2019-09-10 - Great Balls of Fire 2019
This past Sunday, as many of you know, Matt, Tanja and Vincent hosted Great Balls of Fire 2019, a memorial concert for Nick and also a fundraiser for Act Now For Cancer, a charity established by Nick's primary oncologist Kylea Poitvin whose aim is to give oncology patients treatment options beyond the limitations of OHIP.
Our event was a success. We raised close to $2000 for the cause, and entertained everyone with 8 bands that all really nailed it. This post's main thrust is to thank everyone who made it all possible.
Thank you so much to Matt's staff at SDCI, who showed up in droves! Matt's back at work now, on a graduated RTW plan: one course until Thanksgiving, then two courses, and finally full time in semester 2. We're coming up on a year since Nick's passing, and the emotions are pretty overwhelming. One class is about all he can handle at this point, but the return is going well so far, and Matt's happy to be back among his SDCI "homies". Rah Rah SDCI!
Thanks also go out to the venue, East Side Bar and Grill. The staff, and especially the bar manager George, were so supportive. For the price of a small fee for the sound guy, we had the use of a great bar with terrific PA equipment for over 9 hours.
A huge thank you to Kylea Potvin who spoke earlier in the afternoon, and had a nice chat with Tanja afterwards. Kylea is a truly caring doctor, a musican, a true healer with not one trace of pretension. In response to Tanja's query as to how Nick could be taken from us by a disease with a 96% cure rate, her final opinion is that Nick's cancer was chemo-resistant from the earliest stages, and that Nick fate was sealed from the moment it metastatized - prior to diagnosis in NIck's case. If this is not justification for education about early detection, I don't know what is. Fuck.
That said, in the final reckoning, all that hellish treatment was worth it. Without it, Nick would have been gone at 18, and we would have never seen him growing into the incredible person he ended up becoming by the end. We had a lot of good, terrible and meaningful times with Nick during the whole six-year ordeal, and grew far closer than we would have otherwise. We might never have permitted all the crazy house concerts with as many as 15 bands destroying our basement.
We also had a couple of cancer survivors talk about their experiences.
1.Laura Perkins from Young Adult Cancer Canada
2. Matt Keladjin - a testicular cancer survivor and Nick's friend
As well, we had Lindsay Manz , from the London Health Sciences Foundation.
Thank you to all the bands who volunteered their time to make this event a success. Every one of them is connected with us in some way:
The Dashrock Junkies are Matt's longtime rock band, who he's been with since he taught the guitarist's son back in 2009.
Dashrock Junkies - Video
Tell It To Sweeney is Matt's dance band, formed in the aftermath of his former Tuesday night band.
Tell It To Sweeney - Video
Delta Stone and the War Dogs share a keyboardist with Tell It To Sweeney.
Delta Stone and the War Dogs - Video
Sarah Smith, one of London's most successful musicans, who tours internationally (who wouldn't want this incredibly positive and energizing performer in their town? Sarah kills it every time!) is a long time friend of our dear friend Veronica, whose son is Nick's best friend.
Video Link Pending Sarah's Permission!
4HateU8 is Nick's old guitar teacher Brian Doiron's band. Nick switched from violin to guitar at age 8 after sneaking down to watch a Slayer DVD with me one night. Eventually, Nick was ready to learn to play Slayer tunes on his guitar, and Brian, (a man with metal flowing through his veins) obliged.
4HateU8 Video
Nick met one of the members of the excellent Space Pope at Humber during his brief time there. Their doom/stoner metal style is mesmerizing.
Space Pope - Video
Death Sentence is one of Nick's many bands. He wrote killer tunes and played guitar with them, vocals belted out like a ferocious wildcat by Chris Pollock. Drums were played by Nick's long-time friend Josh Tapp who flew out from Kelowna for the occasion. Bass was played by another of Nick's good friends Craig Gignac.
Death Sentence - Video
Coffin Dragger was Nick's last band. He wrote all the tunes for their two albums. The original configuration broke up before Nick moved to Kelowna in 2017, but he resurrected them with new members for one epic rehearsal two days before he returned to London unable to even hold a guitar pick or feed himself - two weeks before he left us. Matt re-reconstituted the band this Sunday with himself on bass, Vincent on drums and Matt Craievich and Wade Mackie, two good friends of Nick who lead the twin guitar attack.
Coffin Dragger Video
Craig Gignac played in many bands with Nick, including Death Sentence. He ended the night playing Nick's song Me, You and Labatt Blue upon Tanja's request.
Craig Gignac Video
I think I can speak for all of Nick's former bands who played Sunday night when I say that it was an honour, if a painful one, to pay tribute to Nick in this way. Thanks so much all of you for coming together to make music.
Our event was a success. We raised close to $2000 for the cause, and entertained everyone with 8 bands that all really nailed it. This post's main thrust is to thank everyone who made it all possible.
Thank you so much to Matt's staff at SDCI, who showed up in droves! Matt's back at work now, on a graduated RTW plan: one course until Thanksgiving, then two courses, and finally full time in semester 2. We're coming up on a year since Nick's passing, and the emotions are pretty overwhelming. One class is about all he can handle at this point, but the return is going well so far, and Matt's happy to be back among his SDCI "homies". Rah Rah SDCI!
Thanks also go out to the venue, East Side Bar and Grill. The staff, and especially the bar manager George, were so supportive. For the price of a small fee for the sound guy, we had the use of a great bar with terrific PA equipment for over 9 hours.
A huge thank you to Kylea Potvin who spoke earlier in the afternoon, and had a nice chat with Tanja afterwards. Kylea is a truly caring doctor, a musican, a true healer with not one trace of pretension. In response to Tanja's query as to how Nick could be taken from us by a disease with a 96% cure rate, her final opinion is that Nick's cancer was chemo-resistant from the earliest stages, and that Nick fate was sealed from the moment it metastatized - prior to diagnosis in NIck's case. If this is not justification for education about early detection, I don't know what is. Fuck.
That said, in the final reckoning, all that hellish treatment was worth it. Without it, Nick would have been gone at 18, and we would have never seen him growing into the incredible person he ended up becoming by the end. We had a lot of good, terrible and meaningful times with Nick during the whole six-year ordeal, and grew far closer than we would have otherwise. We might never have permitted all the crazy house concerts with as many as 15 bands destroying our basement.
We also had a couple of cancer survivors talk about their experiences.
1.Laura Perkins from Young Adult Cancer Canada
2. Matt Keladjin - a testicular cancer survivor and Nick's friend
As well, we had Lindsay Manz , from the London Health Sciences Foundation.
Thank you to all the bands who volunteered their time to make this event a success. Every one of them is connected with us in some way:
The Dashrock Junkies are Matt's longtime rock band, who he's been with since he taught the guitarist's son back in 2009.
Dashrock Junkies - Video
Tell It To Sweeney is Matt's dance band, formed in the aftermath of his former Tuesday night band.
Delta Stone and the War Dogs share a keyboardist with Tell It To Sweeney.
Delta Stone and the War Dogs - Video
Sarah Smith, one of London's most successful musicans, who tours internationally (who wouldn't want this incredibly positive and energizing performer in their town? Sarah kills it every time!) is a long time friend of our dear friend Veronica, whose son is Nick's best friend.
4HateU8 is Nick's old guitar teacher Brian Doiron's band. Nick switched from violin to guitar at age 8 after sneaking down to watch a Slayer DVD with me one night. Eventually, Nick was ready to learn to play Slayer tunes on his guitar, and Brian, (a man with metal flowing through his veins) obliged.
Nick met one of the members of the excellent Space Pope at Humber during his brief time there. Their doom/stoner metal style is mesmerizing.
Space Pope - Video
Death Sentence is one of Nick's many bands. He wrote killer tunes and played guitar with them, vocals belted out like a ferocious wildcat by Chris Pollock. Drums were played by Nick's long-time friend Josh Tapp who flew out from Kelowna for the occasion. Bass was played by another of Nick's good friends Craig Gignac.
Coffin Dragger was Nick's last band. He wrote all the tunes for their two albums. The original configuration broke up before Nick moved to Kelowna in 2017, but he resurrected them with new members for one epic rehearsal two days before he returned to London unable to even hold a guitar pick or feed himself - two weeks before he left us. Matt re-reconstituted the band this Sunday with himself on bass, Vincent on drums and Matt Craievich and Wade Mackie, two good friends of Nick who lead the twin guitar attack.
Craig Gignac played in many bands with Nick, including Death Sentence. He ended the night playing Nick's song Me, You and Labatt Blue upon Tanja's request.
Craig Gignac Video
I think I can speak for all of Nick's former bands who played Sunday night when I say that it was an honour, if a painful one, to pay tribute to Nick in this way. Thanks so much all of you for coming together to make music.
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