October is the month to rock at Henotic. There will be 30 bands playing over four days from Oct. 14-17 on both levels of the building including a lot of local acts plus a few are making their public debuts.
“This is the first time we’ve done Rocktoberfest,” said organizer Paul Lawton emphasizing it is not just garage rock bands performing. He has been behind several big multi-band festivals including Sled Island South and Mammoth Cave Fest.
“Sled Island south was poorly attended but since Sled island (in Calgary) has shown a strong commitment to Lethbridge bands, we’ll do it again. For now we’ll do Rocktoberfest,” he continued.
Some of the highlights include a return visit from Regina rockers the Hot Blood Bombers and a trio of popular Vancouver bands, You Say Party, We Say Die, Shearing Pinx and Ahna. He is looking forward to seeing the Sublinguals, who opened for King Khan and the Shrines recently plus DCT from Toronto. As well as the Sharp Ends. “ They are going to be huge when they break,” he said.
Plus there are a lot of local bands including the Moby Dicks, the Neccessities, Planet Telex, Jesse and the Dandelions, the Square Waves, Smoke Stack Jacks plus newer bands including They Dead, Chief Mountain, Under the White Dime and Skull Train to Hell Town, which is made up for former members of the the New Danger Kids and Ife from the Creationists, who Lawton is especially looking forward to seeing.
“That’s going to be really good. And Shearing Pinx are one of the biggest bands in underground music. They put on a very good live show,” Lawton said adding Rocktoberfest includes half local and half out of town bands.
“Every day there’s bands. There’s something for everybody. But the purpose of it is because we have so much variety (in Lethbridge), is getting local bands who don’t ever play together to play together. Most local bands have their own scenes and groups they play in,” Lawton said adding he wanted to get all of the local bands in Lethbridge in on this gig.“While I wasn’t successful in getting all of them, there was an effort made to reach out to bands I don’t usually book or play with,” Lawton continued.
“It’s crucial for the scene to be vibrant for local bands to play with each other often.”
The shows start at 9 p.m. each night. Each band will be playing 20 minute sets. Shows will alternate between the main floor and the GCBC Lounge to allow for a quick turnaround.
“It serves as a good advertisement for each band’s different styles and genre,” Lawton said.
“We’re hoping for the best, we have a bit of funk, some soul, some underground, garage, punk, experimental and a little bit of electronic music. Though it is all related to rock there’s no DJs. It’s Rocktoberfest. All of the bands have guitars in them though,” Lawton said adding all of the money ($30 for all of the shows or $10 per day) will be split evenly between all of the bands playing. Check the listings page for which band is playing when.
