Let's Stop Pretending Ottawa has a Music Scene

Does the fact that half our writers tabled this topic mean something?

We think it does. Admittedly, the music situation in Ottawa was much bigger than I originally thought when I started involving myself in it. But, it is hardly a scene. 

When my band played with groups from Montreal the out-of-town bands wanted to make sure the show was over by ten thirty. “Ottawa is a go to bed early town.” I couldn’t stick up for my city, he’s right. Hell, my band had our slot changed from eight to ten one gig and we had a conniption. All the bands were in a pissing match for who didn’t have to headline. We all needed to get home for bedtime. A band from Toronto said to me, as more of a statement then a question, “there’s no music scene down here, right?” This may come across as an unpopular opinion, but when I asked a local musician what he thought the problem was, “if it’s not synth it’s not cool”.

Now, it’s nothing against the instrument itself, but more a comment towards the cliques that have pocketing over the past couple of years. Ottawa is not short of bands for any genre. It is just the same bands doing the same things with the same people. There’s no room for expansion. All the bands are the same, and in on the wrong ways. Nobody is out checking out bands they don’t have a friend playing in anymore, if they ever did at all. There’s no bands making the citizens of Ottawa buzz and gaining any heat. Bands don’t want to play shows because they’re worried about (what I believe is the most ‘eye-roll emoji’ inducing word ever), “pull”. “Pull” is supposed to be a band’s ability to draw a crowd, but that isn’t what it means in Ottawa. We discussed how the Tragically Hip dealt with playing to completely empty venues on tour. There's no bands in Ottawa that love music enough to bond over that.

Attending a rock show on a Saturday night isn’t enticing, it’s annoying. We all must get to our Government of Canada Department of… jobs in the morning. Playing a rock show on a Saturday night isn’t enticing, it’s annoying. Especially when it falls within a month of a different show. No band is gaining a following playing once a month.

Who loves playing simply for playing? Isn’t playing music live enough for anyone anymore?

We don’t have an Ottawa music scene, we have an Ottawa music burden.

Is Ottawa rock and roll dead as Sparks Street at ten on a Friday night?

We wonder what group is at fault for the burden. Is it the musicians or the fans? Or a different entity – we haven’t even got to promoters yet.

Let us know and get the hell out to a show, please?

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Mike is a University of Ottawa honours graduate with an English background. Currently a student in the Professional Writing program at Algonquin College, he also writes for Breaking the Trend and Spotlight Ottawa. Mike strives to increase the publicity of the Ottawa music scene – which he is a part of through his band, Lost Acres.

Connect through LinkedIn, Facebook, or Medium.

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Canada Closed - Death in the Family

Could a tweet sum up October 17th 2017 any better?

Seriously?          

The nation, fans of The Tragically Hip or not, was taken aback on October 17th when the news was confirmed: Gord Downie had died. The nation seemed shocked, despite knowing for quite some time that the frontman was suffering from terminal brain cancer.

            I was writing a tribute to Leonard Cohen at the time, as it has been one year since he died. In that moment, when I found out Canada’s other true troubadour was also gone, the atmosphere changed. It was somber. I no longer wanted to write. I didn’t want to accept that a year after a monumental literary hero of mine had died, another was now gone.

            The Ongoing History of New Music Podcast, hosted by Allan Cross, released a two-episode feature on Gord. He couldn’t have nailed it any better than he did. This podcast was everything I wished I’d written, and when he said he saw a tweet that summed up Gord Downie’s death perfectly, he was right: “Canada closed, death in the family”.

The Tragically Hip and Gord Downie are never far from mind when “Canada” and “music” are mentioned in the same sentence. Cross discusses this in detail throughout his podcast feature, reminding us that Fully Completely is basically one giant history lesson of Canada.

The excerpts of interviews included in the feature were flawless. They speak to how much Gord loved what he did and how, at an early age, he possessed what most musicians rarely do: a never-ending, marital love for music.

Gord was always proud to be in a band, even when nobody knew him. He said the following about the feeling he would get during band practice, “I just worked on a secret and wait until you hear it”. This quote demonstrates a belief in the power of music that the majority of musicians simply don't possess. Luck is often dubbed as what separates one musician from the next, but I have a new theory that it's not only luck, but also a belief like Gord's. The belief that what you are doing as a musician, and as an artist, will move somebody else emotionally.

Allan tells a story of the band playing at an empty bar when the group was first starting out. After the set, the band had a couple of beers with the few people there. Gord’s response to what it’s like to be in these situations was no short of perfect:

The one thing about bands is that…they’re always funny…and that humour comes from these bottom-of-the-barrel moments that would crush people, even if they knew that they happened to you. So, you help each other through these things, and you forge them.

It takes belief in the music and art to trudge through moments like these. If Gord needed to be summed up in one word – it’s belief. Belief in art, poetry, music, playing live, and the greatness of Canada.

Cross further ends his two-part series with all that really needs to be said about Gord Downie and the art he left, “Yo, Gord. Hey, man, thanks.”

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Mike is a University of Ottawa honours graduate with an English background. Currently a student in the Professional Writing program at Algonquin College, he also writes for Breaking the Trend and Spotlight Ottawa. Mike strives to increase the publicity of the Ottawa music scene – which he is a part of through his band, Lost Acres.

Connect through LinkedIn, Facebook, or Medium.

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