Well it's been an interesting week here in Halifax as I delved into the Local Music Scene as compared to London's. The 1st day we arrived here at the Marriott Hotel on Upper Water Street I was looking forward to what the local Music Scene had to offer. Beside the Marriott is the successful Lower Deck Pub, known for great food, rustic wooden interior and 3 floors of food and drink.
As I approached the Pub from next door at the Marriott, thru the glass pane windows I could see an acoustic guitar player beside a keyboard, the sounds of the Doobie Brothers drifted out loud and clear from the band within and I was already impressed with the level of skill coming from the band. As Barb and I came into the bar we were caught off guard by the scenario in front of us - a small area for Bar patrons to pack into - but it was PACKED, and all on a Monday night. The band was a 4pc, two acoustic guitarists, Bass player and a Drummer who was stacked on a postage stamp drum riser. The stage itself was about 4 feet deep and maybe 10 feet wide - pretty small indeed - but the entire wood interior of the bar was packed with patrons digging the band.
The band in question was Signal Hill - a local area band that seemed to have a rousing following with the patrons inside, and they LOVED what they were watching and hearing. I would maybe expect this many people on a Friday or Saturday night - but a Monday evening ?
As the band did the best cover version I have ever heard of a Journey song by a bar band - the crowd lapped it up. Barb and I were hard pressed to stand anywhere with a little elbow room, it was literally shoulder-to-shoulder within the Club.
I left without being able to get within talking distance of a member of Signal Hill, the end of each song was met with thundering appreciation from the patrons as the band seamlessly switched gears between Classic Rock, AM Pop Rock and East Coast fare with no dead time onstage, and no discussion by band members of "what are we playing next?" - they shifted from one into another with precise timing.
I left the Pub wondering if this was just a case of a local band being lucky enough to haul in a 100 or so people into a small bar on a Monday night - or if this was truly the way the local music scene in Halifax was.
The following day we had lunch at Staynors on the docks where I had a discussion with the waitress of bars and bands in the area - she said that there was lots of bars with bands each night of the week depending on what you wanted to hear. She left and returned with a copy of Coast Magazine - which was a comprehensive magazine dealing with music and entertainment in the area with all the bars. As I flipped thru the magazine, I was in awe of HOW MANY bars and pubs had live music in Halifax. We went to Durty Nelly's where we caught another 4 pc. band on a small stage - this one consisted of Acoustic Guitar with a plug-in, an Electric Guitar, Bass and Drums. The material they covered was like Signal Hill the night before, right across the board from Queen to East Coast tunes - it was varied and extremely welcomed by the crowd. We caught a few other acts around town that were single acoustic acts, the musicians were high energy, great players and commanded their small stages like pro's as they interacted with the audience in a way that I had not really seen from typical bar bands back in London. No slight intended against London bands, but these musicians down here really work the audience into a frenzy - even if it is just a solo act.
The Sea Horse Bar is the definitive A-List bar in the city - Norma Jeans/East Side stage, full production - located in the basement of a large building where the cover charges for bands is $9.00-10.00 depending on Thursday, or weekends. The bands that play there are stacked 3 to a night, back line is shared across the board with the exception of drums. The demographic of The Sea Horse is 20-35, with the women being the lure for the guys as they all are gorgeous young ladies dressed very glamorous - there was no jeans/sweatshirts to be seen on the women. The bands are Cover bands or Tribute bands, and they are the cream of the local circuit.
As our group toured around other bars, I had the chance to chat with other musicians who were only too happy to discuss music with someone from Ontario; they were extremely friendly, outgoing and happy to compare the two worlds of theirs and mine.
In Halifax it seems they have different formats depending on the bar: some bars are 9:30-1:00 time frames thru the week, but 10-2:00am on weekends, while some of the bigger bars have bands from midnight till 3:00am.
The bars that have "bands" run the old format of either Thursday - Saturday, OR Friday & Saturday. Thru the week the schedule is usually one offs with the exception being Upper Deck which books bands/artists for the entire week depending on how big a crowd the pull in. One friendly drummer (who also played Sonor like me), said that in the good bars, a Thursday to Saturday pays a 4pc band $700.00 - and in his words there is far more good bars than band ones.
The biggest thing that stuck out to me in 5 nights of travelling the bar scene aside from the huge amount of people that come out each of the 5 nights to support the live music scene - was the demographic. There was only ONE bar with a DJ, and from the word on the street from musicians and patrons attending University, it's in it's death spiral due to no interest in the canned DJ music - the age bracket of 20-35 were the ones that packed the bars to capacity for live music - and they were the University dominated crowd primarily.
Quite the reversal from London where the Students do little to support live music and tend to stay at the Canned music bars.
All in all, Halifax is leaps and bounds ahead of London in terms of supporting live music. While the 10-2:00am time slot is the preferred time for bands - people flood the bars around 9:00pm to get the best seat - by band time, the bars are crammed with patrons from front to back - and it only increases as time goes on.
From Monday on each week, the bars are filled with music loving fans who get lively, sing, dance and overall have a great time without any idiots causing a scene - the only Bar that had Wands at the door to check for weapons was the DJ Club. The women be they 20 or 50, dress like they are going to a Hollywood Premier in nice seductive clothes, and the men dress casual but don't look like bums. Everyone is friendly, polite and once you strike up a conversation with a fellow musician who finds out you are one too - you get treated like family.
In conclusion - Halifax has more bars downtown than London with Live Music - and every one of them is thriving with packed venues. People in this town embrace live music and show that support by going into the Clubs from Monday to Saturday inclusive. The Bands/Artists are top calibre musicians who know how to work a crowd, and give an audience 300% during their show - be it solo or band format.
It works here because everyone is on board and appreciates what they have - it would be nice if London could get it too.
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