Another Roadside Attraction (festival)

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Another Roadside Attraction was a travelling music-and-arts summer festival in Canada in the 1990s. [1] Headlined by The Tragically Hip with a different lineup of supporting bands for each of the three tours, the festival travelled across Canada for between eight and ten dates in each of 1993, 1995 and 1997. [2] [3] Each show usually lasted roughly eight hours.

The name was taken from the Tom Robbins novel Another Roadside Attraction . The Hip were originally thinking of calling it Heksenketel, which is Dutch for "witches' cauldron"; although that name was not used for the concert festival, it was later used as the title of a concert video recorded on the 1993 tour. [4]

The first Another Roadside Attraction in 1993 included Midnight Oil, Crash Vegas, Hothouse Flowers and Daniel Lanois. [5] These five acts also collaborated on a one-off charity single, "Land", in 1993 to protest forest clearcutting in British Columbia. [6] Following the Ottawa performance at Lansdowne Stadium, the promoters faced charges under the city's bylaw for the sound exceeding the maximum permitted decibel level for public events. [7]

The second tour in 1995 featured Blues Traveler, Matthew Sweet, Eric's Trip, Rheostatics, Spirit of the West, Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers and The Inbreds, [8] while the third and final tour in 1997 featured Sheryl Crow, Wilco, Los Lobos, Change of Heart, Ron Sexsmith, Ashley MacIsaac, The Mutton Birds and Van Allen Belt. [1] The 1997 tour included dates in Darien Lake, New York and Highgate, Vermont, the only times the festival was ever staged outside Canada. [9] Los Lobos' participation in the 1997 tour, in turn, led to Steve Berlin producing the Tragically Hip's next two albums Phantom Power and Music @ Work . [10]

The festival was not mounted in 1999, as the band had only just completed touring behind Phantom Power a couple of months earlier, and were not prepared to organize another festival so soon afterward. [11]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Forget h.o.r.d.e., Lilith Fair and Lollapalooza, Another Roadside Attraction is the best touring festival on the continent". Edmonton Journal , July 18, 1999.
  2. ↑ Steve McLean, "The Tragically Hip", The Canadian Encyclopedia (2012), accessed 2015-11-26.
  3. ↑ Rafer Guzman, "The Tragically Hip and Friends, A True Roadside Attraction", The Buffalo News , July 27, 1997  – via  HighBeam Research (subscription required).
  4. ↑ Darryl Sterden, "This week's new music: Tragically Hip's revisit 'Fully Completely,' Beyonce goes 'Platinum,' Em still Shady and more", Toronto Sun , November 29, 2014.
  5. ↑ "The Hippest show around; Great music at bargain prices the attraction at Roadside". Edmonton Journal , August 3, 1993.
  6. ↑ Joseph Blake, "Other news on the Save-the-Clayoquot front". Victoria Times-Colonist , November 2, 1993.
  7. ↑ "Charges follow rock concert at Lansdowne". Ottawa Citizen , August 10, 1993.
  8. ↑ "The long and winding roadside". Edmonton Journal , July 14, 1995.
  9. ↑ "Crow, Hip give fans something to talk about". The Buffalo News , July 31, 1997.
  10. ↑ "Producer Steve Berlin eulogizes the Tragically Hip". Maclean's , August 1, 2016.
  11. ↑ "Power of the hip: With 12 years and eight albums under their thirty- something belts, Tragically Hip is firmly ensconced as Canada's top rock band. But don't call them rock stars". Ottawa Citizen , February 6, 1999.
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