Poor Taste Reigns At CASBY Awards

11/23/06 7:30pm

by Steve McLean (CHARTattack)

If you like your awards shows with none of the winners in attendance, you would have loved Wednesday night's CASBY Music Awards. If you appreciate humour above the primary school level, you might not have enjoyed yourself so much.

Toronto's Kool Haus hosted the show, which was attended by 102.1 The Edge listeners and featured eight performances and four award presentations. Logistically, it was better than in the past, as there were two stages for the bands and a third one for handing out the prizes. But the sound quality was sub-par and the entertainment was... let's say, often less than entertaining.

Billy Talent's Billy Talent II was named favourite new album and their "Devil In A Midnight Mass" was chosen as favourite new single. But the band were in New York City, where they performed on Conan O'Brien's late-night talk show, so their awards were accepted by "Derek, the blind movie reviewer."

Alexisonfire's Crisis was voted favourite new indie release and City And Colour received the favourite new artist honour. But Alexis are on tour in England with Dallas Green, a key component of the group and the lone member of City And Colour. So their awards were accepted by "Derek, the blind movie reviewer," who wasn't really blind and wasn't really funny.

But making fun of people was the order of the night, as jokes were made at the expense of: a short, kilt-wearing drummer from the Tartan Terrors; "Kyle with no legs," who was asked by morning show host Dean Blundell to impersonate a seal and a dog chasing his tail; an obese station intern called "Beef," who was asked to take off his shirt and do jumping jacks; and a government employee who was pelted with paintballs.

For more highbrow humour, there was a guy who farted into a microphone to perform some sort of song, and a band that sang a little ditty about shitting themselves.

While I'm far from a political correctness cop, much of this material would be considered offensive by a large segment of the population — and maybe even some Edge listeners who, despite filling up on numerous cans of Molson Canadian (the only beer available at the event), didn't get too excited by the sub-Jackass-grade comedy routines.

But the crowd didn't embrace the bands particularly warmly either — some with good reason, and others who might have deserved more respect.

Mobile opened the show with a pedestrian set and were followed by IllScarlett, whose reggae-based songs got some people skanking. One of the highlights of the night was a slowed-down version of New Order's "Age Of Consent" by Neverending White Lights, and Hostage Life added some badly needed punk edge to the Edge event.

Champion, a seven-piece, female-fronted band played some funk-inspired rock and featured DJ Champion, who resembled Dallas Green minus the tattoos. Perhaps he should have been recruited to accept the awards on behalf of his absent doppelganger.

The next band up was Evans Blue, who played a couple of yawn-inducing hard rock songs.

Things picked up a bit for the two biggest acts of the night, as Sam Roberts received a friendly ovation for a solid performance and K-OS' headlining slot was topped off by a terrific rendition of "Sunday Morning."

CASBY stands for "Canadian Artists Selected By You." Hopefully next year you'll make more informed decisions.