Attack In Black Win Two CASBY Awards

Attack In Black were the big winners at Edge 102.1's annual CASBY Awards on Wednesday night at Toronto's Kool Haus.

The four-man crew from Welland, Ont. took home awards for favourite new artist and new indie release for their Marriage album. The unfortunate member nominated to speak for the band read an excessively long list of thank yous after receiving the first prize. He then re-read the list, word for word, in accepting the second award. The confused audience couldn't decide if it was a joke or not.

Alexisonfire offered a snazzy acceptance taped on location during their current tour after snagging favourite new single honours for "Boiled Frogs." Finger Eleven's Them Vs. You Vs. Me was named favourite new album.

Since there were only four award presentations, there was lots of music to hopefully perk up the ears of listeners who had won show tickets from the station and the assorted music and broadcast industry representatives in attendance.

The show got started a little late, leaving plenty of time for the crowd at the front of the stage to engage in a rousing debate about whether the small person in the crowd was "like 11 years old, dude!" or "retarded, man!" Later it became apparent that it was none other than "Spencer the cripple" from the Dean Blundell-hosted morning show.

The debate, thankfully, was quickly forgotten as IllScarlett took the stage to open the show with their brash single, "Nothing Special."

"Is this the CASBYs or the Junos?" lead singer Alex Norman taunted the lethargic crowd before launching into new single "Life Of A Soldier."

Up next was nearly unrecognizable Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida. Luckily, he was introduced before hitting the stage, or else the audience would have been forgiven for thinking that the Unabomber had just appeared with a guitar. The decidedly scruffier Maida channeled Charlie Daniels' slow baritone to showcase acoustic songs from his forthcoming The Hunter's Lullaby solo album, finishing up with current single "Yellow Brick Road."

Edge personalities and interns frequently took to the stage to entertain the crowd between musical performances. A contest to crown the morning show's guest of the year featured nominees gay Jeff, psychic Nikki, Spencer the cripple, resident sex expert Josey Vogels and Derek the blind movie reviewer. The competition probably would have been wholly unremarkable if not for the talent portion, which saw Spencer rapping, Nikki giving a wholly lacklustre reading and gay Jeff presenting morning show personality Todd Shapiro with a rusty trombone. But the standout was definitely Vogels, who wrangled Shapiro into a strap-on dildo she'd conveniently brought with her and proceeded to show the crowd how to properly put on a condom — using only her mouth.

While Shapiro's over-exaggerated, guttural moans must have been truly creepy for listeners tuned into the radio at home, the incident was far more disturbing in person. The total loss of dignity didn't pay off, however, as Derek the blind movie reviewer was crowned the winner.

Due to Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley's back injury, the band had to bow out of the show. But Operation M.D., the side project of Sum guitarist Cone McCaslin and nominee for favourite new artist, performed as scheduled.

Saint Alvia Cartel, who were supposed to play on an outdoor stage before the show, were added to the indoor lineup to replace Sum 41. The eclectic punks were the first act to really liven up the crowd, though the endless entreaties from Edge personalities for the crowd to "drink more beer" probably had something to do with it.

Matthew Good's performance of "Born Losers" and "Strange Days" prompted Edge 102's Jason Barr to declare him "more like Matt Great."

Attack In Black proved without a doubt that they deserved their double win, blowing the crowd away with their two-song set.

And Finger Eleven got the crowd seriously moving with their four-song closing set, which included a rendition of "Paralyzer" that inexplicably, and yet seamlessly, morphed into Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out" in the middle.