Our Recap Of The Afterparty Episode With Brad Example & Jamie Vincent!!

Remember the slate of at-home music performance/interview series that increasingly cropped up in the early 2020s during the pandemic? Well, some are either still going on or debuted after things eased up, and one notable for many locals is The Afterparty, hosted by Inner City Surfers/Room 206 bassist Brad "Example" Lacell! Two seasons of 10 episodes apiece have been posted to Brad's YouTube channel in the past year, featuring at-home acoustic jams and chit-chat with and without guests from afar, not to mention live-stream viewers. These mostly haven't really crossed the SMS' radar so far for a few reasons, including that Brad has lived in Atikokan for many years now, most of his solo material is rootsier and folksier than his local punk work, and the guests that he's had on The Afterparty so far are mostly not local (though Jay Case was his guest in episode #12). However, the penultimate episode of season 2 fits the SMS!

Reportedly the second-to-last episode period of this series, Brad (who did shave off his trademark beard late last year) interviewed veteran local punk/metal musician Jamie Vincent in this episode from January 4th! Readers may recall seeing Jamie as the drummer in AlgomA and No Funeral, and the frontman of Fuller and Bad Back, among other groups here and in Edmonton. This takes on the loose format saw in Mike Haggith's pandemic livestreams with a special guest, where he and the guest alternate playing songs while occasionally checking out and responding to live-stream comments (Brad is using StreamYard for that). Episode #19 of The Afterparty begins with Brad playing his original "Sandbox" and covering John Prine's "That's The Way The World Goes Round", before Jamie takes over with a cover of T. Rex's "Spaceball Ricochet" and an original song that he co-wrote a decade or so ago, though he didn't give its name.

Afterwards, Brad notices that Jamie's old Fuller bandmate Mark Rand was commenting, leading to some discussion about the 2000s local punk/emo band's 2023 reunion concert, with Jamie revealing there that they recorded their old original material from Mark's run with the band in studio, but were still unsure of how they were going to release and finish the songs. That was rumoured at the time, but it's good to get 100% public confirmation, and hopefully the songs do get put out somehow! Remember, their actual self-titled EP from 2002 predated Mark joining Fuller, and none of its songs had titles. Brad takes over next to cover The Band's "Up On Cripple Creek" (R.I.P. Garth Hudson), before tackling The Inner City Surfers' classic "Booze N' Doobs" on request from Jamie, albeit with a minor lyric change. Next, he hands off to Jamie for another song, namely a country-ish original, name also not given.

We break from rotating two songs apiece to start the second half of the episode, with Brad next playing the first original song that he wrote after Room 206's breakup in the 1990s, though he did not give its name (it might be called "Rule The World"?). Jamie did title the next song, a "little funny" country song that he wrote named "Your Face", before Brad played his own original song "The Nightmare Is Real". The guys then highlight and acknowledge comments from Mark Rand again, plus Brad's Surfers bandmate Mikey Hawdon, before Jamie breaks out his harmonica (complete with Neil Young-style neck holder) for another original song, title not given. Brad follows up by covering Bob Dylan's "Shelter From The Storm", and after debating his merits vs. Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, and John Prine, Brad closes the episode by covering Steve Earle's "Lonelier Than This". 

It was nice to see one of these relaxed remote performance live-streams again, especially without pandemic fears knocking around behind me! I would have liked to see more of an interview/chat a component here, and fans of Jamie's local band work may be left wanting somewhat by the lack of originals from those groups, but he and Brad acquitted themselves well and showed their talents and songwriting abilites nicely! Check out the second-to-last Afterparty episode out below, see more from the series above, and look for weekend concert previews next! Thanks everyone!