Hello all, welcome back to another excellent edition of Tyson’s thoughts.
I was going to write one of these columns last week but I was absolutely exhausted after covering Filomi Days and decided to take a little bit of a break. I have to say, Filomi Days was ultimately a lot of fun. Every year I attend the festival it’s basically a big high school reunion for me, and I always run into people I haven’t seen in years. Sometimes the conversations are awkward, other times they’re hilarious, but either way, it’s definitely an experience.
If I had to pick my favourite thing about attending Filomi Days, it’s probably the boat race on Sundays or the live music in the park. The bands were all really solid this year, with Sidewinder on Friday night stealing the show and the Whiskey Jacks on Sunday closing the weekend out with a big dance party.
My favourite moment was getting to see a bunch of young kids rocking out to Iron Maiden songs on Friday night, which to me shows just how timeless Maiden really is because I guarantee none of those kids had ever heard any of their music before that night.
In fact, I enjoyed Sidewinder’s set so much I made plans to go see them play at the Nax'id' Pub last Friday night, and lo and behold, it was another great show.
The best part about it was other than one or two people, no one knew who I was so I managed to blend in and was able to just have fun for a change. If you’re wondering, I get stopped everywhere I go in this town, mostly by people who want to complain about something the district is up to with tax dollars, and it’s tough for me to put my guard down and enjoy events.
I definitely enjoyed the show on Friday night though. The Nax'id' bartender was super busy but he was still very friendly and welcoming, and I even ran into two of my old wrestling students. We rocked out to a song or two in the “mosh pit” which brought back a lot of memories from my time spent crashing into people at gigs in Nanaimo, generally at the Cambie or the Queens.
Sidewinder put out a high quality set of tunes, I have to give them their props. I got so into the music that I started requesting they play a bunch of random rock songs. I don’t know if they’ll ever play them in the future, but hey, at least I had the guts to try and request them.
It’s cool to see a local band up here that "shreds", and I'd like to give a quick shoutout to Nax'id' for promoting live music by booking them with only a five dollar cover charge to get in. I’ve paid a lot more money than that at places like the Queens to see far worse bands, so it was well worth the price to get in.
With that said, I’m now looking forward to the North Island Music Festival on Aug. 24. Gord and his crew always put on a top notch event with a great lineup of musicians. Make sure you go to https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/north-island-music-festival-2024-tickets-913169002067 to get your tickets asap, you’re not going to want to miss this one.
As always, I’ll try and be back next week with another edition of Tyson’s Thoughts before I go on a two-week vacation.
Tyson Whitney is an award-winning journalist who was born and raised in Port Hardy. His family has lived in Port Hardy for more than 40 years. He graduated with a degree in writing from Vancouver Island University in 2008. Email: editor@northislandgazette.com