If you intend on heading down to Moncton’s Manhattan for a little live music tonight, be prepared to bring your earplugs for it is indeed bound to be a loud evening. An East Coast Loud evening, if you will, as five of the region’s hard rock, punk and heavy metal bands team up for what is certain to be an evening of ear-melting proportions.
Interesting to note that all five of the bands performing, Orchid’s Curse, The Fed Pennies, Obsydian, Tempting Tragedy and Last Call Chernobyl, are nominated for Loud Recording of the Year at this year’s edition of the East Coast Music Awards, taking place in Charlottetown on April 17.
Josh Hogan, co-owner of Red Tentacle Media Relations in Halifax, planted the seeds for the East Coast Loud Tour last year.
Hogan will actually be pulling double duty this year as organizer and performer with his band Orchid’s Curse.
From his Halifax office, Hogan says that this year’s edition of the East Coast Loud tour will be comprised of four dates, hitting the cities of Moncton, Halifax, Fredericton and Charlottetown by the time the tour is all said and done. He says that he considers gathering the bands for a mini-tour of the region is the perfect way to break the ice between them.
“With all of the bands playing together leading up to the East Coast Music Awards, I feel that it really helps let all of the bands get to know each other,” Hogan says. “Considering that each of the bands playing is nominated for the same ECMA, I feel that it helps eliminate some of the natural competition that bands might feel towards each other leading up to the awards.”
Denis Guitard of Moncton band Tempting Tragedy says that his group is looking forward to getting in front of new audiences for the Loud tour.
“We always look forward to playing new venues and having the opportunity to meet new people,” Guitard says. “It is quite refreshing to see some bands that you’ve never seen before in a completely new environment. The shows are going to be a welcome opportunity to do what we do in front of a different audience and also do a bit of networking while we are at it.”
In the opinion of Marc Mackenzie of the band Obsydian, the East Coast Loud Tour is a nice pulse check of the vitality of the Atlantic region heavy music scene.
“The loud music scene in this part of the country is probably as healthy as it has ever been,” he starts. “The bands that are still making music seem to be really serious about what they do and I think that is what makes it great.”
At the end of the day, the East Coast Loud Tour is all about the music, which was precisely Hogan’s goal from the very start.
“I feel that it says a lot about the characters of each of the bands on this tour as there is no set openers or headliners on any given night,” Hogan says. “We are going to alternate the order of the band’s performances each night just to be sure that we are fair to every one of the bands. There is no room for egos on this tour.”
Article published in April 1, 2011 edition of the Times & Transcript