Quality Block Party brings its traveling musical showcase to Fredericton October 19.
Matt Carter
Quality Block Party brings its traveling musical showcase to Fredericton this month. Much like the tap-takeovers that have helped build brand awareness for local breweries, Quality Block Party 1.4 will occupy both stages at The Capital Complex on Thursday October 19 showcasing a lesser-known side of East Coast music.
Since launching in April 2016, Quality Block Party has developed from a four-day festival into a brand and a full-on movement, inspired by and driven by the need to challenge dated industry practices and old-world understanding of what East Coast Music really is.
“This thing is in response to a lot of different frustrations,” said co-founder Peter Rowan, describing Quality Block Party’s continued evolution. “A lot of things in the music industry simply don’t work.
“East Coast Music is a regional title,” said Rowan. “It’s not a genre, but it’s treated like a genre. People perceive it as a genre and that genre is traditional music or middle-of-the-road pop, singer-songwriter stuff. It’s a very narrow interpretation of what’s happening out here.”
Rowan credits this narrow view for helping initiate the idea that first surfaced this past spring during the East Coast Music Association’s Saint John residency.
“If we control the show, we control the room and if we control the room we can present bands in a format that’s appropriate for them and their music and place them in the best position possible, in the best possible light.” – Peter Rowan
What began as an attempt to showcase three New Brunswick acts who weren’t chosen to perform under the ECMA banner, Quality Block Party quickly evolved into a festival sized event showcasing more than 65 bands from around the province, highlighting dozens of East Coast artists who willingly don’t fit the East Coast Music mold.
“At our first Quality Block Party event we ended up showcasing three electronic artists who were nominated for the ECMAs but couldn’t get shows. Figure that one out,” said Rowan.
“If we control the show, we control the room and if we control the room we can present bands in a format that’s appropriate for them and their music and place them in the best position possible, in the best possible light.”
Following two successful events in Saint John involving dozens of regional acts, Quality Block Party hit the road in September taking a seven band bill to showcase as part of POP Montreal. Following the Fredericton date on October 19th, a lineup that includes Little You-Little Me, Janowskii, Young Satan In Love, The Trick, S.H.R.I.M.P Ring, Denmother, Counting on Downstairs and Ontario punk duo, Heart-Attack Kids, the QBP will host an impressive ten band, all-ages show in Halifax during the Halifax Pop Explosion. That’s eight New Brunswick bands and two from Ontario. The event will be free of charge and open to anyone and everyone interested in checking out some new sounds.
“The reality of it is that we don’t live in the centre of the musical universe in Canada so we have to hang together or we’re going to hang separately,” said Rowan, who coincidentally helped found both the Halifax Pop Explosion and POP Montreal.
“The original intent behind the Halifax Pop Explosion and the intent behind starting Pop Montreal was to collectively present everything that’s going on,” he said. “By doing that and branding it under one umbrella, we have the ability to go out and show our strength in numbers. Now, together as Quality Block Party we might get some attention rather than, ‘oh look, there’s a band from New Brunswick playing at a festival alongside 75 other bands’.
“It wouldn’t make any difference if all the music was shite but it isn’t,” he said. “We’ve got a really vibrant scene that is happening here right now and one that is overlooked in a variety of different ways because of genres and because of the nature of the business that exist here on the East Coast.”
Quality Block Party 1.4 | October 19, 2017 | The Capital Complex – Fredericton | 9 p.m. | $10 | View Event
Here’s a quick rundown of who’s performing at Quality Block Party 1.4: (with sound link)
Little You-Little Me
Young Satan In Love
The Trick
S.H.R.I.M.P Ring
Denmother
Counting on Downstairs
Heart-Attack Kids
Janowskii
No recorded music to date. 🙁
