Fourth time’s the charm for me and Rock the Shores. This year, the fest was scaled back from three days to two, which is just about perfect for a summer festival in 30º weather.
Deviating from my usual post-festival course, I won’t be highlighting every artist which performed, or the order in which they played. For that rundown, do check out my RTS album on The Zone’s Facebook.
This is more of a highlight reel . . . starting with the major highlight for me: PPL MVR.
BTR WCH YR STP (translation: better watch your step), else you could anger this trio of vowel-hating hard rock yetis: K-PO (black fur), Q (brown fur), and SNWBLL (white fur).
Tyson Elder, creator of YYJ Rocktographers, cast a wide net for interviews while taking photos at the festival. One group got back to him: PPL MVR.
So, Tyson used the opportunity to dig into his painful past in hopes of a resolution, and boy, did he get one.
“I LV YU SN!” (translation: “I love you, son.”)
Next up, my shot of the festival. I hope for one of these at every fest; a single shot which captures the amazingness of the entire event. Some examples of past shots of the festival include Rich Aucoin at Rifflandia 7, USS at Rock the Shores 2014, and The Flaming Lips at Rifflandia 2012.
This time around, it was the crab stance to end all crab stances, effortlessly executed by the star of Metchosin, Jesse Roper.
Closing out the festival was the rock royalty which is Jane’s Addiction, and they did not disappoint. Here’s lead singer (and creator of Lollapalooza) Perry Farrell.
And here’s guitarist Dave Navarro.
To some other highlights, while the sun set on Saturday . . .
. . . Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros (all bazillion of them) put on an amazing show, beautifully led by Alex Ebert.
Their big hit is “Home,” a duet performed between Alex and his girlfriend Jade Castrinos. Well, up until last year, when her relationship with the band dissolved after her relationship with Alex did.
A pretty important component of “Home” is a conversation between the two, about the moment he fell in love with her. Ya can’t really perform that without the “her,” now can ya?
I was curious to know how this would be addressed live, and I wasn’t disappointed. While the band keeps the music going, Alex again climbed into the crowd (he did this multiple times during their set) to ask someone for a story — a really good story.
The mic was passed to a gent who came up from the states for the festival, but almost didn’t make it because he didn’t have his passport — he had his mom’s. However, his mom sent the customs agents a photo of his passport, and he made it into Canada, into Rock the Shores, and into “Home.”
As the chorus of the song built up again, a mass singalong began, culminating in this sweet moment between Alex and this lady, Rebecka.
Here’s another reason I love festivals: epic crowd shots.
I caught Jesse Roper backstage after his performance, and took some portraits of him with his amazing raccoon hat.
Also nice enough to let me take his portrait was Australia’s Kim Churchill. He’s toured the area so much that many folks believe he lives here (heck, Zerbin moved to Victoria from Edmonton ’cause they found it so lovely here).
He doesn’t live here, but he’s seriously considering it. The Zone would love that, ’cause we love his music, and he told us this weekend that we’re only one of TWO stations in the ENTIRE WORLD playing his music (the other being Australia’s Triple J). Crazy.
This is Father John Misty, with a fraction of the energy he boomed out on stage captured in a still photograph. This man has passion.
This is Colleen Rennison of a Vancouver-based group which gets its name from “Rennison” spelled backwards: No Sinner. She was a crazy powerful performer, singing like she’s got blues legends inside her fighting to get out.
Having only heard one of their songs, I didn’t know what to expect of TV on the Radio. What I got was an enveloping, anthemic buildup which crashed into an intense, almost punk-like performance, with crazy gesticulations from singer Tunde Adebimpe.
And finally, I’ll (almost) end at the beginning, with Vancouver’s Willa, who opened up Rock the Shores with her first performance at a major festival. She did amazingly, and I loved her music. Now, if only she’d release more than one song for me to listen to!
Thanks for virtually rocking the shores with me. I’ll leave you with a shot of Saturday’s headliners, The Black Keys. Goodnight, everybody.
=)