My first stop was at the Halifax Forum for Zeds Dead. I had planned on arriving early to see the opening acts but it just didn’t work out that way.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJm7IPrBmLY&w=560&h=315/]

We arrived at the Forum about ten minutes before Zeds Dead took the stage, grabbed some drinks and headed forward to grab a decent spot. They appeared right at ten and definitely did not disappoint. Within the first 45 minutes, the mix took the audience through several amazing cuts from their most recent EP, ‘Somewhere Else,’ and a helluva lot of dubstep. The bass nearly blew the roof off the place and it wasn’t long before I wished I had brought decent ear plugs. However, it was early in my night and I wasn’t quite in ‘dance/party mode’ yet, so as much enjoyed the music, I wasn’t an active participant in the show. Furthermore, my friend informed me that he’d read in the local weekly newspaper that Ryan Hemsworth would be the secret guest at a small club downtown, The Carleton. Tennyson, another act I was interested in seeing in a small venue would be playing prior to Hemsworth. Although both would opening for Danny Brown at the Forum on Saturday, my friends and I figured that seeing both of Tennyson and Hemsworth in a small, up-close-and-personal venue could be special. Thus, we left Zeds Dead about halfway though their set to get downtown.

After we waited in line for about 20 minutes, my friends and I were shuffled into the club. There really weren’t many people inside, so we figured that they held us outside to allow ticket holders more time to arrive. Pass holders were subject to capacity while ticket holders were not. Once inside, I thought about the contrast between the large and small venues.

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When Tennyson took the stage, the room was electric. Myself, I was really excited to see how tracks like ‘With me’ and ‘Lay-By’ would translate to the stage. They finished setting up and kicked the set off with ‘You’re Cute,’ a track that’s also up for grabs on SoundCloud. After a couple nervous mistakes, they settled into a groove that nothing could derail. It was truly amazing hearing mature music performed and created by such young minds. There were also a surprising amount of tunes played that I had never heard. I hope this is a sign that they will be dropping an official EP sooner than later.

I barely had time to grab a drink before Hemsworth’s set began. I was hoping to hear a lot material from his Secret Songs collection and maybe some new material he might be releasing on his upcoming record, ‘Alone for the First Time.’ I wasn’t let down.  Nearly all the material was either self-produced or remixed by him, or amongst his Secret Songs. Considering his recent announcement that he was becoming a little tired of performing in large party-clubs, this was definitely the perfect venue. It wasn’t loud, the crowd was involved, and the tempo and flow of the music matched perfectly. Near the end of the set, my friends bailed to make sure that they were able to get into the next venue, but my gut told me to stay put. Right after they left, Hemsworth spun ‘Club Goin’ Up on a Tuesday,’ and the entire audience sung along. It was definitely a memorable performance for everyone who was present.

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I left for Reflections immediately after Hemsworth’s set ended. I found my friends, found some drinks, and waited patiently for Thugli to arrive. The party vibe that I didn’t feel for Zeds Dead was definitely starting to kick in. I was pretty pumped to dance with strangers.

Thugli is DJs Tom Wrecks and Pat Drastik. Originally from Ottawa, ON, they met as teenagers and learned to spin records around the same time. After working for years together on different projects, the two relocated to Toronto and began working on producing and remixing songs with a heavy trap style. You can download most (if not all) of their music from either their SoundCloud or Facebook pages.

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And when they the finally took the stage, everybody went berserk. It was an experience. I can only imagine what we all looked like from the mezzanine above. Drunk, sweaty people, just moving around uncontrollably. At around 3:30, the lights came on. Nobody seemed to care, really. People who had been hiding out above started filtering out, but everyone on the main floor kept dancing. I was desperate to hear the remix of A$AP Mob’s ‘Hella Hoes’ before it ended, so I snuck through sweaty bodies to the front and drunkenly pleaded for my request. Just as the current jam was being mixed out, the the bartender told them to shut it down. It looked like an argument was going to ensue, but the bartender was adamant, to say the least. After they unplugged, I shook Drastik’s hand and thanked him for the good times. Not only did he give me a ‘your welcome,’ but he assured me he had ‘Hella Hoes’ loaded up to play next.

And that was that. I managed to get home before sunrise and got a little bit of sleep before I had to do it all over again. It’ll be hard to for any festival day to compare to the fourth day of HPX 2014.

The post HPX – Day 4 In Review appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

There are many variables that can alter how one enjoys musical performance. It could be the time of the show, the energy level of the audience, the energy of the performer, etc. Most of the time, it’s easy to adapt to these variables. Head to the back of the room if you’re not feeling too high energy, for example. However, sometimes there are things that happen that cause a negative vibe in me that I can’t escape from.

Let me bring you back a couple months: last April, Ghostface Killah performed at the Marquee Club in Halifax. The doors opened at 9, and the show opened with talented local rappers who held down the stage until about midnight. Then we waited, and waited, and waited. People got restless, started getting upset. There were shouts for Wu-Tang, some boos, etc. But as soon as he popped out onto the stage at 1:30 (an hour and a half later,) all was forgiven. Pretty Toney jammed out some Wu classics, and everyone in the club ate it up. There was little to no music from any of his solo records, and nobody seemed to care.

At this point, I was completely put off. I felt disrespected for being made to wait so long for a 30 minute performance, a performance that was for Wu fans from the 90s. My irritation was only multiplied by the forgiving crowd, a crowd that had no problem begging for ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya’ and ‘Protect Ya Neck’ immediately after booing.

Fast forward to last night, I arrived early at the venue to make sure I caught Cam Smith at 7:00. I had little expectations, as I hadn’t seen him perform prior, and I was totally shocked to see Neon Dreams, a 4-piece electronic group also from Halifax, set up as Cam’s backing band. As the band ripped into the first jam, it quickly became obvious that Cam Smith is not an amateur performer. He bounced back and forth along the stage, energizing an otherwise dead crowd with fist pumps, hand claps, and sing-alongs. The band was tight, the DJ from Neon Dreams even came down from his decks to spit a verse. I downloaded Cam’s newest release, Cannon, from SoundCloud last week and been spinning it often since. After seeing the entire band blast out cuts from the record like Turbo and Nonsense, it’s hard to go back to the recordings. Download Cannon for free, here.

Naturally, everyone arrives fashionably late and the crowd starts to pour in as Toronto threesome, BADBADNOTGOOD take the stage. As indicated by FUXWITHIT several days ago, BADBADNOTGOOD has recently released a couple new tracks from their upcoming release called Sour Soul. Since all of these tracks contain verses from Ghostface Killah, my expectation was that we’d see some collaborations and new tracks on the stage. In the beginning, however, the band settled in with some high energy cuts from their record released earlier this year, III, and some covers of Tyler the Creator, Gucci Mane, and Flying Lotus. There is no doubt that BBNG is tight. They are three, jazz trained musicians who have a whopping amount of technical ability and knowledge of their instruments. But technical ability does not trump creativity, groove, and catchiness in pop music. Thus, BBNG create catchy melodies, incorporate them into jazz chords and rhythms but put everything in a hip hop framework. All together, it sort of sounds like a DJ mix. Similar to with Cam Smith, BBNG had the entire crowd clapping and energized. Even without instructions to clap, the band gave off so much energy that it was impossible to move your body. They have to break between jams only to regain energy and wipe the sweat from their eyes. However, even with all that energy, I longed for some verses. Eventually, however, the band packed up, we were left waiting for Ghostface and Raekwon, and I was left wondering if I’d actually get to hear Ghost and BBNG together.

And so there I was again, waiting for the Wu. Oddly enough, I was with the same friends I was with last time. And we waited. And we waited. Eventually, people started booing and tweeting their disgust. A lot of people doubted that the Chef and Tony Starks were even in the building. It was totally a repeat of last time. Leading up to the show, I remember thinking that this show would be different. There could be no way that HPX would allow an act to be so late and disrespectly to their audience. After the nasty tweets started, the festival posted that Ghost and Rae were going to perform together and that they’d be out any minute. The boos and chants continued.

Finally, around 10:30, the stage darkened and the Wu appeared. Just like last time, the crowd completely changed their tune and cheered them on, joining in on Wu classics like ‘C.R.E.A.M.’ They even held a talent show on stage, inviting audience members on stage to perform the verses of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Method Man, and Inspectah Deck. The beat might as well have been played from a tape deck, it even looked like the DJ was a festival volunteer. Near the end of the set, BADBADNOTGOOD was invited out onto the stage and I thought that maybe the performance was saved. But the classics just kept coming, and there were no cuts from the upcoming BBNG record, even though they are already floating about on the interweb and not ‘secret’ material.

In the end, it’s obvious to me that the Wu are just old news. Their day has come and gone and the no longer can compete with the the talent that has been exposed due to the internet. While this collaboration with new hip hop up and comers, BBNG, is an attempt to stay relevant, it doesn’t work unless you create a desire to hear new tracks amongst your fan base. HPX is renowned for bringing in artists who are on the tipping point, acts that haven’t yet been discovered and for generally being on the forefront of what’s cool. The Ghostface/BBNG collaboration is new, cool, and if you aren’t going to play the new cuts at HPX, then I don’t understand why you are even here.

The post HPX – Day 3 In Review appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

To combat the fact that people still have to work, Tuesday and Wednesday’s schedules are thinner, the headliners are lesser known, and shows don’t usually run as late. Even on Thursday, Raekwon, Ghostface and BADBADNOTGOOD are only billed to end at 10:45. However, this enables all of the under 19s to get out and enjoy the show before it gets too late and it also forces the wristband holder to see lesser known bands at smaller clubs if he wants his night to continue. I consider the first two or three days a bit of a warmup for the weekend, a chance to get myself out of ‘work’ mode and check out some music I might normally not.

On day one of the festival, I went to the Seahorse to see Outtacontroller, Teenage Kicks, Single Mothers and The Flatliners. Although punk isn’t a genre normally covered by FUXWITHIT, there was no rap or electronic music happening that I was interested in. Furthermore, I had recently heard some good press on Single Mothers and after hearing The Flatiners on CBC Radio 2’s Strombo Show, I picked up their most recent record, which I enjoy. Although neither disappointed, Single Mothers stole the show by a long shot, inciting the crowd to stage dive and crowd surf even after they were given several warnings from the inadequately built security guards. The frontman looked ridiculously similar to Danny Brown and had just as much energy. He even had a missing front tooth and a big goofy, tongue-out grin. By the end of their set, half of the plaid-clad audience had been tossed out of the bar. By the end of the night, even the Single Mothers frontman was tossed. The night was definitely entertaining.

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Day 2 had even less to offer me at first glance, but I made the most of it by letting my friends make the decisions. I also knew that if I’m going to make it to Sunday, I’d better keep it real for the first couple days.  First on the list was Tokyo Police Club at the Olympic Centre, which is probably my favourite venue for HPX. Although the radio-rock type music didn’t interest me much, everybody seemed to enjoy it. Neither the band nor the crowd had much energy. It took hearing the popular radio singles to get much of a reaction. We left before the encore.

After the show, my friend left me for home and I headed down to Reflections Cabaret to see some rap. Reflections had recently relocated and this was the first time I had visited the new location. While it’s smaller, it has more useful space. Fewer dark corners and hidden views of the stage, in particular. It’s become a nice venue for smaller, intimate shows. Hopefully they continue to book performances there. Although I was irritated with myself that I missed Cam Smith, I knew that I’d see him open for BADBADNOTGOOD and company, so I got over it. I did, however, make it in time to see the headliner, SonReal, so I found a spot near the centre of the room and tried to keep myself from buying more beer.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNVtM9P-yLM&w=560&h=315]

Now, I had never listened to SonReal before seeing him last night. His unremarkable real name is Aaron Hoffman, and he’s from small town British Columbia, now living in Vancouver. He’s got a few free releases on the internet and he’s also been nominated for a Juno for his 2012 release The Closer, recorded with Toronto rapper Rich Kidd. The first thing I noticed was the simplicity of the stage. There were no props, just him and a man in charge of making sure there was music happening.  He had great stage presence, great energy, and he engaged the crowd often. At one point, he started what sounded like a hit and then cut it off ten seconds in, stating that he had changed his mind and didn’t want to play the song. He quickly revealed that he was joking and laughed, pointing out a dude in the front who looked like he was going to rush the stage. I appreciate that type of interaction with the crowd. Although it was difficult to hear/remember the vocals, it sure sounded like a lot of ‘I started from nothing,’ which is normal for rap music. His delivery had a lot of variation as he changed tempos and went to cut time often. The music sounded good, the bass hit hard, and his timing was spot on. I definitely heard enough to make me want to check out his recorded stuff the next day.

And that was day 2! Tonight is Cam Smith, BADBADNOTGOOD, Raekwon, and Ghostface Killah at the Forum and then who knows where I’ll end up.

The post HPX – Day 1 and Day 2 In Review appeared first on FUXWITHIT.