We love, appreciate our music and arts scenes

North End

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/03/2024 (571 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I moved to Vancouver in 1992 to take a course in audio engineering, My lifelong passion for music drew me to the course. Prior to that, I also dabbled in video-making which the audio course also touched on, as music videos were quite popular at the time. I ended up graduating and building a studio out there with three of my classmates. During my first month in Vancouver there seemed to be a concert almost every night of the week. So many bands that never stopped in Winnipeg would always stop in Vancouver. I attended quite a few shows when I first moved but, as exciting as they were, audiences didn’t seem as enthusiastic as those in Winnipeg.

I tried to wrap my head around it. Were Vancouverites so used to seeing all the major bands over the years that it didn’t faze them? Had the infamous ‘B.C. Bud’ mellowed them out? I just couldn’t figure it out.

The first week I was there I attended a show featuring Blind Melon, Live, Big Audio Dynamite and Public Image Ltd. There was so much energy on the stage — but not much in the audience. I remember thinking that if this lineup played Winnipeg, the crowd would have been going wild. By the time P.I.L. got on stage, singer John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols), had picked up on the vibe (or lack thereof). After the first couple of songs, he exhorted the crowd to “get up off your arses,” to no avail. A few songs later he asked if we knew how to dance. He was getting progressively angrier and angrier after each song and shared his disdain. The last song P.I.L. did was Rise, which features a chorus repeating, “Anger is an energy, anger is an energy…”

At the end of the set he looked at us in disgust and said “Two things Vancouver does not have — one is anger and the other is energy, goodbye!” as he threw the microphone angrily to the stage and stormed off. That’s not to say every concert in Vancouver was like this, but quite a few were and I enjoyed them nonetheless. In one week I saw two 70-year-old legends, John Lee Hooker and Link Wray, perform.

I spent a decade out west and moved back in 2001. I remember thinking during my first winter back that the music and art scene in Winnipeg was nothing short of amazing. The NSI film festival was held at various venues, including outside in Old Market Square, where films were projected onto huge blocks of ice in -30 weather. Attendees warmed up at onsite bonfires between short films. I remember thinking that these people were either crazy or really love the arts in Winnipeg. Of course, the latter was correct.

That winter I also attended my first Winnipeg New Music Festival and tMTC’s Master Playwright festival. Both were very well attended. Years later, I started getting media passes for these and many other festivals. I interviewed many artists and reviewed many shows. As many of the musicians and artists told me, the New Music Festival is unique, unlike any in the world as it combines non-traditional and other types of music with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. I remember Melissa auf der Maur (of Hole) saying, at a post-concert talk, “you people are amazing, I saw so many of you at the pre-concert talk and here you are again.”

New York pianist Meredith Monk sent me an email a week after one festival saying, “As cold as it was in Winnipeg, I miss all those warm hearts.”

So, while we may not be New York or Vancouver or Toronto, the people here sure love and support art and music.