Evenings and Weekends: Five Years in Hamilton Music, 2006–2011

by Andrew Baulcomb

Hamilton has always been known for its music scene. From blues singer Long John Baldry to punk rock groups like Teenage Head, musicians, and music have made their home here. But Andrew Baulcomb is charting a new group of performers in Evenings & Weekends . A generation of musicians that came of age with "renters and boomerang basement-dwellers," those students who left university just as the bottom dropped out of the global economy. Baulcomb starts the story in 2006 when he was the senior arts editor at The Silhouette , McMaster's student newspaper, and singer Max Kerman pressed him one of his first CDs. He ends it when Kerman took the stage at Supercrawl with the Arkells in 2014 before a crowd of thousands. But the Arkells are only one part of the vibrant music scene Baulcomb captures in this book. From innovative DJs to venue owners to radio hosts to punk rockers, he interviews them all and weaves the story of an explosion of music in Hamilton with that of a generation adrift. This is a coming-of-age story that puts a human face on the people who made music happen, and on those who listened to it.

268 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2016

Reviews

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In " Evenings and Weekends" which I won through Goodreads Giveaways Andrew Baulcomb captures the tempo of a period when economic upheaval spelled a bleak future for those at universities seeking degrees and dreaming of success only to face student debt and lower paying jobs. Yet amidst all the hopelessness and turmoil he writes with excitement about the emergence of musicians from McMaster University, and the booming music and cultural landscape that arose in Hamilton, Ontario, blending in his remembrances of those days and his career progression as a journalist from working as a student in the arts section of the "Silhouette," McMaster University's paper to eventually a reporter for Niagara This Week.

Over a five year period with dozens of interviews from bands including the Arkells and Cursed to the Ride Theory which evolved into Young Rival; performers like Terra Lightfoot; and a hit DJ Donna Lovejoy (aka Henderson) Andrew paints a picture of Hamilton's vibrant musical hub. Masterfully he draws in the night life of clubs like Swendiman's Underground with its live music and Club Absinthe with its cheap drinks, danceable music and positive energy that added to the emergence and growth of local talent. With diligent research and first-hand knowledge as a reporter and fan Andrew breathes life into one of Canada's most creative and often missed musical communities. From underground clubs to concerts and the rigors of road trips as the music comes of age he writes with passion about a musical evolution in a small Canadian city where its musicians poured their hearts and dreams into the music they loved.

I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend "Evenings and Weekends" a musical legacy that highlights the history of music in Hamilton from 2006-2011.

[Jane Mulkewich · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was tightly packed with a lot of names of musicians and bands that I only had peripheral knowledge of (the author is about five years older than my oldest son). For me, many of the Hamilton music venues mentioned were more familiar than the musicians themselves... like The Underground, The Casbah, Pepper Jack Cafe, the Corktown, Che Burrito in Hess village, Club Absinthe, Gallaghers, The Embassy Club, This Ain't Hollywood, the Transit Union hall, Sonic Unyon, Quarters pub at McMaster University, Ramshead, and he mentions even some of the coffee shops where he interviewed musicians, such as the Mulberry Coffeehouse, Democracy on Locke Street, and Homegrown Hamilton. Baulcomb chronicles the first year of Supercrawl, which evolved from the much lower-key Art Crawl to the huge success it is today. He tells stories about many different bands, and a highlight was when he toured with the Arkells. This book also witnesses his own personal coming of age, in a time when he graduated from working on the student newspaper at McMaster university to working in a grocery store to getting a full-time job as a journalist. He met the woman who would become his wife, and he tells of the trauma of the suicide of one of his best friends, Stevie Ledlie. There are many names in this book of people that I know (or I know who they are), and many more of people that I do not know, but after reading it I have a better appreciation for the more recent history of Hamilton's music scene.

[Rachel Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting insight to the Hamilton music scene in the early 2000s.
Great insider information for fans of the Arkells :)