Usually I'm not a big fan of attending showcases because it's basically a big promo for something, you have to sit through speeches and self-promotion before you see what you came for. This was the second annual Manitoba Film & Music showcase that featured participants from our local film groups and music performers from our Province, a three hour show for FREE. Free was good, because I really wanted to check out just a few bands that I'm familiar with, but these type of shows are meant as a sampler so you can to get a taste (teaser) of some of the local talent I've been neglecting. Again, if I didn't have to sit through all the interviews and speeches, the music portion would have taken up only a fraction of the total 3 hour show. Don't get me wrong, there were some other interesting non-music items such as Cordell Barker's 9 minute short, Runaway and Talia Pura performed a beautiful breathtaking aerial dance, twisting and turning high above the stage grasping a pink silk fabric...nice. Showcases like this are meant to remind people what a diverse and talented community we have here in Winnipeg.
The music ranged widely: country-folk sounds of Nathan and Sierra Noble, rap' n 'roll of Grand Analog, pop-rock of Quinzy and Paper Moon, blues-rock of Billy Joe Green And Romi Mayes, metal thrashings of Domenica, unique sounds of Daniel Roa, classic rock of Harlequin and the indie-rock stylings of the Weakerthans. Everyone got to perform one song (except the Weakerthans-2) and in between each band, the time was used for the interviews and film clips. To close the show, kid's performer Fred Penner led a sing-a-long of his classic, The Cat Came Back, with many of the previous performers joining in. An appropriate way to end this (too?) long show.
I have to admit I had an ulterior motive for attending this show, I received a new portable digital recorder, Tascam DR-07 for Christmas and this was my opportunity for a trial run. This is the first recording I've made with this machine and I thought a casual crowd in a nice acoustically sounding building, like the Concert Hall would be ideal to test out how the recorder performed. The seating area was dimly lit (not too dark, so I could see the controls) and I seated myself close to the back of the main floor, but dead centre with no one immediately beside, in front and behind me. I played with the volume levels and tried both the built-in mic and the external Sony mic I've been using with my mini-disc recorder. The results are very satisfying and I'm excited to share this recording exclusively with the TDIT blog.
Manitoba Film & Music Showcase
Winnipeg Centennial Concert Hall
January 31, 2010
1. Nathan *
2. Quinzy *
3. Billy Joe Green *
4. Grand Analog
5. Romi Mayes
6. Domenica
7. Paper Moon
8. Daniel Roa *
9. Sierra Noble
10. Harlequin
11. Weakerthans
12. Fred Penner & Friends
* used the internal mic (can you tell the difference?)
I decided to post each artist/song separately in case you wanted to just sample a couple of artists instead of downloading them all. I didn't record any of the other on-stage presentations (talking, interviews etc.), only the music (except JP Hoe who opened the show and I arrived late), so I stopped the recording after each song.
Enjoy!
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