Another Roadside Attraction (festival)

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 festival's two dates in Toronto also included performances by artists who were not part of the full national tour, including Headstones, Vilain Pingouin, Thomas Trio and the Red Albino, 13 Engines, Andrew Cash, Richard Séguin and The Pursuit of Happiness.[8]

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,[9] 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.[10] 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.[11]

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.[12]

  1. ^ a b "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.
  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. ^ "Now this is really Hip Another Roadside Attraction is speeding this way". Hamilton Spectator, July 22, 1993.
  9. ^ "The long and winding roadside". Edmonton Journal, July 14, 1995.
  10. ^ "Crow, Hip give fans something to talk about". The Buffalo News, July 31, 1997.
  11. ^ "Producer Steve Berlin eulogizes the Tragically Hip". Maclean's, August 1, 2016.
  12. ^ "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.