L.A. Beat

There will be ‘mammoth’ sized fun at Henotic, May 2  with 35 bands including numerous local acts playing  Mammoth Cave Fest 2.
“I thought the first one last year was pretty successful, but more than that it was a lot of fun,” said organizer Paul Lawton adding this year was slightly different as  several bands playing Mammoth Cave Fest 2 will be touring as part of the Wyrd Alberta Traveling Music Festival including Women, Cosmetics, Shearing Pinx, Nü Sensae, the Famines,  the Sharp Ends, Topless Mongos, JAZZ, Omon Ra II, Krang and D’eon plus local acts Fist City and the Myelin Sheaths as well as the last show ever from Edmonton’s the Wicked Awesomes.
“We’re expecting it to sell out,” said Lawton, who was panicking a little bit over ticket sales when he first started out on this venture
“We‘re not losing sleep over it anymore. Advance ticket sales are showing we can do interesting things in this city,” Lawton said adding he was inspired to start Mammoth Cave Fest last year after being inspired to start a similar idea to Calgary’s Sled Island music festival and wanting to start a similar idea here.

“The first 100 advance tickets have been sold, but there are lots of $25 tickets left. It’s still a really good deal. That’s  70 cents per band,” Lawton said.
This year Lawton and his record label Mammoth Cave Recordings linked up with both Sled Island and Weird Canada.
“Weird Canada is a website that reviews music from bands that fly below the radar for most people, but which still have an audience,”  Lawton said adding Mammoth Cave shares that ideal.

“We have a lot of bands from all over the country. Part of it is we wanted to guarantee the bands three good shows,” he continued.
“I modeled Mammoth Cave Fest after Sled Island’s Legion downtown in Calgary which has two venues, upstairs and downstairs. So when Henotic let me do this here, I thought I could do the same thing,” he continued adding more rootsy and mellower acts will be playing upstairs in the GCBC Lounge, while louder and more energetic acts will be downstairs.
 In addition to the 14 out of town acts, there will be dozens of local acts on the Lethbridge bill as well including debut shows from Shipbreaker and Zoo Company.

Lawton said the Calgary and Edmonton shows only have  about a few local acts in addition to the touring festival, but because Lethbridge has such a thriving scene, he wanted to feature more Lethbridge acts, especially to showcase the variety.

“There’s 100 tickets sold and like 80 band members so it is going to be a fun filled  12 hours of awesomeness. What better way to  send this place off?” he said noting this will be the last show at Henotic ever as the bar is closing for good the next day.
There have been a couple minor changes to the show which begins at noon.
 Montreal’s Grand Trine has dropped off the bill, however another Montreal singer-songwriter has been added.
“I’m almost even more excited to see Chris D’eon,” Lawton enthused adding local band the Necessities have also been added, bringing the Lethbridge component of  the show to 23 local acts.
“ Edmonton has eight local acts at their show and Calgary has six. We have variety too, from folk and blues acts to pop, to punk rock and post punk rock and more experimental avant-garde music. We have a little bit of everything,” he said adding this will also be the last show for energetic Edmonton rock band the Wicked Awesomes, who are among the traveling acts and will be playing Edmonton the night before , then hitting Lethbridge for their last show ever.
“They love Lethbridge, Lethbridge has always treated them very good. It’s going to be pretty exciting. Last time they were here, everyone got naked,” Lawton laughed.

Schedule
1200 Richard Amery (U)
1220 Jessie Northey (D)
1240 Austrian (U)
1300 Michael Granzow (D)
1320 Crossings (U)
1340 Country Legs (D)
1400 To An End (U)
1420 Moheeba (D)
1440 The Necessities (U)
1500 Zoo Company (D)
1520 Bonnaventure James (U)
1540 Square Waves (D)
1600 Skulltrain To Hell Town (U)
1620 Radians (D)
1640 Sleepyhead (U)
1700 Amelia Earhart (D)
1720 The Moby Dicks (U)
1740 Fist City (D)
1800 Chief Mountain (U)
1820 Smokestack Jacks (D)
1840 Myelin Sheaths (U)
1900 Cosmetics (D)
1920 Jazz (U)
1940 Shipwreck (D)
2000 Jeff VandenElzen (U)
2020 D'EON (D)
2040 Myths (U)
2100 Oman Ra II (D)
2120 Topless Mongos (U)
2140 The Famines (D)
2200 Nu Sensae (U)
2220 The Wicked Awesomes (D)
2240 Shearing Pinx (U)
2300 Women (D)

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