King  Gary 

Update: There are some photos available now, provided by Edge.ca.

I’ve returned from EdgeFest 2. There was a mish-mash of marijuana, brassieres, and loud music.

The following bands played at the event, and bands that I specifically watched and listened to are marked in green (they are in order of showing, and also probably in order of least popular to most popular, generally speaking):

Main stage (in order of showing) Anberlin Ill Scarlett Matchbook Romance Story Of The Year Hawthorne Heights All American Rejects Yellowcard ‘Next Big Thing’ stage (in order of showing) Damone Tokyo Police Club Lovedrug (did not show) In Flight Safety Panic And The Rebel Emergency Magneta Lane The Miniatures ‘Bedlam Society Stage’ Inamere Attack In Black Johnny Truant Cancer Bats The Junction Sydney

Yellowcard Ticket

What happened

Three friends and I went down to the Molson Amphitheatre, in Ontario Place, to attend EdgeFest 2. We met at Scarborough Town Centre, took the RT and the subway down to Bathurst, and then took the tram to Ontario Place. Once we reached Ontario Place, it was 11 am but there was still quite a line there already for the event, and so we decided to line up. Let me remind you, it was EXTREMELY hot today, this afternoon (42 C last I heard). We waited outside for about 2 1/2 hours before the line began moving, and we then proceeded to find ourselves some seats. It’s a good thing that we were near the lake, so that the air was a bit cooler and there was more of a breeze, so it felt somewhat more refreshing than it would have been if I were still in Scarborough.

It was surprising to me that there were actually not many people attending the event; there were a lot of seats available throughout the entire event; probably only 3/4 of the seats, at most, were filled (The seating plan has 4 sections: Level 200, Level 300, Level 400, and then the Lawn Seating (which is where you sit on grass.)) Also, upon entering the stage, all our bags were checked, unsurprisingly. But I found it strange that they told us to remove all bottle caps from our water bottles before entering the premise; I suppose it’s so that, either the audience can’t use the bottle caps to throw on stage, at people, etc. or also so that if you have a water bottle full of water, and you throw it while it’s NOT sealed, then the water comes out, and then the water bottle is not used as a weapon that is basically a heavy piece of plastic with all that water in it.

Now, on to the performances. The music was mostly rock and hard rock as the House of Blues described themselves, and as this isn’t my forte, I don’t know the bands quite as well. The two that I know the most are the All American Rejects and more recently, Yellowcard, which I both like more so than the rest. But, some of the ’side’ bands were, surprisingly, the type of music that more closely resembled what I like. One of them was Magneta Lane, which really reminds me of a band that I like, Stars; more specifically, the lead singer for Magneta Lane really looks similar to Amy Millan, at least to me.

During the performance of the All American Rejects, they requested that people throw clothing onto the stage (i.e. sunglasses, t-shirts, and brassieres). All 3 appeared on stage, plus some panties. During Yellowcard’s performance, the smell of marijuana was easily noticeable among the crowd, but the source remains unknown, even after Security browsed around the audience to try to find the culprit. Yellowcard also has a violin their band, which is an instrument that I play. It’s interesting to see how they work the violin into their songs; it’s not just in the background, but it’s plays a prominent role in the beginning and end of many of their songs. Also, I think the guys in the mosh pit really enjoyed themselves, especially when random people just jumped on top of a crowd of other people, hoping that they would be supported instead of dropped onto the concrete floor below. Eventually, though (as in, 5 seconds later), security grabbed the people (which includes a group of at least 20) and took them away somewhere. That’s all I saw.

I find it better to listen to music that you can actually clearly hear what the person is singing about, rather than loud, blaring music, but that’s just me. Although, I was a bit tired today due to a lack of sleep the previous night, so I caught myself slowly nodding off a few times - goes to show that nothing can stop the power of sleep when you’re lacking it. I’m hoping to, one day, finally see Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie, et al., live. I find that the Molson Amphitheatre hosts a lot of good and popular bands and music artists, in fact, so I’ll check back with them about once a month for anything new that I may be interested in. (I already missed Keane and Dashboard Confessional!)

It was interesting to see Yellowcard returning to the stage in only their bathing suits, outside of their element, before the concert began, and then back in, during the concert.

On a bit of a side note, I finally managed to play the Xbox 360 for a few minutes, for the first time! There was an Xbox booth setup next to the Amphitheatre, and there were 6 Xbox 360s setup, each playing a different game. Of course, most were occupied, but I managed to play on the following 3 games with Blake:

• Perfect Dark Zero
• Project Gotham Racing 3
• Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis

More to look at:

• bands that I’ve seen live so far
• random EdgeFest photos from previous years

That’s all I remember for now. I’ll update this tomorrow when more details come back to me - I just returned home from the concert!

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