Halifax Rockfest

August 10th, 2009

081009-rockfest

There are lots of great ways to spend a long weekend Sunday in Halifax, but on August 3rd, hitting Rockfest on Citadell Hill was the perfect decision. Between the weather, the location and the music, it was a perfect lawn-chillin’, laidback-rockin’ afternoon.

Sloan, Finger Eleven, Our Lady Peace and Chickenfoot were on the bill and while supergroup Chickenfoot certainly sold the most t-shirts and earned the headline title, it was the ever-loved and ever-awesome Sloan and Our Lady Peace that turned out the crowds and had the Hill rocking – insert mental image of Haligonians joining the NSP (No Shirts Party).

Read more, plus see photos after the jump!

Let me just start off by saying Chris Murphy is such a trooper. Not only does he know how to get my toe tapping, but he did the entire set with a freshly snapped collarbone from a recent hit-and-run when he was biking only a few days before. When Sloan and special guests took the stage in the early afternoon, the crowd was still young and Chris joked that only one guy in the audience knew the lyrics to their songs and to ‘hand that guy a mic.’ Clear audience favs were “Rest Of My Life”, “Who Taught You To Leave Like That”, “Good In Everyone”, and “Money City Maniacs”. At the end of their set they were presented with an award to the Atlantic Wall of Fame from radio station Q104 for their musical contribution to the East Coast, and for being the only known band to work the word ‘cajole’ into their lyrics (although I believe the Pogues may hold claim to this honour for their 1985 ballad “The Old Main Drag”).

Finger Eleven was up next and while their music doesn’t have the same place in my heart as that of Sloan or Our Lady Peace, they did sound good live and certainly had the crowd going.

Our Lady Peace, on the other hand, delivered a “Holy walk through memory lane, Batman” performance. They hit every single from Superman’s Dead to a beautiful rendition of “4am”, sprinkled in with some of their new stuff. As if that wasn’t enough to take me back to the 90s, when the crowd started pulling out their lighters to wave in the air in lieu of their cellphones, I knew I was fully there. They had everyone on their feet from the opening beat all the way to set-closer “Starseed” (even though it was a no-seater concert, but hey).

The crowd (and average hairline) thinned out after OLP, whether it was because of the thick fog that suddenly rolled in (oh, the Maritimes…) or the lack of interest, I can’t say for sure, but it seemed that only the oldies were raging, reliving Van Halen’s glory days as Sammy Hagar and Joe Satriani rocked the remaining crowd through their set.

You can never complain about spending a (mostly) sunny day on Citadel Hill, but throw in some old favorites with an eager crowd, and you’re guaranteed to be havin’ a toime.

Photos by Ashley Moore