Recording: Four Corners V

Artist: Four Corners V^*

Song: Hey! Bo Diddley [Bo Diddley cover]

Recorded at Steelworkers Hall ("Four Corners V"), August 8, 2015.

Four Corners V - Hey! Bo Diddley

A benefit for Girls Rock Camp was the impetus for the revival of this beloved concert series that originally ran for a conceptually-elegant four instalments from 2010 to 2012. As before, the Steelworkers' multipurpose room was the scene for this quadraphonic jam, with bands set up in each of the room's colour-coded corners and alternating two-song bursts for a no-dead-time rock jam. With cans of beer for sale instead of easily-slopped cups of cheap draft from a keg, the floor was less dangerously slick at night's end, but it was still an immersive, joyfully-exhausting experience. Whether this means that the series is back for another set of four remains to be seen, but it's a concept that I was glad to experience once again.

I was also glad to see that the night's performers also decided to revive the tradition of finishing off the night with a four-bands-at-once cover song blowout. In fact, this might have been the best of the ones attempted, with the groups wisely deferring lead vocals to Surinam's Matt Mason, which gave things a bit more of a centre as everyone hammered away on that Bo Diddley beat. Of course, things pulled apart as the bands forged ahead, but in the centre of the room it sounded like a rather fantastic mess, pulling itself in and out of focus before ending in a feedback haze as each of the bands tried to figure out how to finish — or if they wanted to finish.

^* To be precise, this was a simultaneous jam featuring Surinam, HSY, New Fries and Cellphone all at once.