Soundtracked 14: Holy Bone Water
A team discussion was had following the confirmation that our first Broken Arts Fest was a go. A 12-hour music festival in a public park was daunting and Harley, Zafer, John, and Lori-Anne weren't certain they could do it themselves. The logical solution was to get more help. Amanda Sampson was a local visual artist who had expressed interest in possibly joining the team when we had met her earlier in the year and she was already working on the poster for Soundtracked 14. Despite her band dropping out of Soundtracked 12 Defne had still been hanging around at shows and seemed enthusiastic. After making the poster for Soundtracked 11 and a sculpture for Soundtracked 12 Erin had continued to make appearances. Bruce McKenna played guitar in Zafer's band The Cane Toads and had come to nearly every event for the past six months as well. Collectively they became Broken Arts members no. 13-16 and we felt ready for anything.
Soundtracked 14: Holy Bone Water
May 28, 2011
@ Murphy's Pub
live:
Holy Mount
Waterbodies
The BoneDevil
Broken Arts lineup:
Harley, Zafer, John S., Lori-Anne, Amanda, Defne, Erin, Bruce
While we had been building up an all-ages scene at places like Isabella's and The Garden Grove the Oshawa music bar scene was also going through a slight transformation. Murphy's Pub had opened the previous September and the new kid on the scene was already becoming the most popular music venue in the city, quickly outpacing The Atria and The Thirsty Monk. When a mutual friend told us they'd be open to us doing an all-ages show there we were excited about the new locale and a potential third venue in our roster.
Defne's brother Timur had been nagging us about booking a band of his from Saint Catharines called Elk. Despite our mantra toward constant variety we had been shying away from louder bands over the past while due to the fact that they didn't really fit into the Isabella's or Garden Grove settings. With Murphy's booked as the venue for volume 14 we felt we could finally welcome in a band like Elk. The Micronite Filters were another louder local rock band that we had made friends with over the past year and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally work with them. Unfortunately they weren't able but they volunteered their new side project, The BoneDevil, instead. With no other decent rock bands in town we again broke our "no repeat performers" rule and asked back Holy Mount. Then Elk dropped out. Of the show we had built just for them. Instead Timur offered up another IndoorShoes band called Waterbodies.
Ever since going all-ages people had complained about the fact that our shows were dry. Finally we offered them a chance once again to get drunk at a Broken Arts show and the result was lower attendance than our previous two Isabella's shows. The attendance didn't drop by much, but it gave weight to our argument that there are more important things than alcohol, things like venues that don't change their mind halfway through your event.
Waterbodies were halfway through their set when the bouncer from Murphy's started going around the venue and kicking out anyone under the age of 19. This included Defne, Zafer, John, and Bruce - the very people who were running the event. We approached the person who had got us the show and asked what was going on. She spoke to him and spoke to all the bartenders on staff before telling us there was nothing she could do. We pointed out that they agreed to let us do an all-ages show and she shrugged her shoulders and apologized. Infuriated, the whole team left in protest before The BoneDevil ever started.
Burned once again by a bar we were more determined than ever to stick to our always all-ages philosophy. If Murphy's was off the list, so be it. We didn't need them. We still had The Garden Grove and Isabella's. At least that's what we thought.
