July 19 2013 – What a busy and excellent weekend of music this turned out to be. Friday night started out when Rush rocked the Halifax Metro Centre for close to 3 hours. Let me tell you it was well worth the 26 year wait since their last visit. Saturday started out with a 10:00 am volunteer shift at The Halifax Jazz Festival. The music featured a free show of Big Band performances in the main festival tent. Then after a few hours of food and recuperation, it was time for a night of Rock Solid Tributes at Monte’s.
The night featured 3 tribute bands and started out with local musician Trevor Pike doing his Neil Young tribute, “Young at Heart”. We have been fortunate enough to catch Trevor on a few occasions, and as an opening act, he doesn’t always get the attention he deserves. Saturday night changed that when Monte’s started filling up prior to his set. He did a solid 45 minute set that was very well received by those in attendance.
The 2nd act of the evening was Broke on Payday who did a phenomenal Stone Temple Pilots tribute. These guys from Truro, NS initially started rocking in 2005. The band is influenced by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Temple Pilots to name a few. Broke on Payday feel that people that enjoy bands like Audioslave, Black Crowes, Collective Soul, and Stone Temple Pilots should easily relate to and enjoy their live shows. The current band members are Rock Johnson (Vocals/Guitar), Myke Smith (Guitar/Vocals), Corey Shortliffe (Bass/Vocals) & Dave Curry (Drums/Vocals). These guys are fronted by Rock Johnson who shares the stage with more local bands then we can count. He offers an energetic performance and a powerful set of pipes, well worth the price of admission. The entire band fed off each other’s energy throughout the show which led to a tight and very entertaining set of Stone Temple Pilots material.
After Broke on Payday finished, the crowd was buzzing with anticipation, knowing that local favorites The Red Hot Chili Peckers would soon be hitting the stage. The “Peckers” are led by none other then local musician/busker extraordinaire, Julien Caesar. When he takes the stage completely dressed in black and sporting his typical white tie, the crowd knows they are about to witness an excellent tribute to The Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was great to see the dance floor packed for the entire set, with people shakin’ their stuff to a powerful set of funkadelic classic rock and roll. The band is made up of Ben Perry on guitar and vocals, Julien Caesar lead vocals, Joe Hollery on drums and finally the newest addition to the “Peckers” roster, Lukey LA Che Chiasson. This dude really brings it on stage. His funky bass playing and non stop energy added the finishing touch to this unit.
What an excellent way to finish the week. All three of these acts did a great job and Julien should be proud of his night of Rock Solid tributes. For those of you that use Facebook, we have several images from the show in Rockin’ HRM’s Facebook gallery here. (Note: Rockin’ HRM is the affliate site that is run by our East Coast Music Editor)
