Last night my buddy Hurl and I went to the last evening of the inaugural Hot Plains Music Fest here in Edmonton held at my favorite bar in the city The Wunderbar (8120-101st Street) on Whyte Avenue. This little dive of a hole in the wall bar and I mean that in the best way. It is like Edmonton's version of New York's famous CBGB's. They have been open for three years now and host live music almost every night of the week. And all the staff that I have ever dealt with there are super nice.
We went for the Sunday night session that had the all Edmonton line-up of Renny Wilson, Bombchan, The Fortrelles and Field & Stream. Actually I believe the whole festival were all local bands. Anyways, the main reason we went was to see the band Bombchan. A band I have only seen once before but have been keeping my eyes open for another show, and lo and behold they were playing this festival. Seems they don't do very many shows, at first when I heard of the show I was disappointed it was on a Sunday not realizing that it was a long weekend, so super bonus.
Hurl I made our way down to the bar early as we were sure this show like all the others was going to be sold out, as the bar only holds maybe a hundred people. After a few wobbly pops at my place we there nice and early and continued on having a good time. Much to our surprise the first band of the night was going to be Bombchan, the band we went there for.
Well after stepping out for a smoke before the show got going we ran in to a couple members of the band that were indulging, so we joined them. Everyone had a good glow on by the time they hit the stage. If you have never heard or seen Bombchan before, I would call them Edmonton's version of R.L. Burnside, some wicked gritty rock n' blues slide guitar music. The band consists of Mike Park on slide guitar and vocals, Ayla Brook on guitar (he's fucking awesome too) and rounded out by Karie Brown on bass and Grant Stovel on drums (he also is a DJ for CKUA). Bombchan played a fourty-five minute set that started out awesome with them playing all the tunes from their EP "Do Me Right", after the first twenty minutes of the set, things started to get sloppy. Maybe it was all the indulging before the show was starting to set in, or lack of rehearsal, but things kind of went downhill, I still really enjoyed the show, but you could tell it just wasn't as tight as it had started. Nonetheless they rocked the soul out crowd and everyone seemed to be having a good time rocking out.
Bombchan at the Wunderbar.
After Bombchan the next band on was Field & Stream. They didn't do much for me therefore I spent more time outside the venue then I did in it.
Next up was The Fortrelles who are soul revival group fronted by three ladies doing covers of classic soul music. Again another band that did nothing for me, they were good at what they did, to me they belong playing in a casino, as I am sure they would do quite well with that kind of crowd.
The Fortrelles.
Hurl and I didn't stick around for the last act of the night Renny Wilson as we had a damn good glow on and had run out of money.
All and all I believe the people putting on this festival have the right idea and hope to see it get bigger and better as the years go on. Good times!!!
A few pictures of the inside of the Wunderbar.
Best tip jar ever.
Bombchan video.
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