A good sized crowd celebrated Victoria Day, May 18 at Henotic by listening to some excellent live music and by welcoming back an exhausted Endangered Ape from their cross Canada tour.

There were 15 bands from Saskatoon, Calgary and Lethbridge performing on two levels of the club. It was supposed to be on the roof but changed to the GCBC Lounge and the main floor because of dodgy weather.

I arrived in time to see the Feral Children —  a one man band playing guitar and singing over some  instant samples done efficiently and very creatively played over hip hop drum machine beats. After that, downstairs, local band the Record Holder added a little fiddle to catchy pop music.

Then, because Forest Tate Fraser were caught on the road, the Creationists took control of  the main floor, getting dancers‘ toes tapping to energetic ‘70s funk. They added a lot of colour to the day-long festival. The singer was dressed in bright white 70’s pants as he prowled among to crowd bringing the funk and spreading the love, the bassist  grinned away, tossing stuffed animals attached to his pants into the crowd and the keyboardist, replete in big novelty sunglasses added to the atmosphere. They are back this Wednesday (May 20) with From Delhi to Dublin. After that a trio called the Posessed added some female powered post punk indie pop, which had the enthusiastic crowd screaming for more.

A lot of people came to see local  science-punk act the Myelin Sheaths up in the GCBC Lounge. The crowd clustered close to  the stage while Martine Menard, Joel Butler, Cassandra Ward and event organizer Paul Lawton sang about science and played fun but rough edge garage punk. 

For metalheads, Lustre Creame, including Aaron Trozzo  playing a huge double necked  Ibanez guitar, rocked with some big riffs and catchy 12 string sounds .

Drum and bass rock duo Amelia Earhart, who were also on tour with Endangered Ape showed how innovative bass playing can be with addition of a few guitar effects up in the Lounge.

A group I had never heard called the New Danger Kids, impressed me with a three guitar indie pop sound which also had the crowd calling for an encore. And while I couldn’t understand the vocals, which were a problem on the main floor, they definitely have a sound with potential.

Last but not least, as I couldn’t stay for the Wicked Awesomes, Endangered Ape tore up the lounge and proved how much fun they are in concert. The crowd writhed in front of the stage as the frontman stormed around with them. When they have a great sound mix like on Monday, you can really hear how much is going on in their music.

Kudos to Endangered Ape bassist Paul Lawton for putting on such a well organized and fun event.