Critical Zero

We started attending music conferences and showcases in 2020, and our first-ever virtual conference was Indie Week in November of that same year. We’ve been attending, Music Pro Summit, and more ever since..and now VENUExVENUE.

VENUExVENUE is on its third edition, and it was our first time attending, as media and as an artist. The conference and festival showcase featured 3 days of networking, 50+ artists performing, and many panels during the day. We got to London Thursday night and unfortunately missed the opening party, but we got some much-needed rest and prepared for Friday’s action-packed day.

Friday was an early one. We were up at 9 am, zombie’d out of bed, and got some much-needed breakfast. It was our first time in London, and our stay was a short walk away from TAP, where all of the daily activities took place. Special love for their most recent exhibit, which features the art of Ron Hawkins, David Ray Alexander, and Greg Smith, of Lowest of the Low.

By 10 am, we picked up our media and artist passes and attended the opening presentation, where we met all of the international festivals and learned more about how to get booked internationally. The day was packed with meetings with Ontario bookers, sync placement talks, roundtable meetings, lunch mixers, and showcases that took place throughout the day. 

 By 5:00 pm, we went back to our home base, took a power nap, and it was time for Black Budget’s load-in. The venue was The Richmond Tavern, and the lineup was stacked with Hartlet, Trampa, Avalon Stone, Travesty, and Black Budget.

Black Budget took the stage first, with an amazing introduction from Rick Hall from Kronik Noise. The band played a 30-minute energy-fuelled, desert punk, explosive set that set the night off to a great start. Travesty started their set shortly after, and the people were dancing, beers were flowing, and vibes were off the charts. Avalon Stone was up next, and this was our first time seeing her perform with the full band. It was incredible - Avalon’s vocal range is out of this world.

Brazil’s very own Trampa was up, and they commanded the stage with presence, anger, and flavour. They played an incredible set that made us want to break stuff - it was awesome. By now, we were all a few drinks in, shout out to the venue for having Guinness on tap, and Hartlet came on stage. We started a mosh pit and danced throughout their entire set. It was a feel-good performance with lots of energy, which was the best way to end our day 1. We packed up our gear, had a few more Guinnesses, and crashed hard after a very long day. We were ready for day 2.

On Saturday afternoon, we got great information on performance coaching, grant writing, and 1-on-1 mentorships with industry professionals. There were also some amazing performances in the performance hall throughout the day. We originally planned to head back to Toronto that night, but we decided to stay an extra night so we could enjoy the last day to the fullest. We booked a last-minute hotel, and we were off to the races.

Before we get into the last show, we want to mention how nice it was to have so many venues with different types of music so close together. We met many people who were venue-hopping and checking out multiple venues per night - the team did an amazing job coordinating this and making it an enjoyable experience.

Our last venue of day 2 was Lazer Quest (which Google Maps took us on a bit of an adventure to find), and the bands were Avro Project, Feura, Altered By Mom, and Thunder Queens.

This was an all-ages show, and the crowd reminded us of our all-ages Critical Zero shows we would do (planning the next one, stay tuned!). The audience was made up of people of all ages: parents, kids, and industry. It was an amazing event to end the night and wrap the festival up. The first band up was Avro Project, who reminded us a lot of early blink-182 with their raw punk sound. It was a lot of fun.

Feura took the stage shortly after and it was mind-blowing - we’ve never seen such stage presence, and the show had everything from punk, line dancing (yes you heard us right), and crowdsurfing. Feura puts on an incredible show and we will be catching their next one. Altered By Mom were up next and they are the definition of entertainment on stage. The songs were fun, lively, catchy, and very interactive. The crowd loved it, and the energy was incredible.

Thunder Queens were the last band of the night. We’ve seen them perform at El Mocambo with Black Budget, but this time was very different. They went absolutely crazy on stage. The drummer and vocalist were hitting those drums like they owed her money! It was wild to see. One thing is to smash the drums hard, but they actually have amazing songs that are catchy and groovy, both live and in-studio. Thunder Queens is a band to remember because you will definitely hear more from them.

VENUExVENUE has been one of our favourite conferences we’ve attended. Shout out to Darryl, the volunteers, staff, and everyone we met. This event is centered around the DIT Community, which is a free global music community for artists, managers, and industry professionals. Community, connection, and doing it together to make better music. We felt that throughout the entire event, friendly, welcoming, and open.

Having this openness to explore different types of music allows us to enjoy a lot of special moments, relishing in stunning music outside of our punk scope, which we really enjoyed. We tend to surround ourselves in these micro communities within the large city of Toronto, and a lot of the talent we would have missed, like the euphoric harmonies of EQUAL a sister duo, King of Foxes who came all the way up from Edmonton to show us who's boss, and the absolutely enchanting performance of Siobhan Bodrug, who almost put us in tears as she performs with her father. This is just to name a few.  

Our only regret is not being able to catch all the acts!

To sum it up, we can’t wait for next year, and we hope to explore even more in the DIT community.