A weekend for blues fans, rock extremists

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/08/2002 (8710 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AS distinct styles of music, blues and hardcore don’t have a lot in common.

Sure, most blues and hardcore bands use electric guitars as their principal instruments. But their respective vibes couldn’t be any more different — blues is all about introspection and laying down a groove, while hardcore is fraught with nihilism and tries to disrupt conventional rhythmic structures.

The only reason these genres belong on the same page is they each form the basis for the latest entries into southern Manitoba’s summer festival sweepstakes.

Blues and roots-rock dominate the Great Woods Music Festival, which takes over pastoral stretch of riverside parkland east of Beausejour this weekend.

Over the same three days — tonight through Sunday — the hardcore-heavy Arsonfest shakes up two inner-city Winnipeg venues, the Lebanese Cultural Centre in the West End and the Collective Cabaret in Osborne Village.

Both festivals are grassroots events, in their own separate ways. Now in its seventh year, the privately funded Great Woods brings 19 acts to a park and campground on the banks of the Brokenhead River

“It’s a very unique setting. We have room for everyone here,” says Ron Modjeski, one-half of the mom ‘n’ pop team behind the event.

This year’s Great Woods lineup features a mix of local and imported talent, including bluesmen and women John Campbelljohn, Jack Semple and Tracy K, former Chilliwack frontman Bill Henderson, jazz trio SwingSoniq and folk-rock outfits Greg MacPherson Band, Easily Amused and Nathan.

Weekend passes are $55, with day passes running for $15 on Friday and $25 for both Saturday and Sunday at Ticketmaster, 780-3333. I have one pair of weekend passes to give away — just be the first person to reach me at 697-7277 at 11 a.m. (no earlier) and name two Chilliwack songs.

To get to Great Woods Park, take Hwy. 59 north from Winnipeg and turn right toward Beausejour at Hwy. 44. When you hit Hwy. 12, about 40 minutes from town, cross the highway and continue going straight for about one kilometre to reach the festival site.

Arsonfest, meanwhile, is now in its third year. Formerly known as the Winnipeg Hardcore Festival, the series gives the loudest and most extreme rock bands in town a place to strut their stuff, alongside visiting acts from Iowa, Ontario and Saskatchewan.

“I’m most excited about the local bands, with younger kids who normally don’t get a chance to play something on this scale,” says organizer Mike Alexander, whose own band, Head Hits Concrete, plays the Lebanese Cultural Centre tonight with five other bands.

Arsonfest continues at the centre on Saturday and moves to the Collective on Sunday. Tickets each show are $10 at the door. Weekend passes are on sale at the downtown Music Baron for $25 a pop.

Tonight and Saturday’s show are all-ages, while Sunday is an 18-plus event.

“Definitely (bring) hearing protection for the night,” says Alexander. “Use earplugs.”

Other Arsonfest acts include London, Ont. bruisers Oxbaker, Winnipeg’s Malefaction and Vancouver’s Nagasaki Fondue. For more info, visit the festival Web site at arsonfest.n3.net.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca