Friday Night

And now…some thoughts on the beginning of SOS Fest. (I’ll post about the bands and artists separately.)

We kicked things off at the Billiard Club. They’ve recently begun promoting live music. There were some sound quality issues, it was tough to hear people when they were just talking, but they’re getting into live music and that’s what SOS Fest (and the re-branding of Whyte Avenue) is all about.

The wind kicked up while we were waiting for the Sherry-Lee Wisor Trio to launch us into SOS Fest. Then the rain came. It was sort of sunny by the time we left for our second venue. I felt like I had put one over on Mother Nature. (Foreshadow.)

The Black Dog does put on music on a regular basis, so their sound was much better. It was also great to see a mix of people, some clearly there only for SOS Fest, some other regulars just digging the tunes.

After two great bands (Sherry-Lee Wisor Trio and Forestry), Sally, being inspired, had to head home to write music.

Now, the Savoy was a more intimate setting. Perfect for a soulful showcase. Too bad it’s humid and the windows have to be open and the louder than loud motorcycles are driving by. Enjoy your noise tickets, loud bikes. Where was I? Ah, the Savoy. Intimate, classy, some sound issues during Manuela’s set. Good thing she’s got the voice to overcome a non-working microphone. :)

The Savoy also had some musical camaraderie. Manuela was looking for someone to record her last two songs on an iPhone, and the third act of the night, Krystle Dos Santos was happy to oblige.

After all that soul and pop, I decided it was time to throw some money to Whyte Avenue businesses. That should, after all, be a spin-off of gathering all these music fans together for a weekend.

I met up with Gregg Beever and some of his friends to support the Billiard Club, Funky Pickle and the Walkabout. But SOS Fest was still part of that.

Of course, while walking around this time I got a mini-soaking from another bout of wild rain. I thought I could beat the forces of nature.

They were just taking down the stage when I got back to the Billiard Club. And while eating some of the city’s finest pizza we encountered Carrie Hryniw and her bandmates. Proving that pizza brings people together, Gregg bought one of her CDs.

Before heading home to bed I went to the Pawn Shop to see a band I was excited about, Raptors. They were rocking the place in no time, and it was a fantastic way to end the evening. The Pawn Shop knows how to do music so there was no worry about sound quality here.

And for a night where YouTube superstars OK Go were in town, and so many other venues around Edmonton had their usual lineups of great local and touring talent, I was impressed with how busy the SOS Fest venues were.

Maybe a lot of those people were just out as they would have been on a regular Friday. But if they still paid $10 at the door that means that live, local music can thrive in bigger ways than we may have thought about. Well, that everyone except the SOS Fest organizers had thought about.

Bring on Saturday!