Just when you thought festival season was over, Clark Hall Pub hosted Clarkapaloozaroosheagastock— a mouthful of a music festival — on Saturday night.
The evening featured the newly announced Clark Hall House band Georgia Straits, Toronto-based band Bravestation, and The Kents out of Lindsay, ON.
Georgia Straits, made up of Ian Winkler, Dan Gillis (guitar and vocals), Logan Barr (Keyboard) and Josh Rodley (drums), kicked off the night with popular indie tunes. The band formed two years ago, when Ian and Dan began jamming in their Leonard Hall res room in first year. After which, the guys decided to get serious about music, expand their band and start booking shows.
Although they’re new to the scene, the group has a strong stage presence and their indie-rock vibe struck a chord with the crowd at Clark Hall on Saturday night. Covering songs such as ‘Jackie and Wilson’ by Hozier and ‘Last Nite’ by The Strokes, Georgia Straits seemed comfortable and confident on stage – a remarkable feat considering they only recently performed their first gig earlier this monthat Queen’s Shinerama.
The band recently wrapped up three days playing in Kingston that included Clark Hall’s Battle of the Bands, Biergarten on Friday night, and Clarkapaloozaroosheagastock on Saturday night.
Bravestation was second to hit the stage and didn’t disappoint. The group played to an energetic crowd and their maturity as a band was evident in their set, playing familiar singles such as ‘Amadeus’ and ‘Actors’.
The Toronto-based band consists of brothers Devin and Derek Wilson and childhood friend Jeremy Rossetti. Bravestation originally started with a heavy metal influence, but has evolved into a more alt-pop band. Their music clearly draws from many different genres, with songs like their most recent single ‘13th Floor’ having a more disco-esque sound.
It was apparent that the group was not afraid to experiment with different sounds, which Derek confirmed in a later interview was due to the variety of genres they listen to.
“One week I might be listening to The National, the next week I might be listening to Shania Twain…okay maybe not Shania Twain we don’t listen to country,” he said.
Finding it hard to believe that he doesn’t (secretly) listen to country, I pressed him, like all good journalists do. “Okay I like one Luke Bryan song and that’s it,” Derek said.
Wrapping up the night were up-and-coming indie-pop band The Kents, who are fresh off a series of shows this summer promoting their new EP Waking. Band Warren Frank, Freddy Kwon, Luke Shauf and Tanner Paré, have been enjoying successes, such as opening for The Strumbellas and playing venues like Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern and Lee’s Tavern — all the while getting considerable airplay on indie-pop radio, following the release of Waking.
Despite being from Lindsay, the band maintains a connection to Queen’s as their guitarist Freddy Kwon is a fellow Golden Gael. Having graduated just last year, Kwon was excited to be back in Kingston.
“Clark Hall and all of these Kingston venues have a really special place in my heart,” Kwon said.
However, playing at Queen’s isn’t the most exciting thing that’s happened to The Kents this year. Their song ‘The Stakes’ was featured in the opening montage for Game seven of the Stanley Cup finals on Hockey Night in Canada, certainly a far cry from the high school guitar class where they first started playing covers together.
The Kents blew the crowd away during their performance at Clark, playing songs from their new album as well as covers of classics such as Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’.
Their engaging performance style as well as their obvious enthusiasm for music was infectious as the crowd danced, sang and sweat through their entire set.
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