VANCOUVER 125

Here are some of the photos we took at the Vancouver 125 events this past weekend. A lot of great local musicians played over the weekend, so please let us know which shows you attended!

HANNAH GEORGAS

         Hannah Georgas is new to the music scene, releasing her first album, This Is Good, in 2010. But she has become enormously popular in this short time, with her songs appearing in commercials and TV shows, and touring with other popular Canadian musicians, including Said the Whale, Aidan Knight, City and Colour and Mother Mother!

THE ZOLAS
       The Zolas is the powerful duo of Zachary Gray (vocals and guitar) and Tom Dobrzansk (piano). The duo used to belong to a band named Lotus Child, along with former Said the Whale bassist Peter Carruthers. Lotus Child was extremely popular but the band realized that they didn't enjoy writing music that fit with that persona, so they dissolved Lotus Child and after a short break, Tom and Zachary started casually writing music again and eventually started The Zolas.
        The Zolas' set was full of action and energy and it left fans asking for an encore, which the band happily performed! This was my first time seeing this band perform and I really enjoyed their performance style. 

I guess he's a fan of Usher?

Here are some photos of The Zolas' frontman Zachary with Tyler from Said the Whale.

SAID THE WHALE
         For info about Said the Whale, please visit our older post about the band!
         The band did a few of their new songs, which seem to edge more towards the rock genre. Fans started to get restless and were requesting older songs from the band. Tyler told the crowd they were going to do one more new song, but instead broke into Camilo and the crowd erupted into noisy cheers!
         Ben also took the time to tell the crowd to get home safely, referring to the coyote population in Stanley Park. He explained that if you should ever come across a coyote, you ought to put up your hands and say "Stop, coyote. Go away and don't come back."

Close-up of Said the Whale's new bassist, Nathan Shaw.

Hannah Georgas joined the band onstage for one song to sing along.

Ben giving a goodbye hug to Hannah Georgas.

Tyler mimicking hoof beats for their song "Holly".

Always colourful, the drum matches the wacky colour scheme of drummer Spencer's tie-dyed shirt.

Guitar strap hat?

AIDAN KNIGHT
       Based in Victoria, B.C., Aidan Knight has dabbled in music for years as a background musician for many bands. It wasn't until 2010 that he released his very own album entitled Versicolour and met his own popularity. Knight's fan base has grown tremendously over the past year, resulting in a huge amount of support and two cross-country tours!
       Knight is seen here with his touring band, Friendly Friends.
       Aidan Knight will be performing again in Vancouver at the Khatsahlano West 4th Music and Art Festival on July 23rd.

WE ARE THE CITY
        Based in Kelowna, B.C., We Are The City was formed in 2008 by Cayne McKenzie (vocals and keyboard), Andrew Huculiak (drums) and Blake Enemark (guitar). In 2010, they were the Peak Performance winners and used their winnings to evolve. This year, We Are The City released a six song set named High School, in which the band adopted aliases and allowed themselves to relive high school memories.

At one point during their set, Blake's guitar strap fell off, so he dropped to his knees and continued to play! No stopping these guys!

This is where Blake started to play his guitar with his mouth. If you were just listening, you wouldn't have been able to tell anything was different. Can you say "talent"?

HEY OCEAN
         We've seen Hey Ocean perform live a number of times and are looking forward to the release of their new album, said to be this August. Based in Vancouver, Hey Ocean's members currently include, Ashleigh Ball, Dave Beckingham and David Vertesi. In 2007 the band released "Stop Looking Like Music" and, in 2008, "It's Easier to be Somebody Else". Their new album is set to be released this August, with tunes including "I Am a Heart" (one of my favourites!).

Boom!

Someone gave this balloon to Ashleigh just before the show. It says "I Am a Heart" and "Fish" (two of the band's songs) and "Will Tambourine".

David shoots an admiring glance towards Ashleigh.

For their song "Fish", the band got bubble shooters and filled the stage and first rows of the audience with bubbles!

Everyone jumped up on the drums and started playing!

David and Ashleigh got quite cuddly during this song.

DAN MANGAN
      After watching Hey Ocean, we went over to the other stage and caught the end of Dan Mangan's show.
      In 2003, while attending UBC, Mangan released a short EP of songs he had recorded and handed them out on the streets of Vancouver. In 2005, he released "Postcards and Daydreaming", which was re-released in 2007 with an extra track, when he was signed to a label. In 2009, "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" was released and he started gaining recognition and even winning a Verge Music Award for Artist of the Year. Mangan plans to release his next album, "Oh Fortune" in September of this year.

Dan invited the mayor up on stage and, along with the crowd, they sang "Happy Birthday" to Vancouver!

I was very pleased with the Vancouver 125 events in Stanley Park. Luckily, the weather stayed sunny and hot! The crowd was excited but controlled and I think everyone had a good time celebrating Vancouver's birthday!