All Photos by Jojo and Oliver Kenchington.
After surviving the Friday night with some of the heaviest bands that I have seen in a while, I walk in with no clue what to expect this evening. I know nothing of any of these bands. I was told by the festival organizers to stick around for the band W.I.T.C.H.
Connie
When I entered the room, there were 4 dudes up on stage playing some hard rock. So, I asked myself, who is Connie?
I sat down and I felt tremors vibrating under my butt. This band is out to create earthquakes. When they finished their first song they thanked us for coming out to their practice.
The Band seems to enjoy their solid wall of thundering sounds that can pound a hole in your chest. Even though their approach is loud and proud, they have that down to earth attitude while they play. There are no ego’s they just want to play hard Rock music and create a solid party atmosphere in the process.
They were the perfect band to open up the evening that is full of promise for a really great time.
This is Connie-
Kingdom of Birds
From the beginning I was hearing a post punk band with very deep grooves. What caught my attention right away with this band, is when they go into their instrumental breaks, they find original way to make it as interesting as possible. It can get trashy, it can get out of control, it can even discover new ground that gets dug up as a strange new twist on how we listen to this music. I hope they continue trying new things. I even heard a slow sludgy song that was grown into a flowering weed that absolutely choked the hell out of your healthy garden.
They took this time to present their new songs. They seemed to be a little more melodic with a steadier groove. The riffs were still solid. Again, I am going back to their instrumental breaks. This one had a disenfranchised muddy mash up to finish off the set.
This is Kingdom of Birds-
Torrent
It began as a lo-fi thud with a soft sax and they slowly built a dance party that gathered the crowd to commune in this house style of music. Once that moment was broken down, it morphed into a more hypnotic state and ramped up the energy. As people were losing themselves to this groove the band slipped in some solid heavy metal sounds. How do you go from dancing to headbanging in just a few bars. This was fascinating to watch, because everyone was grabbing at the vibrations and living in the moment without question. This was a form of surrender that I never really witnessed before. The audience was just about to go into mosh pit mode when Torrent turned it down to a dreary crawl and snapped your synaptic nerve back into place.
This new dreadful moan dug into your psyche and rearranged your emotional state once again. The river of energy was flowing through this crowd beautifully. The party hit Lee’s Palace hard when the saxophone player came down and played on the dance floor. Check out our instagram video- https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd0AcAvt7kd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&stkn=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
This band played continuously for a half hour and touched on plenty of different musical styles to please everybody. This band is not just a rollercoaster; they are armed as an entire Amusement park playing with all of your musical emotions.
This is Torrent-
Art D’ecco
The first thing I noticed about this band, even before they started, was that the lead singer looked a lot like D’Niro from Taxi Driver. Then the noise began. It was a heart pounding opening, dancing with very chaotic and disheveled turbulence. It was quite the mix of hard rock mixed with punk. Add in a horn and keyboards and you have a spicy stage filled with different flavours hit your palette from all angles. Their set was filled with a cacophony of commotion that could drive you into a sonic stupor.
We Intend To Create Havoc
In other words: W.I.T.C.H.
I walked in purposely knowing nothing about this band. I wanted their music to teach me about the legend that this band has become in their homeland of Zambia. Before they arrived, I happen to sit beside a couple who were big fans and they gave me a history lesson of this band. I didn’t know this band has a documentary about them, and they have one hell of a history that has been a wild ride for them over 50 years. They are categorized as a Zamrock band and the lead singer, Emanyeo “Jagari” Chanda has been a part of this band since 1972.
With African beats, Lee’s Palace was transformed into a place of mysticism and elation. That packed house couldn’t wait to dive into what they were about to present. Their second song- “Living in the Past’, seemed to wake up this crowd. That energy fed the band to perform at their peak. I really loved that Emaneo, stopped between songs to explain the meaning of the songs and give us advice on how to live a more fulfilling life.
The bands attitude was that they do not want to be categorized by genre. They create music for life situations. There is music for putting a baby to sleep, there is music for weddings, there is music for the dead.
The deeper we opened up to their style of music, the more hypnotic it became. This is music that resonates from the old earth, and it is reaching out to embrace and intertwine as one. This definitely reminds me of the same philosophies of Bob Marley. Emanyeo gave us more advice about love being the true currency that we should be concerned about. It also lets us forgive others because they do not know what they do. That is something we all need to carry to help create healing.
The joy on his face really pulled the crowd closer, as he gave away a high five. The audience moved close to the stage to try and get their own personal high five from him. He did everything to give as many away as possible.
The band was supposed to wrap up at 1:15 am. They went beyond the call of duty and played one more past the curfew. The last song stared to mellow us out but released us on a high note to re-enter the world feeling born again.
Here is a short video of W.I.T.C.H. in action.
This is W.I.T.C.H-
Here are their Instagram pages if you would like to follow any or all of them. Watch for them to show up on my Facebook page, under a new section I have called Blasted Mugshots.
www.instagram.com/weintendtocausehavoc/
www.instagram.com/torrent.tor/
www.instagram.com/artdeccomusic/
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