WASTE IS COMING! JUNE 4-7Â 2015Â
MUSIC-ART-COMEDY. NOT AT THE LAMPLIGHTER.Â
True story:Â We booked the Lamplighter months ago for this festival. Weâre pretty organized like that. Three weeks later, bullshit struck. We received an e-mail that said,
âI canât hold the venue for Music Waste. The bar staff knows about the festival and nobody wants to work it. Theyâve let management know and Iâve been forced to let those holds go for something âmore beneficial for the bar.âââ
Um⌠What? They âknow aboutâ the festival? So they were fine with working that Rob Dayton karaoke jamboree thing, but theyâre putting their foot down because our festival is so shitty? Thatâs like saying âI donât care if the jizz stays in my hair for a few days. Iâll wait until I can wash it out with something better than a half-assed shampoo like Pert Plus.â
Itâs for the best though. Nobody wants to hang out in a shitty, expensive bar and stand awkwardly uphill on that weird ramp in front of the stage.
Whatâs really funny is the fact that they went on to book a show as part of our new âGo Your Own Wasteâ feature, where the bands book their own shows for the festival. Too bad the chotchy bartenders and racist bouncers donât âknow aboutâ that.
But in a strange way, this lame pull-out was kind of a revelation for us. We realised that we canât just hang around the same shitholes watching the same bands and expect it to keep being fun. Itâs time for new bands in new places. So thatâs what this yearâs festival is about: New newness.
There seems to be this wierd, long-standing impression that Vancouver is no fun. Fuck that. The city is just seething with young kids full of creativity and enthusiasm. Sure, it can be pretty grey and hopeless sometimes, but most places we go are packed with people having tons of fun. It could be worse, we could be in Seattle.
Donât get us wrong, weâre not under any illusions that this festival is cool or anything. The bands playing Music Waste this year are all terrible and after going to Festival of Guns and New Music West, we felt like total assholes for even putting on another festival. But at least we didnât have to pay a hundred bucks to rent the Piccadilly Buffet.â