The Oh Wells think “Girls Are Awesome!!!”

Our fundraiser for Women Against Violence Against Women Rape Crisis Centre is coming up next long weekend, and I absolutely cannot wait. It’s time to get LOUD for women in our community who have suffered rape and sexual abuse in silence! We’ve got female poets, female comedians and of course female fronted bands Thee Ahs and Artinair! Also, I will be making cupcakes FROM SCRATCH and selling them at the venue with all proceeds going to the crisis centre. I predict a night of laughter, tears and a lot of dancing.
This one it for the ladies!

See you at the Biltmore on October 10th!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=186212611450047

Love, Sarah

P.S. Gentlemen are invited too!

Habitat for Humanity House concert series

Acres Of Lions on CTV News

Acres Of Lions spent some time at the petting zoo in Beacon Hill Park earlier today talking with Adam Sawatsky from CTV News about the new album, Collections, that was released today across Canada.

To listen to the album, visit Acres Of Lions on Facebook

Johnny quit the band.

It’s been hard…
#8 Fields of Green Vlog – Johnny Quits the Band

Acres of Lions, BLOG-landia

What a perfect night!

This year, our 4th year in a row playing the Rifflandia Festival, a festival that has grown tremendously with the creativity, time and effort put into it, we played a show to an amazing crowd on September 24th, a Saturday night in Victoria at The Events Center, a MusicBC showcase with heartthrobs “The Belle Game,” “Beekeeper” and “Young Liars.” It was finally Autumn, it was exciting, the room was full of our friends and fans, the sound was excellent, Jeff had strep-throat, Dan had been recently shaved, all good things. A wonderful night, followed by two nights of great acts, Redbird, Library Voices, Braids, Vince Vaccaro, Jets Overhead, Broken Social Scene to name a few, and really, just some solid times with people we love. The last few months have been crazy and awesome and all over the place with the Peak Performance Project and releasing our new album “Collections,” but playing that night at Rifflandia brought everything together and we could not have been happier to be there at that moment, with our friends, our family, our team.

There was so much to do in 4 days that we literally had trouble deciding the best course of action for the Rifflandia Festival, the whole weekend filled with so many great acts, bands, groups, artists, local businesses, food (PIG, Tacofino mmmm) and not to mention, the beer, provided happily by the stupendous Phillips Brewery. With the addition to the Royal Athletic Park this year as the main daytime venue, the festival really flourished. All of the awesome venues at night, hosting shows, local promoters and volunteers doing an exceptional job, were able to be filled comfortably without incredible line-ups. Everyone seemed happy, as were we, out on the town, enjoying some of the best music and products Victoria, and the Canadian music industry had to offer. We certainly are lucky to have such a thing happen in our home-town, and to have been able to participate again this year, after 3 good years of performing at the festival, watching it grow, making new friends, sharing the stage with some phenomenal acts and loving every moment of it.

Rifflandia has been great to us, and really, we cannot thank everyone involved in making this festival happen enough at this point. We love you all. You are our family and what keeps us afloat, happy and loving what we do, and we can’t ask for much more than that.

We just can’t wait until next year!

Sincerely,

Jeff, Dan, Tyson, Lewis.

Rifflandia Festival – Music BC Showcase

We’ve been having an amazing time so far this weekend at the Rifflandia Festival in Victoria, BC. So many great bands and amazing weather. If you have suggestions for bands that we should be checking out, send us a message on Twitter!

For those attending the festival, Acres Of Lions will be headlining the Music BC showcase tonight at the Victoria Event Center (11:30 PM). The venue is all-ages but also includes bar service for those who are 19+.

Hope to see you there!

The Boom Booms Rise in Fall

We write this from the Boom Boom office in East-Van on a typical Vancouver day, surmised so succinct by our mentor’s ‘Doug and the slugs,’ as ‘…a tropical rainstorm in the lower mainland.’ Feels like a good social media day we decided.

So fall news. Well the latest news being we were voted by Georgia straight readers as the third best unsigned band in Vancouver.

This news came only hours after completing our Red Room showcase for the Peak Performance Project. The showcase was a blast having the opportunity to share a night with three of Vancouver’s best talents; The Oh Wells, Ashleigh Eymann and Sex With Strangers. The after party in Grandpas Stu’s shag carpeted basement bar was well attended with cameos from other PEAK members such as Duff from Avairis an JP of Maurice; confirming the use of Project rather than Competition in the PEAK’s advertising.

Back tracking to the final throws of summer, The Boom Booms threw their 4th annual East-Van block Raising over $6,000 for a charitable project called ‘Up with hope.’ upwithhope.ca. The event was a huge success with over 500 people bunching in the back alley of Lead singer and sideman Aaron and Sean Ross’s childhood home. Surprise! no noise complaints!

Now preparing for our fall tour of BC and finalizing the PEAK performance package we’ve got some online treats going live very soon. Keep up to date by visiting us on Facebook or our website to find out more….

theboombooms.ca
Big Love.

Gigs and Fashion Shows

Hello 

It’s been a wee while since I popped by here… but things have been super busy! Last night was the big performance night for SWS at the Red Room… we had a banner made… thought up some moves to our music and even had an electric cello on one song (thanks Michelle).

Cory got his hair cut, Dan and Alexis made the visuals, Magnus dusted off the robot heads,

Hatch made plans… I made a new dress… so we were ready… hope everyone who came out enjoyed it!!!

The Boom Booms once again brought it… they make such a warm groove and have a brilliant enthusiastic following… Liking it

Fun Interview with Cory Ashworth

P.S. Mark  October 12th @  the Waldorf in your calendars..Fashion show and  Live Music to raise funds for Alzheimer’s  (good excuse for a jam night too )..I’ll reveal the poster soon

A Quick Update from The Matinée

It has been a pretty busy September. Coming off the high that was the week at boot camp, we have been hustling hard to get everything on our ever growing ‘to do’ list done.

We’ve been really fortunate to reap the rewards that come with doing our charity work. The fine folks at the Coquitlam Animal Shelter have been so fun to work with and the animals there are a riot. Check out the first of our personal pet stories here.

Please help spread the word about our fundraiser at the John B pub on October 8th. It’s for the animals folks! Tickets available through the band at matt@thematinee.com or at the shelter (500 Mariner way Coquitlam).

We’re really looking forward to the show tonight – it’s going to be great to see these bands raise the bar again. If sex with strangers performance on breakfast television was any indication it looks like we will need our dancing shoes for sure.

We have been rehearsing like fiends and we’re really looking forward to playing for you on the 29th so make sure you’re there early as we go on first!

See you all tonight at the Red Room!

Geoff – The Matinee

Acres of Lions: Peak Performance Project Showcase #2

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

The Peak Performance Project pushes on with the weekly showcases at The Red Room on Richards in Vancouver, and now it has come to ours, featuring a few great bands in which we share this endeavor with, “Current Swell,” “Avairis,” and “Fields of Green.” This was the second showcase in the concert series and we couldn’t have been more excited. A program such as this only exists because of the kind hearts and brilliant minds of people who believe in the music and are willing to teach us the way, to support us crazy bands into our futures. We really can’t thank The PEAK, Jim Pattison, and MusicBC enough for all they have done for us, as well as all of the other Peak Performers. Here’s a recap of the day’s event:

9:30 am, Victoria, My house

I wake up to my alarm and am terrified by it, but accept the fact that the day I have will be one to remember always. I get ready quickly and the boys pick me up in van. To my surprise, our pals Matt Goud and Vince Vaccaro have joined us on our trek to Vancouver. I am quite happy about this as we drive to the ferry terminal. We talk about plans we have for the next year, surfing, booking shows. We listen to Sleigh Bells and I play air guitar. The ferry is always a nuisance, the only means to bridge the gap from the island to the mainland other than flight, but with friends like these joining us, does it really matter? On the ferry, Vince tells us of his travels down under, how amazing it was to be in his element and make so many great new friends and how he plans to revisit. I am captivated by his stories, as I always am. Vince Vaccaro is the greatest. He is wild, confident and oh boy, with his newly acquired mane and beard, definite eye-candy.

2:00 pm, downtown Vancouver

On the way into the city, we stop in Delta to “see to the van” as it has been a little ornery lately. While Tyson and Dan tend to it, I play Vince and Matt an acoustic rendition of our song “Reaction.” They sing along and Matt teaches me in turn, his song “Energy.” I am dazzled. We continue and drop Matt off downtown as he is in town on business. We head to The Peak and Tamara Stanners greets us warmly, like family. As much as I will try in this lifetime to match her enthusiasm, I will always be lacking. She is invincible. We chat on the radio with James Sutton for awhile about the evening’s showcase, our new album and the video following our new single “Reaction.” Carly joins us and Tamara and Dan Ball leave to buy amenities for an activity at The Peak called “Beer Club.” The two come back with some top choices and Dan proceeds to give us a brief, yet stern history on the ales, lagers and IPAs that have been purchased, what a champ. To this day, I am impressed with his knowledge.

5:30 The Red Room on Richards.

We arrive for soundcheck and Cody Beer is there, shiny and exhuberant as always, holding down the fort, a good friend and drummer. We listen to Current Swell set up for awhile as we load into the club. Steve, their manager, has a bull-horn and insists on yelling at the band through it to make them hurry up. It is annoying as all hell, but highly entertaining. Our check is solid, and Sven is there to back us up every step of the way. We step out for a bit and go to Chill Winston’s down the street for dinner with Current Swell. I eat duck tacos and go into a trance for about an hour. It feels great to be in this city tonight.

9:00 pm

The show begins with “Avairis” from Vctoria, a 70′s style rock band who apparently plays at The Fernwood Inn weekly, a block from my house and I’ve never seen them. That will change. They play a great set, which includes solid harmonies, harmonica and banjo, to an enthusiastic crowd. They are followed by “Fields of Green,” one of my personal favorites in this project. They are young and extremely creative and talented. I fall in love with them all over again as they play their tremendous progressive rock songs. There’s something about Kelowna that produces insanely gifted bands. We do, and I quote, “the worst interview ever” with James Sutton (his words) but it is stupid fun. There is talk about Duff from Avairis’ mustache, the PPP Boot Camp being boss and a high-kick competition in which Dan is the victor. Tyson also fell over in the process, but surprisingly enough, it didn’t make it into the video.I was worried for his hip.

11:30pm

We run into our pal Scott Johnson backstage before we go on and I get a pep-talk from him and Vince Vaccaro. Scott tells me “Don’t f***k up, whatever you do,” and Vince simply tells me to treat the performance as if I was paddling into a wave on a surfboard and to “HAMMER IT!” I don’t surf, but I try to imagine this as I walk on stage. Showtime. Our friends and fans make up the crowd and we feel right at home. They sing along and do an amazing job at it. I am so grateful. The set goes smoothly and our “Vancouver 125″ song goes over well. Laura Smith from “Rococode” joins us with vocals for “Reaction” and later Vince joins us for the finale on “Closer.” We have the best time in a really long time and are full of adrenaline, like we should be. We definitely won’t sleep tonight.

12:30

Current Swell closes the show with a set so incredible that can literally feel the energy they give off. I’ve just recently become a fan of these boys, but will now be for a long time after this. They play close to their hearts and it is amazing. Ghosty Boy is a dream. The night goes on until 3:00 am and we end up crashing at our pal Christine’s house where she gives us pizza, gatorade and a shower. Dan and I awkwardly hang out on her tiny balcony and talk about what a challenge playing slide-guitar is. We barely get to sleep before we are up again at 7:30 to play an acoustic set in Victoria at the University. We are busy and we love it.

- Love, Acres

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