Great Hall – // hater-high.com

Luke Doucet and the White Falcon @ Great Hall

Published by haterhigh on February 7, 2014

. : : November 2nd, 2012 : : . Being a fan of Luke Doucet‘s latest musical venture, Whitehorse, I was elated to go back and fix a major mistake of my youth: not getting into him early enough to catch him performing with his band, Luke Doucet and The White Falcon. So, when the band staged a rare reunion for the 2012 Sleepwalker Festival, I knew I had a rare chance to right a shameful wrong. And, up until about 4pm that evening, everything was looking great. Then, on my way home from work, my phone was stolen. Not sure if it was lifted…

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Dwayne Gretzky @ Great Hall

Published by haterhigh on December 3, 2013

. : : April 16th, 2013 : : . It is a familiar trope so ingrained in North American culture that it has become a caricature of itself: basement bars across the continent featuring dimly lit stages occupied by various variations of the same theme — the cover band. Impersonators, tributes, genre and era-revivalists, the configurations are virtually endless. But then, there’s cover bands, and then there’s Dwayne Gretzky. OK, I know I’ve blogged about these guys before. A lot. And it’s always been unabashedly universal praise for their live energy, note-perfect, faithful recreations of classic songs that span both genres and decades.…

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Sloan, Rural Alberta Advantage, Ohbijou and Bonjay @ The Great Hall

Published by haterhigh on December 23, 2011

. : : December 21st, 2011 : : . Between moving, Christmas, and an up-coming destination wedding (of which I am in the wedding party), I really don’t have the time to sit down, transfer, EQ, encode, upload, and blog about the concerts I’ve been going to, and have accumulated a significant backlog. But there are some shows that demand immediate attention, so I’ve sort of made time to sit down and do MOST of the things required to update this page. Unfortunately, I don’t have time right now to do a blog entry that would do a four-act benefit concert justice,…

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Olenka and the Autumn Lovers @ Great Hall

Published by haterhigh on September 4, 2011

. : : July 29th, 2011 : : . I must admit, I was tempted to flee The Great Hall after The Rest‘s set at the Out of the Box Festival. I was expecting greatness out of the Rest, and wasn’t disappointed. I was largely impressed with Polynesian Bride. What are the chances lightning would strike thrice in a single evening? Couple that with arriving after a full work day behind me, the promise of another one ahead of me, and the bands already being some twenty minutes behind schedule, the idea of abandoning ship in favour of much-needed sleep weighed heavily on my mind. Knowing that…

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The Rest @ Great Hall

Published by haterhigh on August 26, 2011

. : : July 29th, 2011 : : . I can’t say I knew much of anything about the Out of the Box Festival a week before it started. I’m not as in touch with local music as you might expect for someone with a blog such as mine, so when Hamilton’s The Rest announced on their various social networking sites that they would be playing The Great Hall for the festival, I had mixed feelings. To begin with, the announcement was only a handful of days before the festival, and I was scheduled to work that evening. Also, the idea of paying for a festival pass when…

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Polynesian Bride @ Great Hall

Published by haterhigh on August 17, 2011

. : : July 29th, 2011 : : . The first thing I noticed about Polynesian Bride is that the front man didn’t look like he knew what he was doing. He played the opening song, Clap My Hands, with that stiff, uncomfortable, jerky motion created by extending the shoulder and elbow usually only seen by people playing guitar for the first, second and MAYBE third time in their life. Also, his eyes were glued to his fretting hand — a sure sign of someone uncomfortable with the guitar, or at least not performing long enough to have committed the song to muscle memory. The…

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Junofest 2011 @ [Various Venues]

Published by haterhigh on March 26, 2011

Around this time last year, I was mostly ambivalent about Canadian music. That’s not to say there weren’t Canadian bands I enjoyed, but it extended only so far. Most of my interest was focused on north-west bands, primarily Seattle and Portland-area bands on the great Barsuk Records. The much-blogged about NXNE showcase set last year introduced me to handfuls of great local Canadian talent, who has in turn by pursuing them, introduced me to even more. At last year’s Junos kick-off party, which I was lucky enough to win a guest list spot to (to see Kathleen Edwards perform a unique solo set), I was…

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Crash Test Dummies @ Great Hall

Published by haterhigh on October 18, 2010

. : : October 14th, 2010 : : . I had no intention to see the Crash Test Dummies. After all, their biggest hits were all on the Adult Alternative charts when I was barely 10-years old. In fact, I was more familiar with Weird Al’s (errrr…) weird cover of what might arguably be their most well-known hit, Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm. But the Crash Test Dummies, or rather what’s left of them, share a manager with one Ms. Colleen Brown. If this isn’t your first time on the blog, odds are fairly good you’ve at least seen her name posted around these parts once…

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Colleen Brown @ Great Hall

Published by haterhigh on October 15, 2010

. : : October 14th, 2010 : : . Sorry for the long weeks of silence, musical friends. As outlined in other blog posts, I sent my recorder out for repairs it apparently didn’t need, and then had to consequently order new microphones. Decent stealth microphones aren’t something you can just pick up at any old Radio Shack, either. I ordered them, opting for the more expensive Express Shipping, in an attempt to get them in time for the slew of shows in the middle of October. Unfortunately, they didn’t arrive in time for the first of many more to come. But…

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Tag: Great Hall