About: Dave DiUbaldo

MacEwen hall was chalk full of rockers on Saturday night, the industrial looking college venue in Calgary making a perfect escape from the cold. An enthusiastic and heavily branded crowd greeted us as we walked into the large room, fired up from openers eyehategod and eagerly awaiting Corrosion of Conformity. There was puke on the floor, the beer lineups were ridiculously long, and the women were as pretty as the beards. It was it was the kind of show where everyone was there for the music. Like, there was this beautiful, unspoken sense of camaraderie. One dude just going around and taking selfies videos with everyone, I don’t even know if he realized BLS was playing but he was super stoked about the whole thing. It’s like we’d just gotten home.

I always love an excuse to go to the city, and rock shows are my favourite kind of excuse. The venue, Marquee Beer Market & Stage, is top notch. I mean, the place has four bars, serves food, has a fantastic stage and lighting set-up, and huge dance floor. Oh, and I can’t not mention the giant disco ball and microphones hanging from the ceiling. This place is a good times factory.  

A dark and wet Saturday created the perfect backdrop for CJAY 92’s Halloween Howler at the Grey Eagle Report & Casino in Calgary. On the ticket were a trio of Canadian heavy hitters: One Bad Son, Big Wreck, and the Headstones.

Rise against are one of those bands. The ones whose name you don’t necessarily hear all that often, but when you do, you’re immediately excited. Their fans are die hard, their music is amazing, and their live show is the embodiment of why I feel in love with live music in the first place. But enough of that. Let me start at the beginning.

The Bovine Sex Club is a Toronto venue as unique as it’s name. The 26 year old venue has played host to members of countless different bands, of all different levels on fame. On this particular Friday, the sold out room was graced by a slew of Toronto native celebs, including Ian Thornley and Ron McLean. Anyone who was someone in the 90’s Toronto scene was there, and I was just happy to be part of the mix. It’s not every night that you get to see a reunion show in at a 150 person venue.

Pano of One Love music festival – Photo by Dave Di Ubaldo

Outdoor festivals are hands down my favourite way to experience music. It doesn’t matter the genre, when you have the right crowd at a well organized event magic happens. And that magic happened in spades at the Max Bell Centre in Calgary Friday night. Beautiful weather all day made a stellar line-up of artists that much more enjoyable.

On another beautiful, unseasonably hot Friday night in Banff, 1500+ people gathered in the Shaw Amphitheater at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity for a sold out show. Canadian music fans showed us that you don’t need to go to the Calgary Stampede for a rockin’ good time on a Friday night.

The day after a show – or in this case the 2 days it took for the fog to clear from my head – I always enjoy going back to go over my notes from the evening. It’s a pretty good gauge on how my night went, where it ended up, and if I was still coherent by the end of it. The neater the notes, the tamer the evening. When it comes to our freshman night at Dicken’s in Calgary to check out The Wild! and CKY, I managed to make out about 3 pages before my notes became ineligible so I’ll be re-telling the later events of the evening from what blurry memories I have left. If you’ve never seen those God Damn Wild Boys in their element, spoiler alert: it was a night of unadulterated, debaucherous rock and roll.

Rain, rain, go away…

Performance in the Park –
Photo by Wornleathermedia

Oh it feels good to be back.

Jacob Hoggard of Hedley – Photo by Dave DiUbaldo of Worn Leather Media