Peak Performance Project 2010 - Showcase One

For those of you in Vancouver, you may already be aware that 100.5 the Peak recently started up the Peak Performance Project for another year and after a rigorous boot camp the 20 bands are set up to do a showcase every Thursday at the Red Room from Sept 9th till Oct 7th. This first showcase's line-up was Jess Hill, Bodhi Jones, Vince Vaccaro and Acres of Lions.

Jess Hill came on to the stage boasting the talented James Lamb as back up and started into her set of soulful singing. Her voice has that throaty gospel quality that lends itself well to her melancholy lyrics. On stage her vibrant personality shone through and fed off the positive energy from the crowd. She was very natural and endearing on stage. As part of the Performance Project, every band must pick out a Canadian classic to cover and Jess Hill picked Bryan Adams' Cuts Like a Knife. She took the song and made it her own, slowing the song down and really using her voice's rich qualities to make it something special.

Next up was Bodhi Jones who plays a singer-songwriter folk rock that felt reminiscent of Jack Johnson. He appeared very comfortable in front of an audience, he worked the crowd from the first song in and they gave him a fair bit of love in return. It seemed to me that he did this a little too much but the crowd stayed engaged for the most part. His cover was Old Man by Neil Young but it didn't really feel like he owned the song opting instead to play a straightforward cover. Bodhi Jones is one of the artists that got carried over from last year's Performance Project so I take it as a sign that the Peak saw potential that possibly needed some more development.

Now came a man that exuded energy every minute he was on stage, Vince Vaccarro. Seeing as I wasn't familiar with his music, it almost came as a surprise when he started up what sounded like reggae meets surfer rock. The crowd really fed off his vigor as he played giving him probably the best stage presence of the night. As his set rolled on, the music got a little more rock in it and was a good lead up to his cover of Sam Robert's Uprising Down Under. As they started into the song it sounded like another cover that was being played in a very similar style to the original. This impression of the cover stuck with me but my friend over at 3am Revelation felt that they started to make the song theirs when the rest of the band kicked in.

The final act of the night was Acres of Lions who were a welcome change as the previous artists were all somewhat downbeat or slower-paced. Not a bad thing by any means but seeing as it was somewhere around midnight, having some music to get the blood flowing was a good thing. They play rock that leans towards pop-punk and is easy music to dance to seeing as it's light, fun and quick paced. A friend described them earlier as being somewhere between Propagandhi and the Weakerthans and it felt fairly apt. Most of their songs are closer to the former but the odd song did start to get a little closer to the latter. Their cover was probably my favourite of the night as they played Corey Hart's Never Surrender. Taking that heartfelt 80's ballad and giving it the pop-punk rock treatment, it was really entertaining and well done.

This is the first of 5 Peak Performance Project showcases, the main purpose of which is for these artists to be judged on their live performances. I can't wait for the next one because it practically stacked: Debra-Jean, Parlour Steps, Yes Nice and Aidan Knight. I'm not shy in saying that Aidan is one of my favourites to make the top three but I wish all the artists the best of luck!

- AlexOfAnders

1 2 Freddy's coming for you

So, I just watched the remake of a Nightmare on Elm Street. Those of you who know me know that I am one for the horror movies, I read Rue Morgue and love the who horror thing. I will state for the record that I am no a gore-met (harhar, stolen from Rue Morgue) nor will I claim to be a master of cinema but I like what I like and have fun explaining it. Anyways, on to the movie at hand, a Nightmare on Elm street.

Now, this movie is a big deal for a couple of reasons but here's what I think are the two major ones. One, Freddy Krueger is possibly the most well known horror icon in modern history and two, this is the first time ever that Robert Englund hasn't played him. Now, going into this movie I was feeling pretty sure that Englund's absence would be a good thing and Rorschach, sorry, I mean Jackie Earle Haley seemed like a great fit. No offense to Mr. Englund but I always found Freddy to be too ... there's no nice way to say it, cheesy. Like, I was a couple beers deep going on a few and I needed that to keep me entertained. If you watch this movie can I recommend seeing it with a blood alcohol level somewhere between 0.06 and 0.2? Trust me, it's better that way. I remember watching it as a kid and that scene where Freddy is walking down the alley with both arms stretched so he can scratch the walls with his razor hands was so bad, almost as bad as the dog that pisses fire. His arms were all stretched out like a marionette, it looked comical. This was my first impression of the series but even as a horror fan I'll admit, it's been a long time since I've seem the nightmare on elm street movies so I might be getting the super cheese mixed in with my gruyere.

Still, I wanted to see this new version because I thought that maybe the series would be given a dark and serious tone, possibly even be somewhat scary. Man, was I wrong, this new movie was not only incredibly predictable but it failed to entertain even if you think of it in a pure cheese or not-to-be-taken serious manner. The characters were wholly unlikeable, from the guy with no chin to the blond cheerleader stereotype. These kids all seemed like a gaggle of rich kids who's parents had too much money and ended up in a bad situation. Let's take the blonde girl as an example, at the start her mom has to go away for a couple days because she's a flight attendant. Yet, she somehow can afford a car for herself, another for her daughter and a huge house in what seems like an upscale neighbourhood. I guess this whole movie really is a dream world. So of course, I'm gonna feel bad for the beautiful spoiled rich kid, sorry but they lost me right there. These kids annoyed me from the get go.

Now let's get to the new Freddy, Jackie Earle Haley. I thought at first that he'd make an awesome Freddy. The guy can pull off creepy like nobody's business as proven in the Watchmen. Still, I think he suffered from bad writing, directing, special effects or editing, maybe a combination of all. He didn't come off as frightening and all the "shock scares" were so predictable they lost all their steam. I honestly thought he looked something like a gecko. Maybe I'm not up on my burn victims but his skin seemed so smooth and his eyes were far apart. Maybe most of all was the lack of lips which ironically might be the most realistic damage he might face.

So, I've covered that I don't think the new Freddy was scary but what about the movie? I mentioned the lack of shock scares which are often a crutch of crappy horror movies but the problem was that I felt they were trying for the shock scare. I really don't think I'm so much a horror vet as to call things but the amount I could predict the next move made my movie compatriot ask if I wrote the damn thing. My three favourite calls were... well, two are kind of spoilers. But the first is when the female lead complains about not knowing anything about the male lead so she says "I don't even know you're favourite colour!" and what would you guess the male lead says? Something crazy like red? Topaz? Psshh, like that would happen, we need a nice male affirming "Blue" here. It was so expected and stereotypical that I said it without thinking as this movie time and time again proved it wasn't willing to think outside the box, introduce anything new or even step a centimeter out of convention. Now, someone who reads this might be wondering what my second big call on this movie was (what? people read this? no way!) so I'll post it at the bottom but be warned, spooooiler alert!

In summary, if you go to a Nightmare on Elm Street expecting something a kin the remake of a Texas Chainsaw Massacre, expect to be disappointed. Hell, if you go expecting My Bloody Valentine 3D expect to be disappointed but if you go with a 6 to 12 beers and a friend to crack jokes with much to the annoyance of everyone around you, you're at the right movie.

Thanks for reading,

This is AlexOfAnders and I'm a little above the legal limit.

Spoilers ahoy!

1st spoiler call: They will have to bring Freddy to the "real world" to defeat him.

2nd call: The last 20 seconds will show that defeating Freddy in the real world failed and then the movie ends. Every single one of these movies that I have seen end like this. God forbid that they break these two conventions, how else would be expect the squeals that Jackie Earle Haley signed up for aside from knowing that he signed a three movie contract.