Written by: Brendan Kane
Photos by: Jessica Wittman
Michael Bernard Fitzgerald’s Love and Manners LP release at the Jack Singer on June 5th has all but earmarked Calgary’s newest, viable and ever-so endearing subculture – and it belongs to the city’s southern communities. We aren’t accustomed to letting geography into our culture comparisons quite yet; so it might be too early to tell. But when a 23-year old songwriter can hold four multi-disciplinary, musical Meccas that have now quadrupled in size since starting in 2007 and do so with a hefty base of artists from a small radius – isn’t something up?
There was a fervent buzz in the concert hall lobby. I heard people say:
‘Everyone calls him MBF, though… he found 120 performers for tonight!’
‘My daughter’s in the choir tonight… oh, so your daughter went to Central Memorial too?’
‘I read that he doesn’t rehearse… I guess it always works out for them’
‘Geez there’s a lot of people here!’
Meanwhile, in the bowels of the building, 15 dancers yakked about as they stretched hamstrings, glutes, and thighs, adjusted black leotards, and applied generous passes of burgundy lip liner. The two MCs for the night squatted in the hallway leading up to the dressing rooms. They whispered last-minute dialogue and scratched out the things in their notes they now disliked. Everyone with an acoustic guitar was relaxed backstage; in that, they were an orchestra of 15 dubbed the ‘guitarestra’ by Fitzgerald and their purpose was to provide warmth in the sound. Backing them, was the sophistication of the set piece – a 25-set brass and string grouping that completed the big-band nature of the evening after you factored in 28 drummers hitting everything from toms to triangles. A speedy visual artist flanking the stage was the cherry on top and a three-quarters female choir of 40 was the dusting of powdered sugar.
Here are some of the South Calgary sounds:
Calm Asa Coma, Friends of Otis, Adam Power, Secret Broadcast, A Cappella Fellas, Lindsay Ell, Jonathan Lee, Noel Johnson, Fallout Frequency and Rock Paper Safety Scissors.
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