The “Moustache” proved itself to be the absolutely worst venue in the world for an ECMA showcase Saturday night. But that’s my opinion from the audience. I asked Wally how he felt about it.
“Musically I’ve played better sets…considering the people and the venue it wasn’t bad…I was a little disappointed in the venue…”
No wonder. The sound was bad, you couldn’t get anywhere near to see the bands, there wasn’t even standing room only, you had to keep moving cause you were always in the way.
“It was frustrating,” he continues. “I felt like a good opportunity was lost because Halifax stretched that thing way too far.” Wally thinks the sheer size of the event detracted from the whole experience and contributed to a general disorganization. He had wanted to invite media and industry people to come see his act. But by the time they finally announced the venue for his showcase, it was too late to mail out the invites. So when he finally found out where it would be, he tried to get some passes for these people but was denied. As a result he has no idea if any of these people got to see him perform or not, and in a way he hopes they didn’t because the sound was simply unacceptable. He doesn’t feel it was a complete loss though. “Any opportunity to play is not a waste of time…it’s just that it could have been a whole lot better.”
And on Sunday afternoon things did get a whole lot better for Wally MacAulay, when he participated in the Songwriters Circle. “It had to be the highlight of my weekend. To sit there with Ron Hynes, Lennie Gallant, Terry Kelly…man it was a great feeling, I enjoyed every moment…the great thing about it is that people were there to listen to the words. It was quiet and they packed about 600 people in there.”
“The other cool thing is this lady came up with a picture, a sketch and she asked me to sign it. I looked at it, and cripes almighty she sketched it right there Ron Hynes and Tara (MacLean), me, Lennie Gallant and Terry Kelly…a pencil sketch of us. Wow, it was really cool! I really hope she sends me a copy.” (photo: Murd Smith)
