It’s been going on for 16 years in a row, but this was the first year that I’ve been to Beachfest. Beachfest is an annual free concert celebrating Canadian talent held on Labour day weekend and sponsored by the local radio station Mix 99.9. I went to Beachfest 200 because there were actually artists that I knew (although that may be a side effect of listening to Mix 99.9).

Pauline arrived at the park at about 2:30 after grabbing some McDs to go, there were a lot of booths set up selling stuff, freebie giveaways, a couple of carnival ride (including a ghetto one where the operator has to manually spin each kid’s ride) and a beach. We skipped all of that and found a place to setup our little fort (i.e., our spot of grass to sit on). The concert had started at noon, and there were a lot of people there already; but we were able to score a decent spot around where the sound engineers were. It wasn’t that close, but there were definitely much farther places to sit.

When we arrived, Hayley Sales was performing, but I had no idea who that was. She finished up and we waited for them to switch the set and then Chantal Kreviazuk came on. She was one of the top 3 acts of the day, and actually like well-known; so I was surprised that they put her so early in the day. She did 5 songs I think, three of the singles from her newest album (Ghosts of You, Time and closed the set with All I Can Do), Before You and a new song that will be released on her next album. She was pretty good live and sounds different (more husky) than her studio CDs. After her set, we ran into ZMP and Richard, although Richard ran into a couple of his (female) friends and decided to hang out with them instead.

The next set was by Kalan Porter, whom I know nothing about except for the one song of his that they play on the radio. Apparently teenaged girls knew about him because he had a lot of groupies, some who were there since 7 in the morning. He also did a cover of U2’s Where The Streets Have No Name. We were seated too far back, and there were many people with camping chairs in front of us, that I couldn’t really see the stage while sitting down. I didn’t want to stand up either, so I just ended up lying down and listening to the live music. It was pretty relaxing, with the sun shining and no (and I mean ZERO) clouds in the sky.

Next up was Serena Ryder. I liked her one song, Weak in the Knees, but her other songs were not that great. When we were waiting for the next set, Victor, Ben and Ben’s cousin Jeffery showed up. They would have gotten here sooner except that they for some reason decided to take a 45-minute walk from Eaton Centre. Anyways, they arrived and promptly sat down and played Tetris. Who goes to the beach or a concert to play NDS?? Apparently we do. There were a lot of families around, so a couple of kids came up to us and watched, including one kid who played with them for a bit.

The cast of We Will Rock You! was next, and they were a bit lame. They only performed Another One Bites The Dust, Under Pressure, I Want it All and We Will Rock You. After them, Suzie McNeil came on. This was the last person I wanted to see, and she was actually really good. I guess she was trained to be an entertainer after winning Rockstar: INXS. She did a couple of songs from her album including her 3 singles (which sounded great), a couple of Rockstar songs (Losing My Religion), and ended with Bohemian Rhapsody with the cast of We Will Rock You! (she’s also in that musical).

We left after that, because we didn’t really need to see David Usher and Bedouin Soundclash, and we had other activities. We headed back to Eaton Centre for dinner, not walking this time, except that the street cars were so slow (ahh sunday service). This gave us an opportunity to see some of the TTC street car operators on the jobs, realigning rails and reattaching the overhead electrical connection. Peter and Ida came down and met us for dinner at Pickle Barrel.

After dinner, Ben Victor, Pauline, Ida and I went to Brant House. Richard recommended this place, which is a restaurant but removed their tables and converted to a club at night ($15 cover, $7 drinks). Randomly, I separately ran into two friends from high school, Craig (although I always run into this guy downtown) and Josh. Ida ran into two friends from elementary school too. I guess it was Asian night, and I noticed that while there were non-asian guys, there were only asian girls; I guess those non-asian guys have yellow fever. The music sucked though, the hip hop sets were too long.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: concerts