the final League of Rock showcase at the YALE is upon us!

Well the final showcase is upon us, this Thursday Dec 9th the 4th session of the West Coast League of Rock will take the stage at the Yale 7-9pm and dare I say it, this has been the best session yet.

Here are some pictures from the previous 9 weeks to give you a glimpse of what you can expect when you join the League. :)

The first few weeks are dedicated to rehearsing at one of Vancouver's best loved jamspaces, NAL sound.

Kara (who helps facilitate operations in the League) in rehearsals!

me, generally just hanging out with the bands and cheering them all on!

Paul

Sydney

Sean

Brandon

Dave and Stephen

Wayne

 (another one of our invaluable co-ordinators, whom we could not run the West Coast League without! )

Brent

Nando

Sean and Jay

Loralee

Colin

Derek

Mike

Randy

Every week members enjoy receiving advice from professional coaches. Here pictured is Shawn Soucy who  toured and recorded with countless artists including  One Horse Blue, The Blue Shadows, Farmers' Daughter, Ellen McIllwayne, Joel Feeney, Lisa Brokop, Doug and the Slugs, and many others. His band Alibi was a Juno award nominee and, he is also the drummer for my band!

After a few weeks the bands get together and perform for each other in what are known as the midway workshops. The first midway is held in the big room at NAL sound.  This is where my part comes in as I am the MC for the events.

Pictured here with Lory who is also a part of the LOR production team and she is practically the glue that keeps this thing running with the way she pays attention to all the details, emails to members and paperwork (ie: scripts for me).

Taking the stage,  Bitter Suite

Mark

Steven (whom I am throwing a shout out to for helping me with his gracious and generous donation to a family in need, thank you Stephen and Parker Mattresses, what a great company!)

Corinna (you may recognize her from this post here )

Moose Nukl takes the stage

Watching the other bands...

Coaches Shaun Verreault (Wide Mouth Mason) and Simon Kendall  (Doug and the Slugs) who have been mentioned several times on my blog already thanks to the League of Rock, were the first mid-way coaches for session four and these fellas are always so hugely helpful and very appreciated for all the support and insight they have to share and continue to give to the members of the League of Rock.

After the first midway we had another week of  rehearsals where we enjoyed the coaching advice from Camille Henderson, a friend of mine whom I featured in a video on this blog post. Camille played the role of Shirley in the classic Canadian movie My American Cousin in 1985, and then went on to become part of the Vancouver-based pop group West End Girls from 1991 to 1993. Following her departure from the band in 1993, Henderson became a backing vocalist for Sarah McLachlan, and also appeared as a vocalist on albums by Delerium. She is the daughter of Bill Henderson, a singer-songwriter associated with the bands Chilliwack and UHF, and is a vocal instructor in Vancouver.  I didn't have my camera with me that night so I don't have a pic of Camille in action with the League, but I poked around and found this picture online with me and Camille, credit goes to the North Shore News.

The next midway was held at the Yale and the community really came together and cheered each other on. If this midway was any idication of how the finale will go, then the showcase 9th is going to ROCK!

Edible Looking Plastic rocks out!

Sweet Kerosene

During the midway we were glad to welcome back coaches Mick Dalla Vee and Marc La France to share their vast wealth of experience. Mick and Marc both have been mentioned on my blog a number of times for  their own projects as well as having been featured as the rock solid musicians who back up Canadian rock legend Randy Bachman. The trio (including Brent Howard who is also a LOR coach)  have just completed a world wide tour with Bachman and Turner to support B and T's recently released album of new kick ass material. The weekend before Mick and Marc came to work with our members, they had just performed with B and T during the half time show at the Grey Cup so the room was buzzing.  All the members at the League of Rock were so excited they were able to fit us into their busy touring schedule it seemed to be a bit of a thrill for all involved. I'll take an instant to send a shout out to Mick who records/produces my songs for me, and let you all know that bands and singer songwriters who are looking for a producer, might like to check out his great work at Millennia Sound Design.

The final week of rehearsals brought coach Brent Howard and by this time he really just had to share some 'finishing touches' advice with everyone. At the end of the night some of the members of Bitter Suite enjoyed a unexpected surprise as Brent jumped onstage to show them a bass part. Somehow this moment turned into a few songs and really, everyone was pretty stoked about how much fun it was to play with him.

The final week brought  LOR co-founder   Topher Stott all the way from Toronto to produce the bands at Nimbus school of recording arts. Each band by now had chosen their strongest song and they all spent half a day recording it with the guidance of Topher who produces all the League of Rock recordings  from both Vancouver and Toronto.

I myself was gigging that weekend so I couldn't make it to all the recording sessions but I made it back to town and caught the last band Bitter Suite as they finished off their last tracks and they knocked it out of the park!

 

Special thanks needs to go out to Tempus Drums who are a new sponsor in the League of Rock family. Tempus are handmade, high quality specialty drums that you MUST check out as I can't possibly cover it all here, but drummers, I invite you to see what the fuss is all about by going to the website. You can also see the drums in action if you come to the Yale on Thursday as there will be a kit there and a planned 'Drum off" Not to be missed......and oh, by the way, amongst the unusual materials Tempus uses, well lets just say they could have called their company "HEMP us" (wink wink)

What else will you see on Thursday besides four bands who met only 10 weeks ago  performing at the Yale? Well we will be giving away thank you awards including  a Tempus snare drum, a guitar from our long time sponsors Long and McQuade, software from IK Multimedia , and more.

Still want to know more? Check out these testimonials from past members and see more success stories in November's Sound Check, as well as the latest special deals for new members here!

Or, you can always watch this vid from session one!

So, ready to sign up and join the most welcoming music community around? Now were talkin! 

Next session starts here~! 

See you on Thursday! xo

Wasn't that a party?!!!

[Video of the League of Rock bands, founder Terry Moshenberg, and featuring special guest Tal Bachman]
Ok I am still buzzing over last Thursday's League of Rock showcase at the Yale, it was the end of the first 10 week session, and wasn't THAT a party?

Terry Moshenberg flew in from Toronto for the big event, but before he came to the Yale, he and Vancouver LOR chapter head Rob Boshaw went and picked up the instruments from Long and McQuade which were to be given as prizes for members who stood out during the 10 week session. These included a new guitar, a bass, some cymbals, a microphone and some other goodies. I must say it had to have been hard to pick winners because every single member made an impression on all of us for different reasons.

Anyhow, we all showed up that night with family and friends in attendance and it took no time at all to fill all the seats in the house. The excitement was so thick in the room that you could touch the nervous energy as it floated around. Some members were getting ready to go onstage and play in a band to a PACKED house at the Yale for the first time in their lives. The buzz in the room made me feel like it was on fire and it wasn't just the TREE beer that sold out half way through the night. I think I chatted to almost everyone, though it was largely a blur and if I didn't have the video footage as proof I was there I would hardly believe it even happened.

I have made this little sneak peek video to share with you. Since there were two professional videographers there I didn't really focus too hard on taking video and I really only caught a snapshot of the night knowing that someone else had it covered. While I did get a shot of all the bands, I totally forgot to get my own band which now I think is a bit of a shame. I didn't think of shooting Know Mercy, because of course my hands were full of either a guitar or a bass at the time and also I just plum forgot to ask anyone to shoot it for me so it's a little sad that I didn't' manage to get my band mate Stephen playing his guitar in this video. Stephen has been a good pal throughout this whole thing and on Thursday night, he was just a superstar, in fact he was voted MVP for this session! High five rockstar!

Fortunately Stephen will be in the video the League of Rock is producing, but for today there is only ONE piece of footage that I could find of him and it came during the finale. He was in the background of a single shot which I probably would not have included in any video for public consumption, because I am being such a dork in it, lol, but I weighed the pros and cons quite carefully and decided to include the shot despite myself, it was more important to make sure I got my band mate in there. Just ignore me (my sister who is queen of self portraiture and taught me everything I know however, will laugh her head off when she sees it).

See here is what happened. At the end of the night after my band KNOW MERCY played, LOR founder and host of the party Terry Moshenberg asked our special guest Tal Bachman to come up to the stage to close off the night. Oh my god! I nearly fell down. I was up onstage at the time and there was NO WAY I was going to get off of it if Tal was getting up there. It's been no secret to anyone I am a big fan, so you can just imagine how much of a thrill that was. It would be like having the chance to strap on your skates and take shots on Roberto Luongo if you were a big fan of the Canucks.

So anyhow, Stephen from my band gave Tal his guitar and then stepped back to hang out onstage ( which is how I got him in a shot, Stephen is wearing a blue tshirt, you'll see it. ), Terry also picked up a guitar and with no notice or planning whatsoever, we all set out to close the night with a little jam. I just hoped to heck I knew the songs that would be called.
Seeing as I wasn't playing an instrument, I grabbed my camera and took some footage of the finale while I was onstage. First we played a Bad Company song. Great, easy, I knew that one. Then, Kenny McNally from LOR Toronto got up to rock the house with Crossroads and Tal wowed us with some Clapton solos, the crowd was thrilled, the energy high, my smile ridiculous. Once that was finished, we were taking off the guitars and putting them away when the crowd started chanting 'She's so High', over and over again.

Graciously, Tal put his guitar back on and quickly told the band how the song went (that's the way jam's go), and with no rehearsal, we charged ahead. 10 years ago when I first fell in love with that song, I never would have imagined I would one day be up on stage singing it with the artist.
And I tell you THAT because I want to illustrate for you that not only does the League of Rock help non-professional musicians realize their dreams of playing with a band, recording, and performing live onstage, but it ALSO has the power to blow away a regular gig monkey like me, by surprising me and fulfilling one of my own dreams. It was crazy, it was the ultimate reward, and I can't thank Terry enough. This whole experience has exceeded even MY expectations! I can't wait for round two.

So watch the video folks, grab yourself a glimpse of what it is like to be in the League of Rock. If you are a non-pro musician who is busy with your work and family life, but are still aching to get out there and rock, remember this:
You go to five, we go till 11!
The next session is registering right now, you can find more info here at LEAGUE OF ROCK. See you soon!


Rach xo