At some point between graduating from high school and graduating from university, all ages shows slowed down. Blame it on the economy. Blame it on negative net youth migration. Blame it on lazy young people. Blame it on computers and gameboys and MTV and the government. It’s fun to point a finger wildly sometimes. It doesn’t matter why all ages shows became less frequent, they just did. In the last couple years, there has been a group of amazing people who are trying to help young people showcase their musical artistry by volunteering their time, their equipment, their sanity, and their time to put on shows. I am incredibly proud that I am a part of that group and that I’ve had the opportunity to see new bands form and rock out over the last couple years.
This has been an amazing period in my life and has reached an amazing climax during the weekend of May 9 at an all ages show at the New dawn Centre for Social Innovation. The show opened by starting on time, as isn’t the tradition with shows of any kind. Kennedy Dale kicked off the show with her incredible voice as the room slowly started to fill. By the end of her set the room was full of wonderful people who were attentively listening and cheering.
Up next Blair Lucas took the stage. Lucas has been an active musician in the Cape Breton music scene for at least the last five years. During that time he has played more sets than anybody I can think of. Lucas goes to every open mic, plays any set he can get his hands on at the farmers’ market, volunteers to open up for every band at Governor’s, and recently debuted his new band. Lucas is easily one of the hardest working musicians in Cape Breton and all that work is definitely paying off. Next up was Turpentine.
I was excited to check Turpentine out for a few reasons: they’re new, they’re punk, they’re young, and they’re female. There aren’t a whole lot of young female punk bands around, and by that I mean there aren’t any and really haven’t been any. I was just excited to see them play and the fact that they existed. I didn’t even care if they were any good at all, being that it was their first show. But then they played and blew everybody’s minds. They played an amazingly tight straight punk set. As a two-piece band, they have a fantastically full sound, trading off vocals, drums, and guitar. I’m very excited to see more of Turpentine in the future.
Ending the show was Keith Doom and the Wrecking Crew. There’s a reason that there’s a really good turnout for every show that KDWC plays. They put on an amazing high energy show that’s backed up by legitimately good songs. The audience during a Keith Doom set feels like the kind of audience that I craved as a young punk. High energy, sing-along hardcore, with a crowd of people that felt like a community.
I’m so excited that there is a new community of young musicians and musically-inclined young people that I can comfortably say that there is an all-ages scene in Cape Breton.
