Rawkin: Bob Marley's belated birthday bash!

It was the perfect ending to a stressful week at Fanshawe this past Friday in the OBS. I think all students were (maybe still are) pretty stressed out about the possibility of a teachers' strike. But with the unofficial results of a narrow majority supporting the colleges offer I think we are all breathing a sigh of relief, even if it is only temporary. We were treated to three artists and one DJ spinning in between the sets. We had Dylan Murray, Chris Assaad and Walk Off the Earth to help us celebrate Marley's belated birthday!

Who they are: Dylan P. Murray is a singer/songwriter who has a band but performed solo. He plays guitar and harmonica. You can check him out at www.dylanmurray.net.

How they did: His performance was solid. His music feels very mellow and the growing crowd was enjoying his tunes. Murray also played a Bob Marley cover, which was very nice.

Who they are: Chris Assaad is a singer/songwriter and has collaborated with Dylan Murray on occasion. Assaad also had two of his friends playing on stage with him, playing bass and drums. I asked him what the best part of playing live is and he said, “It's the connection between myself and the audience.” Check out his website www.chrisassaad.com and his album Glory Fire is up for sale.

How they did: Assaad and his friends had some fans right up front dancing and cheering them on after hearing them play at the Thursday Nooner the day before! They played some new songs, some older stuff and a cover of Bob Marley. Assad said it's become a bit of a tradition that they play the OBS for this occasion. There was dancing and excitement growing fast as the students came in to party!

Who they are: Walk Off The Earth is Marshall (vocals, guitars); G. Luminati (bass, back up vox); and Petey Pablo (drums). They also had friends the Duwyn brothers, Jay and Jonny, performing with them. It was a mixture of bands as Jay and Jonny used to be with Staylefish, and gave a different mix to their line-up. I had an interview with all the guys and they were definitely a rowdy bunch. Very fun-loving and real jokesters. Their music is no laughing matter though!

I asked them what the hardest part about being an artist now compared to even 10 years ago. All of the guys agreed that while it was easier to be heard, it didn't necessarily mean you get noticed right away.

“It is easier to be heard now because of the Internet...(but) just a lot of bad bands getting heard...harder to weed through the crap bands”.

Check these guys out at www.myspace.com/walkofftheearth and www.walkofftheearth.com.

How they did: They came to play and Marshal broke a string after the first few songs. So while he went to try to fix the problem, Jay and the other two guys played some powerful songs and then Marshall had to ask Assaad to borrow his acoustic guitar because once he fixed the one string, he broke another and had no D string. So once that was all fixed and they were playing again, the crowd was treated to a surprise of Dreddy from Staylefish literally jumping on stage and the crowd just ate it up. Dreddy left the stage and they started to do another Staylefish tune and Dreddy again graced the stage. They also played a cover of Bob Marley. Great music and a great night!

Just wanted to say thank you to all the performing artists that treat us to the almost always free nights of music and everyone who helps make that happen here at the school. There is a lot of work that goes into making these nights happen and I think that sometimes we all take advantage of that and don't realize what it takes to put on a show and all the effort put into it from the bands/artists, sound crews, sound guy and the workers on the bar and the security guys! A big thanks to all of you! So come out and support the bands and artists and also everyone behind the scenes and have a great time!

As always email me with any comments or questions or anything you want me to check out and until next week, KEEP ON RAWKIN!