Soundtracked 41: Green Christmas
By 2012 our Christmas charity event had become another annual tradition. In 2009 we had held Soundtracked 2 and raised canned food. In 2010 it was the second Broken Arts Fair with money supporting the Cat Town animal shelter. 2011 saw our first all-day Christmas concert with more money and food going to our friends at Cat Town. That show had raised the most of the three years so for 2012 we decided to do another all-day concert. This time we'd be raising money to purchase trees and flowers to help beautify the city.
Soundtracked 41: Green Christmas December 8, 2012 @ Mad Café live: Caitlin Currie Chris Doucett Two Steps Too Far The In-Class BAMF Cassy Goulding Busker Bros RedVIOLET Mellowkotzen Amelia & Sterling Squid Man Stan The Nickahollics The Penny Loafers Anthony Damiao with: Fallen Love Records Broken Arts lineup: Harley, Cassy, John, Kathleen, Kat
Mad Café was booked and we decorated with coloring pages from the City of Oshawa tree-lighting event that we had ran a craft table at weeks earlier. We put out an open call for performers and accepted anyone who was interested. Returning performers included Anthony Damiao, The Penny Loafers, Squid Man Stan, The In-Class, Cassy, Busker Bros, and Mellowkotzen. Cat from Elephant Shoes debuted a new duo who at the time went by Amelia & Sterling and Caitlin Currie of The Cane Toads played her first solo show. Meanwhile our open call had also brought us a number of new faces who had never played Soundtracked shows before including Holly Faris, Chris Doucett, Two Steps Too Far, and a band from Clarington called RedVIOLET.
99 people came and went over the six hours and we raised $150, which we wound up donating to the City of Oshawa to be put toward new plant life in the Oshawa Valley Botanical Gardens. 14 bands, new and old, celebrating a holiday and working together to help make Oshawa a prettier place was a fitting end to 2012 and a fitting end to Mad Café. We didn't know it at the time of course. Like Isabella's before it, business seemed to be the best it had ever been and Mad had become an institution in the downtown in just over two years. In a downtown with no shortage of cafés it was nearly unanimously everybody's favorite. We had already begun booking events for 2013 when it closed. One day everything was business as normal and the next day we showed up for our weekly meeting to find the shop dark and a message on their Facebook page announcing their closure. As suddenly as they appeared on the scene they disappeared and we found ourselves losing our third home in three years. Along with Isabella's and The Garden Grove Mad Café would become another all-ages venue lost to the ages and we were again left searching for a way to stay alive.
Watch videos of: Caitlin Currie - "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" Chris Doucett - "18days" Two Steps Too Far - "Ho Ho Hopefully" The In-Class - "Wonderful Christmastime" BAMF - "I Won't Be Home For Christmas" RedVIOLET - "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" Amelia & Sterling - "The Holly And The Ivy" The Penny Loafers - "Sound Of The Call" The Penny Loafers - "Nic Cage Christmas" Anthony Damiao - "Walk Around"