Music My Rock

Once upon a time, in a land just about 3 hours east of Toronto, four boys met in residence at Queen's University. They shared a love of reggae/dub music and started a band. They called this band Bedouin Soundclash. The boys (Jay Malinowski, Eon Sinclair, Patrick Pengelly and, at the time, Brett Dunlop) did a lot of Bob Marley covers. They had some original stuff too, but they mainly stuck with cover songs.

The boys played the Queen's Battle of the Bands in 2000. Yours truly was on the judging panel. I'd heard a lot about the band from my frosh, and thought they had a cool name, so I was excited to hear them play. I was disappointed. In my comments to them, I wrote something along the lines of "derivative...try to stray from Marley covers. See you next year." They still wound up placing second, despite my critical remarks and low score.

Fast forward to the Queen's Battle of the Bands, 2001. I was once again on the judging panel. Bedouin Soundclash took the stage. And wouldn't you know it, the little fuckers had gotten GOOD? They easily won the Battle, and I became an official fan.

Eventually, the band got signed to Stomp Records. They've toured all over the place, their recent sophomore release "Sounding a Mosaic" was well-received by critics and they probably get insane amounts of pussy.

And they lived happily ever after.

Last night I went to see Bedouin Soundclash play Petit Cafe Campus. So did over 200 other people. Many of them knew all the words to their songs. They danced. They sang. They sweated. They threw their arms up into the air. They giggled about them in the bathroom while re-applying lipgloss. They bought their CDs. They bought their t-shirts. They cried out for an encore. And then they screamed for more.

Gone are the days of catching their acoustic set at the QP for $2, I'm sure.

During their amazing set, I felt simultaneously proud, jealous, nostalgic and dumbfounded. Dumbfounded because this was the same band I didn't think would go anywhere five years go.

Bedouin Soundclash are now rockstars. And deservedly so.

Christ, what the hell did I know?

(Now playing: "Living in Jungles", Bedouin Soundclash)