REVIEW: Classic Canadians thrive at Rock Fest
Edmontonians waking up yesterday morning to head down to Hawrelak Park for Day 2 of the eighth annual Edmonton Rock Music Festival might have felt a bit of relief: While they knew they’d be losing a bit more of their hearing throughout the day, at least they’d be able to breathe without putting themselves at risk of acquiring emphysema.
The blue sky and sunshine, air mostly bereft of smoke, and temperatures in the low 20s meant a promising environment for Canadian rock ‘n’ roll – with the afternoon lineup of Toronto, Helix, Honeymoon Suite and Glass Tiger. Four top flight Canadian classic rock bands performing their respective, not to mention respectable, collection of hits between them? Who cares if they were big in 1986? It should have been called Canada Day down here.
The band Toronto, featuring Annie “Holly” Woods on vocals – not from Toronto, mind you, but North Carolina – was the first up, running through the assertive heavy rocker Even The Score, turning it down but firing it up for the mid-tempo scorcher Ready To Make Up, which featured a beautiful, fluid and emotive jaw dropper of a guitar solo which just might have been the best of the day, before tossing the keys over to backing keyboardist Jim Gilmour of Saga for a solo rendition of his other band’s hit Scratching The Surface, his second in two days. Before long Toronto was back to light into their signature tune Your Daddy Don’t Know, with that instantly recognizable, timeless intro and chorus riff that, had they been an American act, would have launched these guys into the entertainment industry stratosphere, but since they were Canadian … well, let’s not talk about that.
It wasn’t long after Helix took the stage that the place turned into an animal house. These grizzled, raucous metalheads from Kitchener-Waterloo are lifers on the international metal scene with decades of street cred behind them, and while they looked worse for the wear they sure didn’t sound like it. Lead singer Brian Vollmer got a bit of help from some, um, pre recorded backing vocal tracks on a couple of tunes, but given their evident dedication to their vocation, let’s give that one a pass, shall we? These guys rocked harder and put more into their set than any other act of the day. From first note to last, they played balls-out, heel to the floor, like they meant every note of it.
While they didn’t hit Animal House, Helix did a nearly hour long set of a few mainstays, like the set opener and aural sledgehammer House On Fire, fist-pumping pop metal confections Heavy Metal Love and Kids Are All Shakin’, a new tune in The Devil’s Having A Party Tonight, a couple rather obscure catalogue tracks in Long Way To Heaven and When The Hammer Falls, the better-than-the-original over of Crazy Elephant’s Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’, the emotive, dark and pleading minor key ballad Deep Cuts The Knife. They iced the cake with their internationally recognized signature singalong Rock You. You’d have thought after pumping out that high energy of a set while flying on that low of a gas tank that they’d be peeling back stage for a bottle of Tylenol, some honey tea and peace & quiet … no, no, no. It was off to the K-97 tent to sign autographs, take pictures and share stories until … whenever. They never set a deadline. God bless their hard-rocking, fan-loving hearts. How many bands treat their fans this well?
Despite tech problems and delays that plagued their opening, Honeymoon Suite put in the strongest performance of the afternoon – including Say You Don’t Know Me where they absolutely killed it. It was the song of the day. The rest of the set was a little light on the heavy rockers, straying into Bic lighter territory with What Does It Take?, the mellow rock of Wave Babies, and keyboard-dominated middle-of-the-road minor hit Stay In The Light. They did light it up on a few other heavier tunes, such as Feel It Again, with its energetic singalong chorus popping up out of nowhere as if to say “Hey you! I’m a hit!” Then there was the emotional and intense Burning In Love, and the one that started it all off for them all those years ago, their ubiquitous signature piece New Girl Now.
With Los Lobos closing the fest, the afternoon of Canadian classics stretched well into the evening with Glass Tiger, fronted by Canadian-by-way-of-Scotland Alan Frew, an affable chap whose stage presence has remained as strong as his accent. Stylistically they were the most lightweight act of the weekend, but that certainly wasn’t reflective of their set. These guys probably had more hits back in the day than any of the other acts booked this weekend, and they managed to trot out many of them, like late career hard rocker Animal Heart, the vaguely Celtic reels – Frew termed them “drinking songs” – of My Town and My Song, as well as the bubblegum AM radio pop of You’re What I Look For, I Will Be There, and Someday, tunes that helped establish their careers in Canada and the US. What was perhaps unusual about their set was the decision to include three cover tunes – including a tip of the hat to the Tragically Hip via Grace, Too. Given the two bands’ divergent musical styles, Glass Tiger would probably be the last act you’d think could pull this off, but not only did they do it – they owned it.
There’s one tune Glass Tiger couldn’t ditch – and that was their career defining international 1986 smash Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone), with its melody and lyrics burnt forever into millions of frontal lobes around the world. Nobody cared that the song- driving horn section was triggered via synthesizer – they were too busy enjoying it. Knowing he’d struck gold not just all those years ago but today as well, Frew milked the glorious chorus for an extended call-and-response section for what had to be 10 minutes. The cake that was this year’s Rock Fest could not have had a finer cherry plopped on top of it, for what may have been the strongest edition of their 8th and ongoing series of festivals.
