up in the grass and play at will. Let me just tell you that you will have no trouble finding a band to listen to at almost any time of the day as bands go well into the night.

Other then music being one of the main attractions there are lots of seminars about everything from christian music to church and religion. I highly suggest attending some seminars if you ever go to the festival as they can be a breath of fresh air. This years event was four days long but included a special Tooth & Nail day on the 4th of July and early camping started the day before that on July 3rd.

Camping is also a big part of the festival, you can go for a day if you want but why not go for the whole event and catch as many bands and seminars as you can. I didn’t know what to exactly expect as far as the camping, but the grounds are filled with everything you need (bathrooms, showers, grocery store, food vendors and more). Although some campers look to bring almost everything with them including full sized grills and even a sink (so much for the camping on their part).

Tooth & Nail day was packed with almost every band on their roster as well as bands from Solid State. I caught almost all the bands that day as there were only the two stages going back to back. I was very impressed with the sets from Jonzetta, Sullivan, Spoken, As Cities Burn, and Showbread (all bands I hadn’t had the chance of catching before). Other T&N bands like Run Kid Run, The Fold, mewithoutYou, Project 86, and Hawk Nelson played as well. Devin Shelton of Emery played an acoustic set that sounded amazing none the less as the rest of the band were currently out playing on the Warped Tour.

The following days were filled with many more bands playing a handful of tents and stages. It was a good thing that the stages didn’t get going until 10 a.m. or later since you stayed up the night before rocking out. Sleeping in was actually hard to do as the sun, heat, and humidity usually woke us up around 8 a.m. every day. I caught a handful of bands the next few day including Family Force 5, Oceans Firing, Flee The Seen, The Class of 98, Norma Jean, As I Lay Dying, Underoath, The Wedding, Man Alive, Anberlin, Mute Math, Lovedrug, Transition, MxPx, Relient K, and even more on the smaller generator stages. If you want band overload you can usually achieve that at events like the Warped Tour but this is 4 days straight of band after band so there is always something going for you to check out.

Now like I said before the festival isn’t all about music. There were some great seminars going on and I attending a few on christian music, how to conduct interviews and more. Overall I was very thankful that everyone I talked to was extremely nice and helpful. What other event could you walk around at and find all the band members sitting around talking with friends and fans and even find them searching through the trash for cans and bottles that attendees didn’t put in the recycle bin. I don’t believe there is one and I think these people are amazing and should be looked upon as great people and not just a person in a band trying to be the next rockstar.

Camping, music, and great people made this a wonderful festival to attend. I look forward to attending again in the future and to pick up on the many things that I missed. If you get the chance to head to he festival I highly suggest you do so and be sure to be ready for a great week.