Hot Rock

Edgefest review

From: Toronto Sun, 2002-07-01
Date added: 2002-07-05

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And we were calling it "Edgefrost" last time. Yes, veterans of last year's chilly installment of Edgefest at Molson Park in Barrie were in for a bit of payback yesterday as Edge102's annual rock festival landed on this century's hottest day so far.

We're not talking fun-in-the-sun heat here.

This was wrath-of-God action, plain and simple, and it couldn't help but weigh heavily on the afternoon's events.

Not that the procession of hard rock on Edgefest's mainstage exactly offered a buoyant antidote for the sold-out crowd of 35,000.

Fans and bands alike were justifiably running at half-steam under withering 35C conditions.

Reigning Canadian rawk kings Nickelback provided both starpower and homegrown content.

U.S. band Cake, the one wild-card entry on this year's bill, went over like a lead balloon when they dared to try their offbeat funk-pop and some dry humour on the audience: They left the stage under a hail of plastic bottles after two-and-a-half songs.

In fact, it was going badly for Cake from the get-go.

It didn't help when lead singer John McRae started taunting the crowd with comments about the U.S. invading us for our water, among other things.

Sarcasm apparently doesn't fly on Canada Day.

The "if we get hit by a bottle we walk" gauntlet was thrown down, and the members of the audience obliged.

Cake's trumpet player griped aloud about the "F---ing Children Of The Corn motherf---ers," a bottle hit the bass drum, and they were gone.

Judging from the welt National Post photographer Carlo Allegri was sporting on the back of his head after being hit, Cake made the right choice.

Nickelback proteges Default, local gloom-by-numbers act Finger Eleven and Quebec's Simple Plan upped the CanCon ante.

Former Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell -- a man who by rights could be collecting royalty cheques from some of his billmates -- pop-punks Goldfinger and metallers Sevendust rounded out the bill in terms of American imports.

Edgefest's usual side-stage assortment of acts provided flashes of diversity and levity, not to mention female performers and a smattering of hip-hop.

Former Hole bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur toasted her Canadian homeland and Edgefest's spiritual forefathers with her Black Sabbath tribute group Hand Of Doom -- a rock-solid Sabbath facsimile, though Auf Der Maur's voice is a little more Grace Slick than Ozzy.

Other bands included Robin Black & The Intergalactic Rock Stars, Mudmen, Not By Choice, Tuuli, Grade, Grimskunk, Danny Michel, and The Weekend on the second stage. Jersey, Graph Nobel, Princess Superstar, Ghetto Concept, and Abs & Fase did their duty on the far-flung third and fourth stages.

Edge102 is set to announce a second Edgefest, tentatively planned for the Molson Amphitheatre Sept. 2. Jimmy Eat World, Gob, Moneen, and The Constantines' names have been dropped for what's shaping up to be a great bill.

- By Kieran Grant, Toronto Sun

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