Stripdown
@ REDs - Edmonton AB - June 21st '06 - Past
Just
a little back story first off here… Stripdown
was a Showcase event put on by the radio station The Bear
100.3, the venue Reds (now the Edmonton Events Centre),
PunkTV and The Sound Radio. In order to be in the event
you had to receive online votes at The Sound Radio and
you were also judged based on the songs that you posted
on your profile. Sixteen bands in total we’re selected
(out of a hundred or more) and of the sixteen we we’re
one of them. Thanks to every one who voted.
The event was
over a two day period, a Thursday and Friday night; eight
bands would play each night. The Thursday consisted of
Living Illusion (Edmonton, AB), Stereo Therapy (Edmonton,
AB), Flood of Fire (Vancouver, BC), Disaster Bloom (Edmonton,
AB), Face First (Edmonton, AB), AutoBody (Calgary, AB),
Cold Driven (Armstrong, BC), and Gone Savage (Edmonton,
AB). Playing on the Friday was The Omega Theory (Edmonton,
AB), Chyshuga (Calgary, AB), Keep 6 (Edmonton, AB), Lipth
(Edmonton, AB), Radio for Help (Sherwood Park, AB), Jets
to Theory (Edmonton, AB), Strada (Calgary, AB), and Whitfield
(Vancouver, BC).
Jay
and I arrived pretty early at Reds (the venue where the
showcase was taking place); I chatted with Mike Dilts
(promoter) for a bit and discussed the night’s
events. There would be a group of Judges watching all
the bands and giving critiques (also the best band would
win radio airplay plus other stuff). After my conversation
I made my way into the game room to play some Drum Hero
(like guitar hero), just basically needed to kill some
time.
While I was there I saw Billy Nickel, the lead singer
from Cold Driven, I started up a conversation and we hit
it off and talked for a good while. Eventually, I got hungry
so I headed down to the food court to grab some food with
Mark (our bass player). While there, we met up with the
Shane (also from Cold Driven) and basically talked about
the music industry for the next hour.
Once
we got back to Reds all the bands had to pull their play
times from a hat (we got a decent set time) followed
by getting some pictures taking by Dixon Christie. Our
set time wasn’t too
bad, it was at 9:00 and the event started at 7:00. I
told the guys what time our set was and we just basically
had to wait around til the show started, I gave Mike
Dilts a hand setting up stuff to kill more time (lots
of waiting around).
Once the bands started playing and we
headed to the green room to get ready for our turn to
hit the stage. We watched and listened to some of the
bands that played before us, every one at this event
was good; it was essentially a showcase of some of the
best independent bands in Western Canada.
When it was our
turn to hit the stage we hit it hard. Played lots of our
fast hard hitting songs and rocked out. Kept our energy
high and just had a wicked time. I even used a beer to
play my guitar; after our set was over I felt that we had
set the bar for the rest of the evening and I think the
crowd even thought so too.
Long
story short, we didn’t win the event, and neither
did Cold Driven. The winners were mostly on the Friday
night, but all in all the entire event was a great experience.
For me, other than playing the show itself, the entire
night was spent hanging out with the guys from Cold Driven,
drinking beers and discussing different ideas for our two
bands to work together on future ideas so even though
we didn’t
win the event, I’m
sure something great will come of it.
:)
Happy and Fulfilled,
Shane Lamotte
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