Marianas Trench Concert Video Showcase, Plus More From The Northwest!!

Today's post is devoted to a recent major concert and the bands that played it, specifically the Marianas Trench-headlined show at GFL Memorial Gardens on September 22nd! Media hasn't been spread too wide from this Mocha Concert Series installment, but the ever-prolific Christopher Paci was in attendance and shot 14 videos across all three bands for his YouTube channel! We already covered his first video of The Northwest playing an apparent new original song (or a cover I can't identify) which went up the day after the show, but for one reason or another, the rest were not uploaded until a week later. Going from the top of the bill down, let's start with the headlining Vancouver pop punk quartet, as half of Chris' videos came from Marianas Trench's set, so what did he film? His seven videos include "Here's To The Zeros", "Desperate Measures", "Who Do You Love", "Stutter", "Good To You", "Pop 101", and as embedded below, their set-opener "Astoria".

Chris was able to move from his side-stage seat for The Northwest to a more distant but also far more central vantage of the stage (if still at an angle), so while views of the touring bands are softer, you get a much better view of the stage and bands. I'm not a diehard Marianas Trench fan, but they have a good melodic performance across these songs, and fans are definitely into it, so fans will wanna give them all a look above & below!

Next up, Chris got five videos of Nova Scotia hard rock quintet The Trews' co-headlining set on the 22nd, including of their songs "Not Ready To Go", "Hope & Ruin", "I Wanna Play", "Hold Me In Your Arms", and as embedded below, "Tired Of Waiting". Too bad he didn't film "So She's Leaving", I love that song. The stage lighting really trips up The Trews' visibility morseo than Marianas Trench, but they sound solid on these videos, and here's hoping it doesn't take another 13 years for them to come back! Give Chris' videos from their set a look above & below!

As for local openers The Northwest, Chris did film one more video of their opening set, despite the week-long delay between the two, and it features the guys playing the opening track from their "All In" EP, namely "Shoreline". Sharper side-stage angle aside, the quality is comparable of the first video of the unnamed new song (or cover), and it's an entertaining live rendition, so give it a watch for yourself below!

While we're on the subject, let's close with some more recent coverage of the local indie/punk quintet, starting with an interview with Jarod Smith of the music website Volatile Weekly two weeks ago! Conducted with frontman Wayne Watkins, the interview features Jarod asking about their non-musical interests, origins, live concert experiences (interesting that Wayne referred to Coch's Corner by its old name Foggy Notions when referencing their recent music video shoot there), favourite original songs, studio/writing process, future plans, and more. The site's very plain, but this is a good interview to introduce new fans to The Northwest, so give it a look above! The other new interview comes from Jenna Melanson of the website Canadian Beats Media from way back in April (apologies for the delay, the band only acknowledged it on Facebook last week), and it was posted in the wake of the release of their song "Long Hair (Longer Nights)".

Conducted with Wayne and guitarists Greg Callaghan & Mike Yakasovich, it heavily reflects "Long Hair" for it's writing process and its release as the first single/video from "All In". Note that at the end, Wayne mentioned that they'd be playing an EP release party on June 10th, which did not occur (their first show of 2022 was the Elliott Brood concert at LopLops on June 19th, and the EP wasn't released in physical formats anyway). Good (if slightly dated now) interview itself, so check it & more out above, and stay tuned for more on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!