What to look forward to this semester, in a nutshell
Guelph’s music scene is alive and kickin’ during the Winter Semester. As proud Guelphites, we live in a city where live music is constantly at our fingertips, so take advantage!
There is an abundance of live music every weekend, not to mention great events such as “Get The Funk Out” every Saturday night at the Albion, or soca and dancehall nights at Vinyl. Facebook is a great tool for citizens of Guelph to use to check out weekly music events in the downtown core.
Guelph’s Hillside Festival is one of Ontario’s coolest summer festivals and, each year, Guelph is lucky enough to host the indoor version of that festival. Hillside Inside 2015 is ringing in the first weekend of February! This year’s lineup includes the new Pornographers, Hey Rosetta!, Stars, Kid Koala, and many other cool bands. Weekend passes are available, along with tickets for individual shows.
This semester also blesses us with Kazoo! Fest 2015. Guelph’s annual Kazoo! Fest is happening in April of this year, and involves tons of great bands and artists coming in from around the country to perform at various venues around the downtown core. Kazoo! Fest provides Guelph citizens with a unique opportunity to experience strong diversity in art and music, and the tickets are always affordable! If you’ve been itching to get more involved in this beloved city’s culture, definitely checkout Kazoo! Fest. Keep an eye out for this year’s lineup announcement!
Missed Connection Records, a record label belonging to Guelph, has been actively trying to connect Guelph’s citizens with its culture. In a recent effort, Missed Connection Records released their first vinyl-only release, entitled Compilation No. 1”. The LP consists of tracks from Guelph’s local bands, and was released in order to bring Guelph’s local music together.
“It was more just bringing people together because it’s a small town, but there’s a lot of different little cliques with the punk and indie rock, a lot of folk musicians, too,” explained Tyler Belluz, the founder of Missed Connection Records. “I thought it would be great just to bring everyone together to put on one show and put everybody on vinyl. Everyone knows each other, but there’s still a divide between people.”
For those of you who are interested in learning more about local bands, Missed Connection’s vinyl is an excellent resource. Side A of the compilation includes Guelph’s local punk and rock outfits, while Side B includes softer indie-folk tracks. Bands that are featured on the record include Lowlands, Alanna Gurr & The Greatest State, Odd Years, Gregory Pepper and His Problems, Shopkeeper, Minotaurs, The Furys, Esther Grey, Jordan Faye, Adverteyes, Rich Burnett, and Jessy Bell Smith – all proud Guelph bands
that are making their names known around the country.
Missed Connection Records is continuing to grow and take on more bands, so checkout their website and Facebook page if you are interested in learning more about the city’s local music.
Last, but not least, I must point out that Guelph is in possession of one of the coolest and most unique spaces in Ontario: Silence. Silence is a garage-like building located on 46 Essex St. that has been renovated and transformed into a retro, minimalist art space with a totally lo-fi vibe. It is a cozy, open-concept building that has a rug instead of a stage that allows for complete audience-performer interaction. Although a lot of live bands and musicians play here, the space also hosts poetry slams, discussions, workshops, and improvisation sessions. Silence is easily one of my favourite venues to watch live music.
Beat those winter blues this semester by taking advantage of the cultural side to this city. Guelph has so much to offer! Following Music Lives, GAIN, Fortnight, Missed Connection Records, and Kazoo! on social media is a great way to stay updated, as well as following the pages of different venues downtown. Canadian bands love to stop in our city during their tour, so keep checking – just last semester, we had July Talk and Tokyo Police Club playing at Peter Clark Hall! Did I mention that watching live music in Guelph is always affordable?
Hey! You could even try something new this New Year, and move from being a concert-attendee to a review writer for The Ontarion! You never know!
Check out The Ontarion Guide to Guelph Music in this issue for more information on music promoters and event coordinators around Guelph.