Now that BreakOut West is all said and done with, we may as well do a little recapping for you. I can’t speak for the rest of the Dog Blog Dog Pack that was out at shows both night, but I didn’t stretch myself too much. I was interested in seeing what a show at Pure Ultra Lounge would actually be like, but I didn’t manage to make it out there. I also didn’t close down a bar either night of the festival.
There were some new experiences for me. For instance, seeing bands playing on the City Plaza. Early in the day Friday and later in the evening, BreakOut had some free concerts from Saskatchewan acts on a big stage. These included Rah Rah, who were kicking off the day at 11:30 a.m. I missed part of their set, and apparently that was part loaded with all the new material. All I manage to hear them play from The Poet’s Dead was “Run”. I was happy to hear that at least; hearing Kristina Hedlund’s shouting echoing over the park was a treat.
Later on, Foam Lake kicked off the nighttime City Plaza shows. I’d chatted with a member for what I think was their last visit to Regina and was happy to hear when recently their debut album, Force and Matter, got picked up for distribution for a label. They weren’t playing to a huge crowd. All the food carts sticking around seemed mostly like an act of goodwill than for profit. For whatever reason, this set was the first time I picked up on a huge and unmistakeable Radiohead influence in Foam Lake’s music.
I came back out later to see Library Voices closing out the night. They managed to draw out some people, though again not an enormous throng or anything. From what I hear, though, they completely packed O’Hanlon’s last night, not an inch of space on the floor and people four or five deep trying to see over the railing.
The big shock of the set wasn’t the odd arrangement of “Regina I Don’t Want to Fight” that closed out the show but the new member. I feel out of the loop! I haven’t seen them live in a minute, and my Library Voices member timeline fell apart a while ago so this might all be old news. Apologies if that’s the case.
