Holiday

The past few weeks of winter have alternated between freezing temperatures and blinding snow. Friday night was -15C or so which was practically balmy so I headed down to The Great Hall for "Season 2 Vol. 4" of Long Winter Festival. In its second year, this monthly all-ages show has the goal of showcasing art from numerous disciplines including indie games. But most people usually go for the local bands. Ironically, this was the worst aspect of the night.

This has nothing to do with the bands themselves, but the poor quality of the sound system. From past experience, I didn't even bother with the Conversation Room. The combination of poor echoing acoustics and the din of conversation meant the music was either inaudible for quieter bands or impenetrable cacophany for louder ones. Unfortunately, the Main Hall wasn't much better this year.

As such, some bands fared better than others. Alvvays cycled between chill and twee, though the singer's voice was often lost in the mix. Sheezer didn't quite have the power of their Lee's Palace Halloween gig, but covers of Weezer's Blue and Pinkerton tunes had many fans. Too bad that a lot of them were up in the balcony; a "total capacity" dispute with the city meant that bouncers kept a strict limit for the ground floor, though it was only 60% full. The anemic mix doomed Teenanger and reduced their furious music to lame shouting, even if the adolescent mob at the front gamely attempted to start a mosh.

Down in the basement Blk Box Theatre, there were alternatives to music. First, there was blind speed-dating by NotOKCupid where couples could try to make a love connection. The catch was that they were mic-ed for the audience to hear, and were given critiques from "dating coaches" at the end. 5 couples braved the spotlight with some attempting to make a real date out of it while others were obviously hamming it up for the crowd. Then radio guy Vish Khanna held a talk-show with author Dave Bidini (The Rheostatics), Now Magazine journalist Jonathan Goldsbie, and fringe mayoral candidate Richard Underhill (Shuffle Demons).

After a short break, The Bicycles re-created their Summerworks rock-opera Young Drones about the doomed romance between two unmanned drones. The combination of their layered pop, interpretive dancers, and lo-tech animation via cut-outs shone through an overhead projector, made it the most interesting and fun part of the evening.