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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

ALLIE HUGHES @ APKlive

Allie Hughes & Band | Photograph By Brittknee Withikaye
NEXT LEVEL SHIT

Not to name names (cough, sneeze, Opopo), but after our last BDM event at APKLive, we were feeling a little shakey.

***We had a good turn out, but the headliner was jockeying bandmates and forgot to tell the bar owner and us about a pre-tty major line-up change - enter a brand spanking NEW contract with bands.
However, the lead singer and guitarist (for that night) wasn't too bad except for his leeeeengthy pauses in between songs.  Enough about the bridge you drank under after getting to London town, we have nearly a hundred of them and we need to dance or at least move away from the smoke machine.  "Get that laser out of my eye" I heard someone scream on the way to the bathroom.  I like lasers.
I'm bitter cause the after party got crashed by the same band who puked pretty close (okay, right on) where I mistakenly decided to lay my pillow the night before hosting the Jack Richardson Music Award's. ***


With Opopo in the rearview, we were now armed and prepared for a theatrical indie, pop experience like none other: Allie Hughes & her mysterious band. 

The night started with a surprisingly up tempo set by Lonnie in the Garden.  APK sound chief and mean musician Adam backed front gal Lynne on guitar adding colour here and there. Two female vocalists added some extra flavour on choruses and hooks.  Big ups on the set and thank you for the ENCORE!

CHRW hostess with the mostess, Alana Gurr, held down the second spot with pure grace.  Her guitarist and bassist gave the set some extra life and we got to hear some dirty banjo riffs.  There's something really alluring, yet haunting about Alana's music - was anyone else reminded of Portishead during the bands performance?  No! Well frig. 

The last time I heard the song 'Toxic' (cover or not) at APK Live was never ago.  These two ideas are, well competing thoughts: Indie bar -vs- Pop Princess who's life is one part miserable and two parts profitable for those "looking out" for the poor girl.   One step forward, two steps back if you ask me.  And that's the point, did you see how angst I got about Spears?  She's a billion dollar industry and her demise is just as important as her resurrection.

The point is that Allie's final song 'Toxic' was a highlight to a very tight and well orchestrated set in an environment where Britney's version of that song would NOT fly on an iPod - not while I'm dee-jaying.  What's an iPod?

If you've ever been to a Tool concert, then Allie turning her back to you at the start of the bands performance wasn't freakish one bit… but wait for it.  Looking around, it was obvious that folks were interested in Allie from the start.  And it wasn't cause some cool kid was bopp'in to her, it's because she's thought out.  There's context to her performance and her vocal operatic prowess takes the theatre to new heights.  Like above the rim in basketball.  Go Heat!

Allie crushed tracks Not The Stars, Rolling Days, Headmaster, and Damaged Nail.  As the set climaxed, Allie's character as a singer and performer gained momentum.   Turning her back to the audience once more like an editor using a sheet of black to re-set a scene in a film. This time Allie returns with blood drips below both eyes.  As the song reaches Timber Timbre like creepiness, this new vampire version of the opera-POP singer we'd come to know and appreciate was (fake) killing her bandmates one by one before treating us to an almost solo with a little help from an almost dead violin player.  Amazing effects and pedal work with all the instrumentation.  I have never heard this venue sound so full and rich.

LCIV EPISODE 10 | "PHONED-IN"






MONTH OF MARCH | THE JUNOS

Photograph By Brittknee Withikaye
    
So it was about two weeks to the day after we embarked for CMW that we left for the Junos. Upon leaving London it started to snow on that Wednesday, after stopping in Alymer to pick up Drew's clothes for the week. We called into Drew's folks in Streetsville and were advised to stay off the roads, so we ended up staying in Alymer overnight.

   We made it onto the road making it to the Juno accreditation office with only minutes to spare. After meeting the wonderful staff and volunteers of the Juno Media office we headed off to our interview with everybody's favorite Acadian rap collective Radio Radio. They have certainly come a long way from the fur wearing silly frat boys that we saw a few years ago during our first trip to Canadian Music Week. During the interview, one of Drew's favorite subject reared it's head again, as talk quickly turned to the MPC and hip hop production once again. Mix that in with some obligatory conversation on the subject of hockey and a memorable Gorilla Video in a hotel overpass led to a very constructive 20 minutes for all of us involved.

   Having nothing to do on Thursday night we returned to Streetsville to prepare for Friday. With  good night of rest we headed into the events of Friday with a renewed vigor. No.1 on the Friday agenda was the Juno Welcome Reception; The first thing you learn while at the Junos: there is a lot of free booze flowing during the event. Everybody in the room including Drew took advantage. For the record, Drew did bring me what I knew was a Coke-a-Cola that had a little extra something but I let him think that he got me with that one. Upon finishing the party, we found our next interview for our Juno's coverage Canada's reigning queen of rap Eternia.

   I have to say Eternia and her manager had the best ensembles for the night and were easy to find for interview as they were both wearing shirts that stated "My favourite rapper wears a skirt." As far as custom merchandise goes, that was probably the most humourous that I've seen in my London Calling travels. Speaking of the Forrest City, Eternia revealed before the interview, that she got her high school diploma from Wheable, so a considerable amount of the pre interview surrounded the awesomeness that is Fast Eddie's. 

    The Interview itself was conducted in a side lobby area of the Royal York Hotel. It was a fresh look at a female MC's role in modern hip-hop today. Something that will be interesting when it finally makes it to air will be Shad's point of view on the subject of the need for more women in hip-hop.

  After leaving the Royal York, we moved onto the Hard Rock Cafe for the Junofest Urban showcase so we can get some Eternia live footage. At this point, Drew and I split up as he had a social engagement that he had to go and attend. I stayed and I wasn't disappointed as Quantesha, Silver (the artist formerly known as Solitaire), and Eternia all took to the stage. If it wasn't enough that Canadian Hip Hop Legends Maestro Fresh Wes & Michee Mee were hosting, at about the half way point of the night Kardinal Offishall arrived and that's when the night started to flip into the crazy territory. 

LCIV EPISODE 9 | "JUNOS"





LCIV EPISODE 8 | "CMW/NXNE"