Rock Ramblings: Heliocity a great summer event
By Medicine Hat News on May 31, 2018.
Tomorrow is the first day of June, and true to form on the Badlands, it seemed we jumped straight from a (painfully lengthy) winter, skipped over spring and did a Ron Burgundy-esque cannonball straight into summer heat wave season. We’ve already had plenty of sweltering summertime temperatures, even though the calendar says we won’t officially start the season until June 21 (at 4:07 a.m., if you want to be precise). Good by me, I love summer. It’s my favourite season for plenty of reasons: The laid back attitude, happy vibes, sunshine aplenty, and being outside as much as is humanly possible as opposed to a winter existence of being cooped up indoors 24/7. One of the best things to do outdoors is to take in some live music. From Sonic Field Day with the Glorious Sons, Arkells, and many other stellar rockers up in Edmonton in early September to this year’s Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede Nightshows in late July with Rock Hall of Famer Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (with The Guess Who), there’s something about the summertime outside concert experience that we can all enjoy. In fact, next weekend already, Heliocity is happening at the Silver Buckle Outdoor Stage and Industry Pub Club Stage. On June 8-9, 20 bands will rock the Hat. It’s the third annual edition of this festival with some great local bands like Snakes and the Riot, Warehouse Cats, and The Browns (doing a live recording for their 20th anniversary) to one of my all-time faves, Chixdiggit! Chixdiggit are a Calgary pop-punk band who’ve been around since the early 1990s. They came up with the band name and logo in high school before the group itself even existed! After money made selling t-shirts got them a drum kit, they decided they’d learn to play instruments and the rest was history. By the mid- ’90s, they earned a record deal with the famed Sub Pop Records and played gigs with the likes of The Presidents of the United States of America. Being a Boston Bruins fan, I was on board their fan train right away after hearing their song about goalie Gerry Cheevers’ legendary sticth-marked mask. That song and many others gained them a worldwide cult following and they’ll bring their shenanigans to our town for Heliocity. Band leader KJ Jansen is renowned for his quirky, friendly on stage banter (“Let’s hear it for Chixdiggit!”) and the guys often wing it, taking requests from the crowd rather than adhering to a setlist. Can’t wait! Tickets for Heliocity are available at heliocity.ca, The Silver Buckle, Industry Pub and Medicine Hat Brewing Company. Info at http://www.1053rock.ca under “Events.” We’ll see you there for some fun times and great live rock! Trapper John is on air weekday afternoons from 3-7 on 105.3 ROCK and 1053rock.ca 8-7
