Mud City Music Festival was a thrill ride of energy-filled performances of every genre, spanning a very intense five
days of pure awesomeness. This year marked the festival’s 5th edition, which has been gaining momentum every
year since conception.
The Kick off event featured a dazzling variety show at one of the festival’s six venues, The Pink Flamingo Lounge,
which set the tone for the rest of the week. Here, some ragtag curtains made up a makeshift background which
split open introducing John Jerome, the charismatic host for the evening. He leaped on stage sporting a pink blazer
and bow-tie to introduced the diverse list of performers. It was already obvious at this point that this would not be
your typical music festival.
At a glimpse: The local artist Jasmine Jones captivated the audience with a lulling violin solo. Poet Lisette Lombé let
out a deluge of comedic verses. The duo of Mike Trask and Julie Aubé sang to pre-recorded music playing from an
old 80s tape recorder and Amy Stone delivered some colorful warm melodies through effects pedal creating an
interesting and unique vocal sound. These variety shows are presented regularly and anyone would be doing
themselves a favor by attending one of these.
The Pink Flamingo would go on to host Nebullama’s intense psychedelic disco-funk and Roxy & the Underground
Soul Sound’s horn-driven soul music which had attendees wearing out their soles on the dance floor. They also
hosted Rich Aucoin’s high energy album launch.
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The Tide and boar ballroom hosted the larger concerts, mainly focusing on rock, punk and metal. Bad waitress
served up some delectable in-your-face punk riff-age at this venue. The main course came next with Hollerado
dishing out their trademark sound as part of their farewell tour dubbed “the one last time tour”. One would not
expect such a band to go out quietly, and go out with a very loud bang, they did.
Day Three
The highly anticipated third day of the event filled up the Ballroom. The Saint John two-piece band, Frig Dancer,
were first to hit the stage and they hit it hard with a tight and merciless set of explosive songs. Local band, Diner
drugs, rode in and kept the momentum going with their signature brand of fierce Stoner Punk. Festival headliner
Red Fang completely chewed up the stage and spat out a carnage of blissful stoner/sludge metal from the first
growling note to prehistoric dog’s final bark. The northern Pikes took the same stage the next day to an assorted
crowd spanning a wider age range slinging classic after classic.
The Aberdeen Cultural Center hosted some more atypical sounds such as those from the long-established
instrumental Electro-Jazz-Rock band Les Païens and the Experimental Prog Rock band Atsuko Chiba, who both
offered a phantasmal visual and auditory experience.
Loud raging vibrations shook the depths of The Caveau which reverberated from the sounds of the rock bands
Which witch is Which, Zuku, and Ian Blurton’s Future Now on day 4. The venue also closed the event with Amy
Stone & the Veneers, Little You Little Me and the cosmic pop-rock sounds of the opening host’s band John Jerome
and the Congregation.
The Mud City Music Festival was an absolute blast. It also serves as a reminder of just how fortunate the community
is to have such amazing support, venues, local talent and community leaders such as Xavier Léger and PJ Dunphy,
the organizers of the event, who hopefully will keep this rocking festival going for years.
