Punk Rock Adventure in Halifax: Part I
On August 14, 2006, international punk-rock icons NOFX played in Halifax. Being a mere 4.5
hour drive away, a few of us figured it would be within our best interests to see this band that we
had enjoyed as CDs and videos in person. And, while we were there, why not partake in some
other non-local fun? Why not indeed! So, the trip was planned, and away we went! And what
better way to recap said trip than with a photo-based adventure? I can’t think of one!
Here’s the vehicle we used to get to the great city of Halifax. It’s Erin’s Honda Accord, and it is
amazingly good on gas.
And here are our brave adventurers. Erin was the first in the car (as it’s her car), and then me
(you may notice I’m wearing the “BEST SUMMER EVER” t-shirt from our recent variety show.
More on that later). After I was picked up we picked up Brent (the holder of our tickets... more
on THAT later). With Christian being our final pick-up we were off on what was set to be the
most punkest thing ever done by anyone: driving to Halifax and staying at a hotel that Erin’s
mom booked for us. RAWK!
We ended up behind quite a few vehicles on the way that had odd/ridiculous things written on
the back of them. This one caught our attention being the “Rambler.” Every time I looked at it,
I thought it said “Holiday Gambler” which kept reminding me of Kenny Rogers. I wish Kenny
Rogers was playing this concert, but alas, he’s too punk for this thing. But just punk enough for
this article. This article is punk.
Our first larger stop was at Jungle Jim’s (a place Erin and I tried a year earlier when we went to Magic Valley). Despite the fact that Jungle Jim’s is a really awesome place to get lunch, it was probably the most disappointing of the places we went for food while on this trek. It just wasn’t 100%, I guess. Although, the fact that their bathrooms are marked “Tarzan” and “Jane” might make up for it.
Now we get to the fun part of the story! We arrived in Halifax around 2:00 or so, and went to the hotel (the Howard Johnson in Dartmouth) and got our stuffs ready. You may recall earlier I mentioned the fact that Brent had our tickets. As soon as he got in the car, Erin asked him "Do you have the tickets?" to which he replied, "Of course I do!" We actually felt a bit bad for doubting him. Erin then mentioned she once got an hour out of town before realizing she had forgotten concert tickets. We mad efun, it was grand. So, we got to Halifax... turns out, we didn’t have the tickets afterall! They were back in Sydney! Oh joy! Sadly, I didn’t get a picture of this moment. Kinda wish I did as the looks on our faces were a treat. Brent’s “Oh god, I’m gonna puke” face was probably the best, though our run of confusion to pissed were probably pretty good too. However, at this point nothing could be done about it. Fortunately, our hotel was a mere 5 minute walk to the venue, so Brent headed down to wait in line for more tickets while Erin and I checked in.
Brent is located approximately where the red arrow is. We ended up being about 50th in line or so, which really isn’t that bad considering where the line ended. That is indicated by the blue arrow. The end of that arrow can’t be seen because by the time they opened the doors, there were about 1000+ people in line (the line went around the block, and then down into the parking lot, parallel to us, but about a block away. Christian was somewhere near the end later on, as he went to his friend’s house at this point.
However, waiting in line wasn’t all for nothing. We met some new friends (who are pointed out again with red arrows. Red arrows are super punk) who chatted with us and made fun of the same people we did (basically all people that walked by us).
The wait in line actually wasn’t too bad. We were there almost 2 hours, but it was nice out without being too warm, and we had people to talk to. Also, since the line up was for people who had tickets AND those who needed to buy tickets, once they opened the door, they divided us up. We were actually some of the first in the line who needed to buy tickets, so we got to jump to the front of that line and we got in before we would have anyways! Crazy! Punk-crazy!
So, we got inside the venue (which was the ferry landing terminal in Dartmouth – quite the nice venue other than the hard, hard ground) around 4:30 or so, and we checked out merch tables and whatnot. Pretty nice stuffs actually. All punk and such. The first band started at 4:45, I think, so we had a bit of time to kill before going to watch them. During this time we mostly pointed out weirdos. There were a bunch. You can see the mainstage in the background of that picture, which was actually a pretty nice one.
Here’s the opening act for this festival (which was called “Flip the Switch” by the way) – the Hold. It’s awesome that they had local bands on the bill, even if they had to play on the b-stage. The Hold were a wicked way to open up the show, as they were really fun, and people moshed. Erin got trapped by it for a few minutes, and it was kinda hard to get her out of it, but eventually she found her way to punk-freedom… by escaping other punks… yes.
Up next was Hostage Life – a band that Erin was particularly interested in as we recently got their new CD at the radio station and she liked them. I must agree, they were very impressive. Not THE act of the day, but definitely in the top 5 (probably around #3 or so). They were a new-school punk band, so I enjoyed them and good times were had by all!
The Cancer Bats were up next, which we weren’t all that interested in seeing. They were much
better than we figured they would be, but we took it as a good opportunity to sit on the little
space of grass there was, if only for a few minutes. This also gives you a good idea of what the
crowd was like. By the end of the evening this crowd triples (at least).
We headed to the “b-stage” for the next band after our nice sit. The b-stage is actually a tent that
I guess is just set up all summer, as there was a sign from when they had their motorcycle thing
(much like the one that hit Sydney a few weeks ago). Brent (being wicked tough) gave his
opinion on custom bikes despite the fact that there weren’t any there. He punched them
too.
The band on that stage was Hope - a band I had heard of before but never actually got to see,
despite the fact that they were in Sydney on a number of occasions. I figure it was when I lived
in Ontario. They were a fast-paced new-school band, which I liked. Most of the bands I liked
were new-school. The metalish/hardcore ones, I didn’t enjoy all that much, but there weren’t a
lot of them anyways. Hope was good. I wanted to pick up their CDs, but they weren’t out yet
when I went to look, and then I forgot. I forgot cuz I’m punk. Punks forget stuff all the time.
Like showering.
This is the “Monster Fries” truck (our only source of food for the day as we were not allowed to leave and come back which kinda sucked). The line wasn’t super long (in terms of amount of people in it) but we were waiting in it for about an hour+. We missed Protest the Hero and Risky Business (neither of which I minded as they weren’t all that great – we could still hear them). I got a “monster dog” which, considering it was about 8 and I hadn’t eaten since 11:30, was an excellent source of nourishment. Then, it was back to the bands!
Before going on this trip, I had never heard of a few of these bands. Against Me! were one of those bands. In fairness, I was mostly there to see NOFX, so I didn’t really care who else played. However, Against Me! in terms of actual set did the best one of the day. I hadn’t even heard the songs before, but I got really into them simply because they were done so well (plus they were just wicked songs too). They were more a rock band than a punk band, which was a pleasant surprise. Those who know me know that I occasionally like to rock. Naw, I always rock. It’s what I do. Despite these facts, they were still only #2 of the whole day. I wanted to get their CDs at the merch table when the set was done, but they were sold-out by the time we got to it. Damn sell-outs. Totally not punk.
The line up for food (in addition to the 7 or so straight hours of standing around) was beginning to take it’s toll on our feet, so Erin and I sat down for the next act – Halifax’s own Dean Malenkos. They were a fun band, who the crowd really seemed to love (hometown heroes and whatnot) but my feet were just too sore to get into it fully. Good tunes though. In this set I got my 7th or 8th person yelling “BEST SUMMER EVER! Wooo!” at me. I had no idea so many people went to see our variety show.
NOFX! Finally – the band we had been waiting to see all bloody summer! And they did not disappoint. Putting out the best performance of the day (in terms of stage antics, jokes and songs) these guys get the #1 slot (makes sense since it was their show and whatnot). They played for about 85 minutes, but for me the show was made around songs 3 and 4. The third song they played was “Linoleum,” which is my favourite NOFX song. Just before it came on, Brent found his way back to us from the mosh pit, missing one shoe. What a tard. After “Linoleum” they played a cover. Now, me and Brent for months had talked about their cover of Rancid’s “Radio” and how they had no real reason to play it, as it’s a cover of another still popular band. But that’s the song they played! Right after my favourite! And my night was made early. Very nice. They played other wicked songs like “the Brews,” “Champs Elyse,” “Bob,” etc. (mostly all stuff from Punk in Drublic, White Trash, and So Long…). Most interesting of this though? Our new friends from the line ended up standing right next to us during this set, and they played with us. Good times indeed.
During their encores (of which they did about 8 30 second ones, giving more and more incoherent goodbyes after each one. They did this because the crowd kept requesting “The Decline” an 18 minute song. Those who didn’t’ get it just got pissed, which was even funnier) we headed up front to look for Brent’s missing shoe. We ran into some fellow CBers there, and Brent asked them to be on the lookout for his shoe. One of them said “Like this one?” Turns out he too had lost his shoe, and found Brent’s to replace it. This was pretty weird, so after the encores were over, we got out of there before the weird voodoo set in. Still have no idea if Zach found his shoe. Hopefully he did.
By the way – that’s’ the stage all done up with the lights, the band and the crowd. It was actually a really wicked sound system. I’ve been to a couple of these festival-style events before, and the sound for this one was awesome throughout (whereas it’s faltered at times with other shows I’ve attended). Fun fun fun. Tiring fun.
So it was back to the hotel room for Daily Show and sleep. We tried ordering food, but Greco was closed, so Brent and I went on a search throughout the HoJo for food. I ended up with stale chips and a gross rice-crispy square. However, we DID get some idea of the insanity that is the structure of the hotel. It’s nutty, but we’ll get into that later! Brent didn’t actually sleep on the floor – he had a pullout couch in a different little room (again, later!).
That’s all for day 1 of our punk rock adventure in Halifax. Tune in later (at some point… I dunno when I’ll get to it… hopefully soon) when we get to the chilling conclusion: Day 2! It’ll involve a lot of walking and a lot of rain! How can that NOT be wicked?! Wicked and punk! \m/