SCENE 2004
Sunday, July 11, 2004 @ Various Venues, Downtown St. Catharines

The following are excerpts from The Pretentious Goon’s personal diary on the day of the SCENE 2004 music festival in St. Catharines.

10:00 – I arrived in St. Catharines the night before from Oakville for SCENE. I wake up on just a few hours sleep. I was up all night flipping between movies on TV. Ed Wood, Princess Bride and uh… Jingle all the Way were on. I couldnt resist. I go to That’s Entertainment to get ripped off selling used CDs and VHS tapes.

12:00 – After done with this, I go to Beat Goes On on 4th Avenue to sell “the good cds” I wasnt going to let myself get ripped off for. Talk to guy with long hair there about SCENE and check out his planned schedule. Its about the same as mine, but I don’t think I saw him the whole night. He might have been the same guy on the street who gave me a Backyard Wrestling Federation DVD though. I’m not too sure anymore.

2:00 – After eating, I go to the mall to pick up the Controller Controller CD for 10 bones. I didnt know if they’d have merch for sure and I figured “eh, better get it now” since I had nothing else to do. I see JAY C at HMV and we discuss an upcoming untitled movie project.

3:00 – I arrive downtown to get in like for tickets, hoping I’ll be there early enough to get a free sampler or two. Theres a huge lineup, and its moving slowly. Very slowly. Slower than your average concert line. Its extremely hot outside and I feel bad for the semi-goth-punk guy in front of me with a zillion piercings and his cute lady friend who looks like a member of Evanescence but would be offended if I told her so. Too much black, kids. Someone probably from Bedlam is asking everyone out front who they came to see which I find annoying for some reason and make a bad joke to the camera which I am ashamed of now.

3:15 – I’m still in line. Shit, this is taking too long. The line gets messed up by the blonde girl from Tantrum Records (Jen?) who needs to back out of the parking lot. This needs to be worked out next year. This line would continue to be long and slow until around 5:30. Get some more people working the door. With Market Square at their disposal you would think this would be easy to fix next time. Some friends are still in line around this time until 4:10 and they’re upset and thining of taking off, since their friends’ bands are playing the early sets they might end up missing them.

3:30 – 4:00 – Wandering around Market Square in the shade, talking to CFBU people (does that dreadlocks guy work at Out of the Past? I think its the same guy.), getting some free CDs, stickers, and talking to a few peoples including SCENE promoter, Bedlam’s Joel Carriere. I have a bag of video tapes that I’m supposed to be dropping off to someone at this time, but he hasnt showed up. Luckily, Matt B. of Bedlam shows up to pick up the CD I’m selling him though. I end up lugging this bag of tapes around with me all night as I never find my man. The bag rips once or twice and I’m sure I looked like a tool carrying them. I wish I brought a backpack or something in retrospect.

4:00 – To the Double Olive for Creek Road Crossing. I have a bias to this band as I’ve known lead singer Lee Campbell since grade 2. He has an amazing voice and they rock hard, playing early 90s type alternative mixed with a little bit of southern style rock. Theres a lot of talent in this band, but honestly, noone cares. The only people there to see CRC are myself and the bands other friends and girlfriends. People come in and leave frequently within seconds. I feel bad for CRC and know that at a different time (as in decade) and a different time (on the bill when people still arent in line) they’d pull a better crowd.

4:40 – I wander back to Market Square hoping to find the guy I’m supposed to be selling to. No dice. I notice however the drawing I did for Bedlamsociety is hanging over the ticket table. So I wander around a bit. I listen to the end of In These Walls from outside Big Bucks, as well as wander past the Merchant Ale House to listen to some of Inner City Surfers.They’re okay. I realize At the Mercy of Inspiration are about to start over at Red Square so I go there right away.

5:15 – ATMOI have a PACKED CROWD. Last year they had a decent showing, but nothing like this. I’m still all heatstroked out from standing in line (I hadn’t eatenyet) and luck out by getting a comfy seat at the back.ATMOI are awesome as usual, playing black metal that sounds like hardcore to me live (I guess its the way they perform and look), however I’ve seen ATMOI like 5 times already so I take off a few songs in to go to the Chili Pepper to see a band the CFBU guy tipped me off to.

5:35 – I am seeing the NJ band, bizarrely named Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start. For an hour I thought that was the code to unlock all levels to Sonic the Hedgehog, but it came to me later its the Konami Code for all their old games such as Contra. Up Up Down Down… are an emo band, which is a strike against them. However, they are a GOOD emo band, which I find very rare. They’re good enough to give credibility back to the genre and I appreciate their set very much. Their singer may be singing typically whiny emo nerd lyrics but it doesnt sound whiny in presentation. He has an excellent voice, and the band seem very happy to be here. As they keep playing they seem less to me of an emo band and more like an indie band with emo tendencies. I buy two of their CDs and a TShirt as they had a high value package deal. This is the only band merch I would purchase all night.

6:10 – After a little bit of Ken Reaume (solid as always, no need to say more) I head back to the Double Olive to meet up with people. Money Money is playing and they have no shirts on. I consider this a strike against them for some reason. I listen to their set from the patio as I exchange dead baby jokes with friends. Money Money are good but repetitive. The people I am with disagree with me and tout their energy, which I guess they have a point about. I look at my schedule and realize I missed Dallas Green, which kinda miffs me except for the fact that if I was at his show I’d have missed Up Up Down Down..

6:40 – I wander some more. I get some water and stand outside to listen to a bit of Jude the Obscure. Theres no way I’m getting into Big Bucks with the line thats there. I end up not going into Big Bucks (or for that matter, the Lynx or On the Rocks) all night. I find Jude to be a good band but also think of them as “dime a dozen”. Its really hot still, I haven’t eaten, I’m tired and not in the mood for screaming. I decide I’m going to take it easy for the rest of the night and avoid anything too loud. I’m tipped off that Pow Media favorite Barnaby (aka Chris Charkowy) and his new band Hymnalaya will be playing at 7pm at the Mansion House so I note to go see them instead of the End, who I really wanted to see but, since they’re on Relapse, means they will be loud and hurt me and my poor self. I wander some more, get a hot dog by the big line in front of L3, catch a few minutes of Rutteger and get over to the Mansion House.

7:10 – Hymnalaya apparently dropped out of SCENE because Charkowy got pneumonia or something. Playing in their place is the Classic Brown, aka Stacey Brown, just a girl and her guitar. I understand that she sometimes has a band with her but she’s alone tonight. This is just what I needed and I sit and listen to the rest of her set, which includes a cover of “Like a Prayer”. I make note to myself that I should hook her up with some people I know in Toronto that would love her as much as I did.

7:40 – I drop off my mix CD for the Mixtape Exchange and kill some time in front of L3. I hear at this time there was some band that played in the alley beside it and that they sucked. That’s kinda pathetic. There were a bunch of graffiti artists over there as well that people were watching even though I’m sure they had no view of what they were painting.

8:00 – Mixtape Exchange. I get a compilation of old punk songs which I am glad to get. The guy who gets mine seems happy and I’m glad. I dont know how he could, but it would be awesome if Chris “Rose City”O’Toole could find a way to make a bigger production out of the exchange for next time.

8:10 – I watch a bit of Maximum RNR and then head to the Chili Pepper to see Black Avalon. They’ve got quite a crowd at the front and they are a decent band, but nothing really moved me or anything. They have potential though.

8:40 – I go to L3 for the first time ever. Its a nice place, I like the set-up but feel they could do more with the place and all that empty wall. The setup around the stage is good too, giving people places to sit and still see everything good. Its incredibly hot upstairs, and I take it easy against the rail and shoot the shit with a friend I hadnt seen in almost 6 years, the mighty Boss-O. Bear vs. Shark are entertaining but sloppy, yet I’m glad they’re going late on their set so I dont have to wait listening to nothing. I stay here for Raising the Fawn’s set, and theirs is the best of the night. They are right now one of my favorite Canadian bands and live they are even better than on record. They have a spaciness about them that reminds me of Pink Floyd and the Secret Machines more than it does say, Mogwai. “Gwendolyn”, with its bassline, to me was the song of the night. I find out after this set that my ride for later has left for a reason I wont get into here.

10:00 – I go over to the Double Olive to see Oliver Black. I thought it would be “guy and his guitar”stuff like Ken Reaume, but then I saw the T-shirts and the gear come in. And the place was packed to a fault, so I took off before it even started. I realize Two Knives are playing and I head over and its busy there too. Not in the mood to wait I listen to some of Blue Skies at War from outside Big Bucks as I drank some water. I forget if it was at this time or earlier, but I should note that while having some water I took note of some wackiness with the police. There were bicycle cops out all night, and on more than one occasion I saw people caught with beer bottles who had to pour it out onto the street. One notable one was some guy who had a full 40oz bottle and was being written up by the cop. Sorry if you’re reading this man, but I have to laugh at people caught for stuff like this.

10:30 – I head over early for Controller.Controller – I saw them before at Franz Ferdinand and listened to their album on the Internet before buying it earlier that day. The easy way to describe them is “Hot Hot Heat with a girl singer” – thats an oversimplification though, they’re probably a bit funkier overall and there isn’t any synthesizer or traces of emo in their music. I actually expected the place to be packed at this point for them but it wasn’t. Controller.Controller came on 20 minutes late because2 of their band members got lost on the way to the show. That kinda sucks because it forced them to rush through many of their songs. It was still good and they appeared to be having a lot of fun. Once they got on stage the place started filling up. Everyone who came in stayed in. They ended very solidly and played a new song as well that struck me as better than anything off their album.

11:25 – By the time their set was over I was beat. I was too tired, I was sweating like a a sweaty guy back from holiday, and I still had that goddamn bag of videotapes and was sick of carrying it around with me.I took one look at the Alexisonfire line and said “I cant do this”, and was lucky enough to get a ride home with someone else at that time instead of being stuck with a cab later. With that ended my day of SCENE.Apparently I wasn’t the only one home early, as I checked the Bedlamsociety.com message board and found that SCENE founder Cashmere had already posted about the show. I spent the next little while visiting websites for some of the bands I saw and even for the bands who didnt, as well as getting my first listen of the SCENE compilation.

Overall I’d have to say that because of certain circumstances I preferred last years show to this years. Maybe if I didnt have a shitload of free CDs I got and videotapes that didnt get picked up, or if I had had more sleep, or if my ride hadnt bottomed out, I would have had a better time. Still, I can objectively, as someone who doesn’t really live in the area and like some people already posting their rave reviews, isn’t buddy-buddy with all the bands there, say that SCENE is an enjoyable experience with enough variety to keep me coming back year after year.

Still gotta fix that lineup problem though, or open the doors even earlier. The only excuse I’ll accept is that there was a bigger turnout than expected, which may actually be true. If so, I can only guess SCENE will expand even further next year, with more bars and more bands. — Goon