Jemma Wolfe
Senior ANDY Editor
Amidst flashing lights, screaming fans and pulsing beats, The Weeknd took to the stage, opened his mouth and poured out his heart. The crisp high notes, powerful lyrics and crashing music of his opening song “High for This” swallowed up my skepticism about the recently famous Torontonian. So this, I realized, is what all the hype is about.
The Weeknd’s meteoric rise to fame may not have occurred if rap superstar Drake hadn’t innocuously tweeted a lyric from the Weeknd’s track “Wicked Games” just over a year ago. Since then, he’s released three mix tapes – all of which are available for free download on his website – the most notable of which is House of Balloons. That album (the first of the three) was nominated for the 2011 Polaris Prize and ranked highly among most music publications as one of the best albums of the year.
It’s easy to see why critics and fans alike love the Weeknd. His progressive sound, which has been categorized as “post-dubstep,” “PBR&B” and “alternative hip-hop soul,” moves in new and exciting musical directions. The heavy synths, crooning vocals and eclectic samples his songs employ speak to the increasing interest in hybrid forms of contemporary music that pull from the old and new to create something unique.
His performance at McMaster’s TwelvEighty on Friday, March 16 was an intoxicating journey through his innovative albums that rendered the fact that he has performed publicly less than ten times absurd.
Initially, the idea of a concert setting for hearing The Weeknd seemed strange: the melancholic subject nature of his lyrics and the mellow, often ethereal vibe of his music didn’t seem cohesive with the upbeat, fan-crazed nature of live performance. Inexplicably, however, it worked, and by the time he was starting on his second song of the night – a reworking a Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana,” called “D.D.” – I was sold.
I finally realized what everybody else in the room – who had stood in line for hours to buy tickets before the show near-instantaneously sold out, who had bought scalped tickets for up to a rumored $70, who had counted down the days until this performance – already knew: that this guy is definitely a superstar in the making.
An element of the Weeknd’s draw that cannot be ignored is the skillful way in which he (or his management) has crafted his public image as an enigmatic musical genius. Few photos and videos of the 22-year-old exist, encouraged by tour managers fiercely adamant against press coverage; no interviews or photographers allowed. Details about his real life are scarce, other than his real name (Abel Tesafaye), his Ethiopian descent and his Toronto hometown. His website lists no personal bio section or any other typical identifying features that are often available for perusal online. All the website has is the music.
In a society obsessed with celebrity, rampant with fanatical fan culture and intent on knowing the nitty-gritty gossip of every public figure’s life, it’s refreshing – albeit frustrating – to get to know nothing about The Weeknd but his music. And really, when you think about it, the music is all that matters. He leaves us wanting more – both of himself and of his catchy, innovative sound.
Jemma Wolfe,
Senior ANDY Editor
The spindly star with the iconic side-swept hair – Lights – crooned her way to the hearts of those in attendance at campus bar TwelvEighty last Saturday, Nov. 26. After an energetic opening set by Toronto-based dance-rock band Nightbox, Lights took to the stage amidst frenzied chanting of her name.
TwelvEighty was largely filled by dedicated student fans, who welcomed every song with shouts and screams. She played an hour-long, 15-plus song set, dropping hits like “Toes” and “Second Go,” her tiny frame rocking on stage. Backed by a three-piece band who took care of the keyboard, drums, guitar and synths in rotation, Lights happily frolicked through her second studio album, Siberia.
In an interview prior to the show, Lights opened up about her new album and the directions she went with it. “It’s a totally new place than I was in with the first record,” she said, citing the dubstep influence and guest collaborators Shad and Holy Fuck as being largely responsible for that.
She said she was first intrigued with dubstep because of a concert she went to in Montreal, and knew then that she had to work with it. “One of the biggest attractions was the hardness of it, that it was hard. The bass sound and multi-layers and distortion I found was such a cool contrast to the softness of my vocals and the softness of melodies,” she explained.
Holy Fuck were also hugely part of the creation of the album. “We just jammed and the songs came out of that; it was really natural and organic. Everything just started to come together and it felt great … It was like, ‘let’s just be creative,’ and it was fun and that’s what came out on the record.”
Shad’s contribution was slightly more complex. With him in Vancouver and Lights based in Toronto, the entire collaboration for “Flux and Flow” was done by email. Inevitably, this presented some difficulties, but Shad “just killed it so much [on ‘Flux and Flow’] that we had him on ‘Everybody Breaks a Glass’ as well,” Lights said.
Of the email process, Lights elaborated, “I think collaborations can be done that way if it’s a feature spot. When it comes down to writing together in a cohesive way, I think you need to be in the same room. But with something already there and you’re adding a flavor to it, that can be done over email.” The resulting album is a solid, cohesive collaborative work.
Although her concert at TwelvEighty was marketed as the “Christmas Lights” show, ironically, Lights and her family don’t actually celebrate Christmas. “We used to,” she said, “but we stopped when I was about eleven.” Lights explained, “It’s not because we have anything against it, we just stopped doing it and it makes that time of year so much easier. It really [takes the pressure off] and makes it about visiting family. We don’t feel the need to buy each other presents or set up a tree or anything like that.”
The holiday instead involves snowboarding at Whistler when she’s in British Columbia, skating at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto when she’s in Ontario, and generally enjoying the time off. “I go home and visit my family in Vancouver. We get together and have dinner and just hang out. The thing I look forward to most is just being with the people I love,” she said with a smile.
Now that her Siberia tour is over for the year, she can do just that.
Kacper Niburski
Assistant News Editor
Halloween had more than its share of frights, bumps, and bruises this year.
On Oct. 29, at a Halloween event hosted by TwelvEighty, three men, two of which sustained knife wounds to their chests while the other suffered facial injuries, were rushed to hospital. A fourth may have also been stabbed, but has yet to seek medical assistance.
At approximately 2:30 a.m., police were called to investigate a disturbance outside the campus bar by McMaster campus security who were first to respond to the event.
Due to the influx of students convening at the bar, the campus security required assistance by Hamilton Police.
Sergeant Terri-Lynn Collings, Media Relations for Hamilton Police Service, noted that most of the investigation is still ongoing, and a variety of details are still not known.
She went so far to call the event a “disturbance” as opposed to a “stabbing.”
“We do not currently know how the three individuals sustained their injuries simply because the three victims, all of which went to hospitals, are somewhat uncooperative with the investigation,” said Collings.
When asked whether there has been any movement in their co-operation with the police investigation, Sergeant Collings said, “No. I have not received any further information.”
She did add, though, that they “were not from Hamilton. They were from out of town.”
Andrea Farquhar, director of Public and Government Relations for McMaster University mirrored this information.
“They were not McMaster students,” she said.
Farquhar added that the University will also conduct its own investigation, a procedure common to all security measures.
As an establishment, TwelvEighty is not known for being a hub of conflict.
Throughout the years, few altercations have been noted other than a few isolated cases of poorly coordinated dance moves and equally misplaced fist pumps.
As such, the stabbing event stands as an anomaly to the McMaster campus.
Farquhar stressed this in an interview.
“There are times where non-McMaster students come on campus and cause problems.” She said.
Farquhar added, “I wouldn’t call it an issue.”
While the details of the altercation are still unclear, Sergeant Collings stressed that the investigation will be ongoing.
“As a police service, we recognize that there maybe people who have witnessed the event who, at the time, did not feel comfortable reporting it to the police.”
Collings continued, “If there is anyone who has any information and has not spoken to the police yet, then they should definitely give us a call.”
Needless to say, the police can be reached at all times and any advice would certainly be appreciated.
Farzeen Foda
Senior News Editor
Sometimes, your designated driver just can’t keep it together and the safest option when deciding how to get home safely, can also be the most expensive, if it requires leaving a car overnight in a campus parking lot.
The MSU, in collaboration with TwelvEighty and McMaster Security Services, is trying to take the late-night pressure of parking fees out of the equation.
In the event that a designated driver has a drink and is unable to drive home, their vehicle can be parked on campus overnight for free, according to a new agreement.
John McGowan, MSU general manager, says that discussions with security about the idea began last year.
The initiative was started in an effort to encourage students to use the designated driver program with their friends and “to give students an alternative so that parking isn’t a barrier for making a sound decision if they’ve had a few drinks,” explained McGowan.
The program is in its initial phases, as it was started last week on a very small scale. McGowan explained that through McMaster Parking Services, security has provided parking vouchers, which can be given to students at the discretion of TwelvEighty management.
The use of the vouchers will be closely monitored to evaluate the success of the program, noted Matthew Dillon-Leitch, MSU president.
So in the event that a student may need to take advantage of the service, the student “would go to the manager and identify themselves as a designated driver, or as someone who parked in a McMaster parking lot and is unable to drive home, at which point, they would receive a voucher,” explained Dillon-Leitch.
The goal of the program is “to ensure that there is no additional cost associated with leaving your car here so you can get home safely,” said McGowan.
Jemma Wolfe
Senior ANDY Editor
The night before their Friday, Oct. 21 show at TwelvEighty, Epic Meal Time personality Muscles Glasses tweeted, “Any bitches wanna fuck!? Send pics to MGBaconBurgers@gmail.com. We’re in Hamilton tomorrow night.”
Little did I know, that offensive tweet aptly foreshadowed the show to come, as Friday’s “performance” by Epic Meal Time descended into a chaotic mess of “booze, bacon and bitches” – a trashy trifecta Epic Meal Time worships with zeal.
These Youtube stars, who recently celebrated their one-year anniversary, have risen to internet fame through the creation of “epic” meals – regular meals, i.e. meatloaf, pizza and French toast, made extraordinary through the integration of bacon and fast food for the purpose of making meals as fatty and excessive as possible. Their short videos have garnered over 250 million views combined, and they tout nearly 2 million channel subscribers – the most in Canada. Their Youtube videos are mostly funny, food-centric and entertaining. Their live show, however, was not.
Over an hour late, Epic Meal Time ascended the stage to repeated chants of “bacon strips!” from an exceedingly enthused crowd. The anticipation quickly turned to disappointment, though. “We’re not really performers, we’re just guys hanging out with you,” was a phrase repeated a few too many times over the course of the night, and rather than make the crowd casually comfortable, it actually drew attention to the disorganization and pointlessness of their presence on stage.
Much of the show involved throwing food into the crowd and audience participation, as Epic Meal Time taught people how to make bacon weaves and had them assemble creations made of McDonald’s Big Macs. To choose volunteers, the Sauce Boss personality asked for the audience to “go find the worst face … someone whose face you hate,” and then later asked for the girl with the “smelliest vagina” to come on stage. Once onstage, volunteers were subjected to a barrage of sexual innuendos while they devoured burgers and had Jack Daniel’s poured down their throats.
Crowd participation grotesquely culminated when girls – under audience and performer pressure – made out on stage with each other as maple syrup was poured over their heads.
Then, in a bizarre moment of perverse patriotism, Epic Meal Time Sauce Boss had the crowd sing Canada’s national anthem en masse. The unknown impetus to this segment made it evident that this was obvious filler; the irony of the anthem was undeniable – there was nothing patriotic about their misogyny, insolence and excess.
A post-performance interview solidified their determination to represent themselves as hyper-masculine, egotistical bros.
Apparently, no one has ever thrown up after eating an epic meal because, as the Sauce Boss said, “that would be weak.” They denied eating normally on a daily basis, and said their everyday food is “cheese and burgers and bacon and bitches and booze.” Fans can look forward to a TV show premiering in April, and loose plans for a potential cookbook, they said.
During the show, the Sauce Boss shouted, “I don’t want to go back to fucking teaching!” The Sauce Boss, whose real name is Harley Morenstein, used to be a high school history teacher. He later elaborated, “I quit my job because I wanted to start a kids show. I have the first three episodes written, but Epic Meal Time took off, so…”
But one can only be the fresh face on the scene for so long before the gimmick gets old. Upon the inevitable fizzling out of their precarious careers, I can’t help but wonder how the men of Epic Meal Time will be able to deflate their engorged egos enough to reintegrate themselves into regular society. I imagine they’ll find the transition difficult.
The Sauce Boss, in reference to their bodies, joked, “We’re dying. We’re actually dying.” The same could be said for their respectability, appeal and brand.
Happy birthday, Epic Meal Time, and rest in peace.
