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From Issue #714 of Edmonton's Vue Weekly (June 25th, 2009)
Back in 2003, when Mark Russell and his bandmates showed up at a disappointing Calgary gig, he was inspired to start a revolution. It involved mostly beer and loud music, but still, a movement was underway.
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With The Distillery about to relocate, the night had arrived – the final show at the location where for over two years now, the owners Andy, Philly and Sean have provided a venue for some of Calgary’s best and brightest (and often drunkest) local talent to explode the dynamite of their craft in the walls of conformity, greed, apathy and ignorance that plague this city. With ten bands on the bill, and a show start of 4:00 pm, there was no doubt the plan was to see the place out the way it deserved. I arrived early afternoon, to find the place already filling up, when on any other Saturday, it wouldn’t even be close to opening yet. In the chaos of the approaching move, the award winning Distillery menu was reduced to a choice of cheeseburgers, or veggie burgers. Even so, I think everyone must have had one or two (they were delicious) – the result being the whole bar soon filled with the smoke of the grill. The smell of burning flesh and the thick dark haze of smoke served as a fitting metaphor for the cloud which hung over the whole event – something which all present were painfully aware.
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| Boasting a roster 46 bands deep, Calgary Beer Core (CBC) has musical representation ranging from the zombie rock of Conniving Cadavers to psychobilly swooners Scorched Banditos and crust punks the Pissoffs. However, genre diversity is not what often comes to mind when beer core is mentioned. It is usually images of hard partying punk rockers and aggressive hardcore guys who simply want to start fights. "At first, everybody thought we were just this big white power clan starting up," explains founding member and BDFM singer Mark Russell, referring to the presence of non-Nazi skinheads who were fans of the music being showcased. "There was a lot of violence at first in the beer core shows. We had a whole bunch of meat heads who would walk in and just start picking fights." The violence eventually waned as the beer core evolved and a more cohesive vision began to formulate. Instead, the desire to create a thriving network for musicians and audience members alike moved to the forefront. "Our ultimate goal was to take all these bands that could we meet, get them out of the basement and put them in front of a crowd," Russell continues. |
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