“I think church is my new favourite place,” said Lydia Persaud between songs. She was the first of three Pop Explosion acts to perform on at St. Mathew’s United church on October 25. It was a pleasant evening for the roughly 100-person audience sitting in the pews. Lydia Persaud, Jennah Barry and Kaia Kater each played […]
Halifax Pop Explosion 2019
Posted inArts + Music
Show review: Japanese Breakfast is a feast
Four bands from three provinces brought four dynamically different shows to the Marquee on Thursday, Oct 24th. As fans started to pour in, stash their coats and crack open a cold Olands, excited chatter about the anticipated bands could be heard around the bar. Toronto’s Doomsquad got the night off to an electric start. The […]
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BACKXWASH won’t back off
BACKXWASH w/Janette King Thu Oct 24, 8:30pm The Carleton, 1685 Argyle Street free A shanti Mutinta—AKA the rapper BACKXWASH—fills the phone line with incandescent laugher, ready to soften the moment and appreciate a joke. She fills her songs with audio snippets from Mean Girls and Britney Spears samples, a cotton candy cloud foundation for infectious […]
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How the Mighty is rising
Haviah Mighty w/Just John x Dom Dias, Hua Li, Yohvn Blvck Sat Oct 26 The Seahorse Tavern 2037 Gottingen Street, 9-11pm $15/$20 “T he past year has been a bit of a blur,” says Brampton, Ontario’s Haviah Mighty—and if you’ve been paying attention to Canadian music in 2019, it’s abundantly clear why that might be […]
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Howling PUP
PUP w/Weakened Friends, OUTTACONTROLLER Fri Oct 25, 9pm The Marquee Ballroom 2037 Gottingen Street Sold out Toronto four-piece punk outfit PUP is going to tear up the Marquee Ballroom at Halifax Pop Explosion, and we’re sorry you couldn’t get tickets. This Halifax stop on the Morbid Stuff tour will be the band’s third time playing […]
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Cassie Josephine is Only Half Blue, but all brilliant
Driftwood People w/Alexandria Maillot, Cassie Josephine & The Cry If I Want To’s Fri Oct 25, 8pm The Carleton, 1685 Argyle Street $10 C assie Josephine—the eponymous leader of Cassie Josephine & The Cry If I Want To’s—has a record both lovely and vulnerable in 2018’s Only Half Blue. Written in the months preceding her […]
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Walrus works it out
Diet Cig w/Walrus, Luna Li, Diamondtown Sat Oct 26, 9:15pm The Marquee Ballroom 2037 Gottingen Street C ool To Who, the latest full-length album from local band Walrus, opens with a soft, electronic beat that blossoms into warm synths that recall Soft Bulletin-era Flaming Lips in their simple spaciness. “Feels good to breathe again,” frontman […]