Quality Block Party Share More Details

Quality Block Party announce zine fair and headline performers for unplugged performance series and All Ages Shit Show Extravaganza.

Matt Carter

Quality Block Party have announced Julie Doiron, Jon McKeil, Bad People and Keith Hallett as headline performers for what organizers are calling, a “more than unplugged” performance series planned to run over four nights as part of the event.

The series will take place at Five and Dime, uptown Saint John’s new vinyl record and craft beer bar.

“There will not be PAs at these shows,” said co-organizer Peter Rowan. “They’ll be very intimate, one of a kind shows and we’re expecting them to be quite special.”

While much of the Quality Block Party lineup features louder acts like Motherhood, The Waking Night, Reagans Rayguns and Right Shitty, Rowan believes offering an opportunity for a strict listening experience will provide a valuable addition to the event’s audience while also offering artists a chance to relax and perform as they would in their own living room.

“Each and every one of these shows will be more than unplugged,” said Rowan. “They’re specifically for a listening audience. We’re planning to film and record these and make sure they are properly documented. On the Wednesday night, it’s going to be Julie on a stage with 80 people in the room. It will require a lot of work from the performers and the audience, but the goal is for these shows to be quiet and very intimate.

“All of these ‘more than unplugged’ shows are early performances with the doors opening at 7:30 p.m. and the shows starting at 8,” said Rowan. “This will allow time for folks to check these shows out before heading out to see shows at Taco Pica, Yuk Yuks and all the other stuff that’s going on in town.”

Along with these acts, organizers have also announced Saint John’s own Little You, Little Me as headline performers for Sunday’s All Ages Shit Show Extravaganza (AASSE), capping off a full afternoon that may include as many as 15 bands.

There will also be a zine fair organized by SAD DOG, an independent publication based in Saint John. The event will take place at Port City Royal from noon until 4 p.m. on Saturday April 29. Organizers wish to invite all zine creators, printmakers, publishers, writers, comic artists, craftspeople, vintage sellers, and all other creative types to book a table and sell, trade, and give away their goods. Registration forms will be made available on Quality Block Party’s and SAD DOG magazine’s Facebook pages.

“We think that SAD DOG and Quality Block Party share a similar goal of wanting to create accessible and exciting avenues that represent artists,” said SAD DOG’s Kasie Wilcox and Angel Bustard in a statement to Grid City Magazine. “As a Saint John based publication, we feel it is a great initiative for the city; arts related programming that engages the public is a key piece in continuing to build a well-rounded and vibrant community.

“We both share an interest in establishing other possibilities to the more dominant types of programing currently available locally. It is important to our publication as well as our community that people feel their voices are being heard and that they can see themselves being represented, be it as a youth, as artists, or as someone who identifies in things outside of the norm, and we feel that Quality Block Party is doing a great job creating this type of public programing.”

There will be an extremely limited amount of early bird passes available Friday March 10 at Backstreet Records in Saint John, with more tickets rolling out over the weeks ahead. Pass holders will receive front-of-line access to all performances including the unplugged showcases at Five and Dime.

“There will be twenty passes released this Friday and they will be $45 each,” said Rowan. “In a few weeks we’ll release another twenty passes and they will be $60. That will be it. There will not be a lot of passes out there.”