By Stephen Pate, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, February 8, 2008 updated May 12, 2009
Thursday is the first official day of the East Coast Music Awards 2008. We arrived mid-afternoon and checked in the Crowne Plaza. A buzz was building in the lobby and media centre. We spotted Nudie in the lobby and chatted briefly before to he went off to eat in Bermuda shorts.
The festivities are spread across 16 + venues throughout Fredericton so getting around will be confusing. There are maps but the print is small and the zippy planner is by day by venue. With no timeline guide, I expect to miss things and generally stay confused for the weekend. Whatever.
We went to two receptions, ECMA and SOCAN. They’re great: someone hands you free drink tickets and the finger food is plentiful. The waitress at ECMA Members Only Lounge figured out I liked bacon wrapped scallops and I was getting some every few minutes.
We schmoosed with lots of Islanders like Gorden Belsher, the guys from Blueprints. SOCAN handed out more free drink tickets at Isaac’s Way, a cool downtown pub. The friendly maitre d turned out to be the owner. He recommended the free ribs. Right on.
Ray Brow invited me to the ECMA Members Only Lounge Open Mic. I was the ECMA Open Mic. To an audience of 3 I sang my heart out for an hour. I quit when I’d heard enough of myself. Ray was kind.
“Play another harp song. Do you have another ballad? What do you sing for covers?” Bob Dylan of course.
We headed up to the UNB Student Union Cafeteria to hear Slowcoaster. Thousands of students were moving in every direction. No one knew where the bands were playing. I made a guess and found them in the middle of their set. Slowcoaster is still one of the best bands in Atlantic Canada. “Tonight is the new last night…” The mostly student crowd loved them. Still you can’t beat the crowd at Hunter’s.
Scratch Bastid did the DJ thing between sets – cool. Grand Theft Bus came on and rocked out. A fight broke out next to us, stopped and then started again with a vengeance. Some old wounds I guess. Round two swept through the crowd in large circle, friends helping friends. Guys grabbed their girl friends and headed to the back.
In the Crowne Plaza lobby we crossed paths with Ron Hynes who I have to interview on Friday. Someone complimented me on my performance. Where had he been? After reading 47 emails and answering 5, the bed looked pretty good.
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