2019 East Coast Music Awards- APTN Indigenous Stage, Mariott Hotel, Charlottetown, P.E.I. May 2, 2019

2019.5.2

Alan Syliboy and the Thundermakers, Silver Wolf, Brandon Arnold, KU$H, Shift from tha 902, Gearl, Kam Speech, and more.

APTN Stage at the Delta Marriott Hotel, Charlottetown, P.E.I. ECMA’s.

The Aboriginal People’s Television Network ran a night of showcase performances at the Delta Mariott Hotel in Charlottetown during the East Coast Music Awards.

First to perform were Alan Syliboy and the Thundermakers. They opened with the foreboding “Signal Fire” which starts Syliboy’s Bandcamp album. With Hubert Francis joining him on percussion and his son Evan on electric guitar, Syliboy delivers mostly spoken word over music, although there was one sing-along-y tune.  

Syliboy is from Millbrook First Nation, Francis lives on Elsipogtog First Nation, while the other two members, Evan and Lukas Pearse, who plays bass and creates soundscapes for the band, are Halifax-based.

Evan manages to play some hot guitar leads over solemn rhythms without dominating the sound. They closed with a Hubert Francis song, “Mother Earth’s Warning.”

Alan Syliboy is an author and an accomplished artist beyond the world of music. Like his songs, the visual art featured at this performance had a recurring theme of contemplating Earth’s place in the cosmos. The mix of animation, painting and other visual elements puts the music in this context. 

Silver Wolf Band 5.3.19 Saturday at the APTN Stage, ECMA’s, Charlottetown, P.E.I.

Silver Wolf are a trio from Goose Bay, Labrador. They play approachable country rock, which isn’t quite pop, but… approachable. Keyboardist Matthew Barnett is joined by brothers Jamie and Justin Jackman on drums and guitar. They played an upbeat song for an abandoned town called “Butter and Snow.” Barnett introduced it as “the most charming little town called Butter and Snow. Nobody lives there anymore, but it’s still home to a lot of people.” Their short set wrapped up with another ode to a Labrador town, “Trap Cove Lullaby.”

Brandon Arnold, Shift from da 902, Gearl, KU$H, Kam Speech, others.  5.3.19 Saturday at the APTN Stage, ECMA’s, Charlottetown, P.E.I.

The final part of tonight’s Indigenous showcase turned into a rap jam with the artists joining together and taking turns rapping for most of the set.

Brandon Arnold from City Natives started things off repping his crew before he was joined by bandmate Gearl. Most or all the rappers who came out (and there were at least 5 of them at one point) seem to have a connection to City Natives. Brandon said he it felt good being on stage for the first time in a while, but one wouldn’t have guessed he’d been away from the mic. He played a few City Natives tracks like “Let Em Know” and “8 AM” before everyone else came on stage. 

Shift from tha 902 from We’Koqma’q First Nation, Cape Breton, KU$H, L’nu Joker and even a local guy hit the stage. It could have been a train wreck, but everyone kept it together and didn’t get in each others’ ways. The beats were good, and the rapping excellent; rapid fire, more syllables than you can hear, proper rapping, not to be confused with the lazy, spoken word story narration style more popular these days. Their set wrapped up with Brandon doing an acappella rap. Kam Speech flew solo for the last part of the evening. He had a partner join in for a few songs, and played a couple more before wrapping up the night.