CMW wrapped up its 28th year this past week, with rain soaked mobs of music loving fans taking over Toronto venues to see the best new Canadian talent.
Wednesday March 10th kicked off with some incredible bands hitting the CMW stage, including the Supernova.com CMW Showcase at the Sound Academy, as well as BC's
Columbia taking over Kensington Market.
Sound Academy rocked to the sounds of
Terrorbirds,
Chasing Eve,
Masons Landing,
Andrew F,
Stereochic,
The Faculty and more. With tight crowds and tons of industry scouts crawling all over Toronto, it was no wonder the bands put on such an amazing show.
Despite having so much packed in to the first night, Supernova managed to get out to see one of their 2009 success stories,
Columbia, hit the stage before kicking off a Canadian Tour. Dustin, one of Supernova's bookers, checked out the show at Neutral and caught up with the band.
"They must have brought the Vancouver weather with them as it was a chilly night of rain that followed several beautiful and warm spring like days.
Columbia kicked off their set at 11PM with Join Our Ride, the song which lends its name to the bands current cross Canada Tour. The set was loaded with some of Columbia’s best songs including 'My Conscience', 'Bring It Down', and the 2010 single '10 Out Of 10'.
The band finished off their set with an impressive cover of 'Suffragette City'. The show was intimate, and the 40 to 50 people that were crammed into the basement venue were digging the tunes, clapping along, and were all singing along to the Bowie cover.
3 guitars plus bass means sounds from every end of the spectrum are possible on stage without the use of backing tracks (bonus points!!!). The drummer held everything together like glue; one of the best indie rock shows I have seen in a long time. One notable mention, the temp bass player filling in for this tour has been playing with Columbia for about 2-3 weeks... he was a great fit with the band and has my vote to stay!"
Columbia has another 2 weeks of shows ahead, as they travel back towards British Columbia. The band is currently slated to be back in Toronto this coming September. Other future plans include more tours under
Thornybleeder - all amazing accomplishments for the band since joining
Supernova.com just last year!
We also heard great reviews from the
Emberlight performance on Saturday, not to mention dozens of other amazing new artists playing in 'unofficial' showcases throughout Toronto.
Capping off each year's CMW are the often overlooked
Indie Awards - and although the indie factor is definitely debatable, Supernova favourites
Protest the Hero,
The Midway State and
Shad all took home a little something for awesome music efforts.
To check out more from CMW, hit up
Chartattack for reviews on
Plants and Animals, who we spoke with at this year's V-fest, as well as
The Wooden Sky,
Sweetthing and more.
If your band would like to play on major Music Festival showcases - like CMW - just join
Supernova.com and show the music community what you've got! Maybe we'll see you on stage in 2011.
