Battle of the Bands: Punk Rock at the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival

Blog post by Kris Hamlyn of Secret East

Yesterday's Hero live at the Battle of the Bands at the Glacier, February 2005. Event photo from the City of Mount Pearl's Frosty Festival collection.

When you think of the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival, punk rock music may not be the first thing that comes to mind. The association between a family friendly festival of winter events and loud and raucous music may seem unlikely, but unlikely is a common theme that runs throughout the history of Mount Pearl punk. Our Punk Rock Pearl series has set out to archive the prolific decades of punk music to emerge from this city's youth, as well as highlight the overlooked influence that this music has had on the larger music scene in Newfoundland & Labrador. As a subculture that has been prominent for so many years, it is inevitable that this underground music movement would seep onto the stages of Mount Pearl’s more mainstream events.

Punk music and the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival is more than just an unexpected connection. In fact, it is actually one of the few common threads that connects the various generations of the city's young punk musicians. This binding thread takes the form of the Frosty Festival’s annual Battle of the Bands event. For over three decades, the Battle of the Bands showcase has continuously provided a rare platform for adolescent musicians to exhibit their art on a local stage. The all ages gigs that Mount Pearl punk bands played throughout the years mostly took place in St. John's, but the Frosty Festival's Battle of the Bands was a yearly opportunity for these kids to make some noise — and in some cases cause a little bit of trouble — in their own backyard.

The importance of the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival's Battle of the Bands isn't exclusive to the musicians who have taken the stage over the years. As an all ages event, the diverse musical showcase was also an introduction to the local music scene for many impressionable kids in the audience. For some who attended a Battle of the Bands event, this introduction would also serve as a source of inspiration for starting their own bands, as well as getting involved in their neighbourhood music community. Some of these budding musicians would even enter the Battle of the Bands competition themselves in the years that followed. The rebellious nature of punk rock music has always posed the potential for friction, especially with venues or events that may not be used to the loud and chaotic essence of the genre. Punk bands and their excitable fans have never been fond of rules, especially when they come from outside of their community of peers. The long relationship between punk rock and the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival is no exception to these challenges. The battle wasn't always just between the bands, though the moments of mischief from over the years were never more than typical teenage obnoxiousness. Despite how defiant punk rock kids may have reacted to the enforcement of rules at the event, the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival never completely closed their door to the genre. While a majority of local venues would eventually stop hosting all ages punk rock shows when trouble arose, the Battle of the Bands continued to provide an important platform for local alternative music. In hindsight, some of the musicians event admit that they may have taken for granted just how supportive the festival was for what they were creating. The Mount Pearl Frosty Festival on hold due to COVID-19...

Wednesday, February 2nd 2022 would have kicked off the 40th edition of the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival, the largest winter festival in Atlantic Canada. Unfortunately, due to the current situation with COVID-19 in the province, the City of Mount Pearl had to postpone their programming for another year.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the 2022 Mount Pearl Frosty Festival has been cancelled,” wrote Festival Chairperson Renee Pendergast in an official statement. “The safety of our patrons, volunteers, and sponsors is our number one priority. As the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve, the Board of Directors made the responsible decision to cancel this year’s Festival and looks forward to an exciting return in 2023.” The origin of the Battle of the Bands event...

 

Since 1983, the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival has stated a mission to light up the “dreary and grey” winter month of February by engaging the entire community “through assorted, accessible events with affordable admission prices”. Over the last four decades, the indoor and outdoor events have evolved, but some of the mainstay attractions have stood the test of time. In the early days of the festival, a “Lip Sync Contest” became a popular yearly occurrence. In the program for the 1988 edition of the Festival, the term “Battle of the Bands” was first used in the description for this event. 

“Lip Sync Contest – “Battle of the Bands” – watch an exciting display of young and old simulating their favourite musical performers” reads the program of events from February, 1988.

Excerpt from the 1988 Mount Pearl Frosty Festival program.

Historically, the tradition of a "Battle of the Bands" competition dates back as far the 1930s where “big band battles” were common in American concert halls between famous jazz and swing band leaders. The term eventually became synonymous with youthful rock and roll, and "Battle of the Bands" contests became a cultural trope that has been immortalized in such films ranging from 1978's Cheech & Chong’s Up In Smoke, to 2003's School of Rock, and appears in a countless number of teen movies in between. For many years, bands around the world have entered these kind of staged contests for chances of cash, prizes or other musical opportunities. 

By 1989, the Battle of the Bands event hosted by the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival branched out from the Lip Sync Contest and became an increasingly popular event for local musicians of many sprawling genres.  

An unnamed band at the 1989 Battle of the Bands from the City of Mount Pearl's Frosty Festival collection.

“Battle of the Bands Contest: Competition open to all teenage bands. A great opportunity to see and hear local talent. Promises to be an entertaining night," reads the 1989 Frosty Festival program of events. Punk rock meets the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival...

 

By 1993, the young Mount Pearl grunge band PUD entered the Battle of the Bands event. With members as young as 13, PUD were playing heavier, more alternative music which was especially contrasted by the other teenage bands on the bill. Besides the age of the band, as well as their unique sound, another distinct trait was PUD's focus on writing their own music.

A distinct aspect of punk rock is the genre’s emphasis on original music written by exceptionally young and inexperienced songwriters. The Frosty Festival Battle of the Bands is a solid example of how this originality stood out when teenage punk bands were featured alongside musical peers that leaned toward more mainstream genres. Traditionally, a teenage band was comprised of amateur musicians who did their best to emulate the songs by their favourite artists. Punk music, on the other hand, encouraged the opposite. Punk music didn’t solely give kids a catalogue of songs to sing, it instead offered a basic blueprint of how to write songs of your own. Punk was about erasing those boundaries of what music could and should sound like, and it also prided itself in the power of simplicity, and championed imperfection.  Chris Brown of the band PUD recalls how him and his junior high bandmates took the stage following "some guys in leather vests playing Skid Row songs". Though the band didn't exactly fit with the older crowd of cover bands at the event, they left enough of an impression with their own original songs to place second in the competition. Brown doesn't recall what PUD won for their placement, but he does recognize the supportive nature of the Frosty Festival for giving his young band a platform, and allowing them to "make our own statement".

Throughout the 1990s, kids writing original punk, metal and alternative music became more common on the yearly lineups of the Frosty Festival Battle of the Bands. While high school cover bands playing a mix of classic rock and top 40 hits would continue to populate the showcases, there was usually a handful of local kids writing punk or alternative music who would stick out proudly like a sore thumb. In the realm of punk rock, sticking out like a sore thumb was never a bad thing. These original musicians didn’t always win the popularity contest of the Battle of the Bands, but they accomplished the much more punk rock feat by standing out from the crowd.

In the mid-late 1990s, Mount Pearl spawned plenty of punk bands such as Good To Go, Plan 13 and Bud. The band Bud is a prime example of standing out on a bill for the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival Battle of the Bands. At the time, cellphone cameras were not a thing, and most kids did not have access to a camera in their pocket to capture their every moment. Subsequently, photos from these shows in 1990s can be scarce, and many performances only live on in the stories and memories of the bands and show-goers. Luckily, Bud caught the eye of one of the Frosty Festival photographers. A photo of Bud playing the Battle of the Bands was used in promotional material for the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival and can be found in the program of events for multiple years of the Festival, up to and including 2003.

Bud at the Battle of the Bands in 1999 or 2000. Photo found in the program for the 2003 Frosty Festival from the City of Mount Pearl archives.

We stumbled upon this photo of Bud while thumbing through the City of Mount Pearl's archive of Frosty Festival material in search of punk rock evidence. Though the photo of Bud was used in programs for the festival, it wasn’t credited in print to the band. Recognizing most teenage bands from over two decades ago would likely never be this easy, but once again, Mount Pearl punk stands out from the crowd.  The ban on mosh pits...

The Battle of the Bands component of the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival shifted from school gymnasiums in the 1990s, to venues such as the Reid Community Centre in the early 2000s. Carrying the tradition of Mount Pearl punk rock set forth by the likes of Good To Go, Plan 13 and Bud, new local bands such as Crooked, Dopamine and Three Chord Revolution took the torch into the new millennium. Three of these bands would also carry this torch into the Battle of the Bands events.

Dopamine live at Mount Pearl Senior High, 2002. Photo courtesy of Scott Parrell.

  Local punk music was booming in early 2000s, and the large and dedicated turnout of kids from the vibrant all ages punk scene spilled over to the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival’s Battle of the Bands. Punk shows were generally held at clubs that were familiar with the rowdy nature of the scene, or at venues in St. John’s like the Riverdale Tennis Club, where the closest thing to security were the organizers, musicians and show-goers who were all likeminded peers. To those on the outside of the scene, the loud and fast music may have been jarring, and the mosh pits that could break out with the music may have appeared as a dangerous liability.

Out of concern for the safety of those in attendance, as well as potential damages to the venues themselves, the Battle of the Bands started implementing a “no moshing” rule. This new condition was much to the dismay to some of the punk kids who wanted to have fun, even if it was deemed as reckless. Unfortunately for those tasked with enforcing the ban on mosh pits, some punk kids weren’t fond on following the rules. 

Three Chord Revolution's Dern Diddley Ern 101 CD released in 2003.

In 2003, Three Chord Revolution were a band making blistering fast skate punk music in Mount Pearl, and they had a gained a following on the all ages scene. With a crowd of friends and teenage fans in tow, Three Chord Revolution’s performance at the Frosty Festival Battle of the Bands has become a piece of lore in the punk rock community. An announcement was made from the stage on behalf of the event organizers instructing the kids to cheer on the bands "without the mosh pits”. A recording of this announcement, as well as the boos and heckling it received from the crowd, was used by Three Chord Revolution as the introduction to their song “Antireid” on their CD Dern Diddley Ern 101 that was released later that year.

According to many of those in attendance, some kids in the crowd waited patiently until the last song of Three Chord Revolution's set before they started moshing. This way, some of the kids could strategically break the rules while also preventing the band's set from getting cut short. Maybe you can call it a punk rock compromise from the crowd in attendance.  

Battle of the Bands expands to the Glacier Arena...

Yesterday's Hero live at the Battle of the Bands at the Glacier, February 2005. Event photo from the City of Mount Pearl's Frosty Festival collection.

In the mid-2000s, the Battle of the Bands expanded with a much larger live production when the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival began booking the event at the Glacier Arena. Graduating from gymnasiums and rooms that could hold only hundreds of attendees, the Battle of the Bands showcase was now at the largest entertainment venue in Mount Pearl that had a potential concert capacity of 4,000 people. 

With an enhanced production at the Glacier, the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival gave local punk bands another unique opportunity. All ages punk shows were commonly held at unconventional and D.I.Y. spaces where the kids handled every aspect of the shows. Due to this approach, the production and access to equipment was minimal. The Glacier boasted a stage bigger than most bands had ever played, and the event also provided an abundance of expensive equipment for sound and lighting that was bigger than you could ever fit into most typical all ages venues. Battle of the Bands at the Glacier was a rare occurrence of taking punk bands out of punk shows and putting them in a more traditional rock concert setting.

In 2004 and 2005, pop punk bands from Mount Pearl such as Yesterday’s Hero and Second Last took part in the Battle of the Bands. With a bigger production than ever before from the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival, professionally shot photos of these shows are much more commonly found in the City of Mount Pearl archives. 

Yesterday's Hero live at the Battle of the Bands at the Glacier, February 2005. Event photo from the City of Mount Pearl's Frosty Festival collection.

Current Newfoundland folk singer/songwriter Dave Whitty got his start with a Mount Pearl folk punk trio named Moke Cove. No strangers to the Battle of the Bands at the Glacier, Moke Cove played the Festival for the first time in 2005, won the showcase in 2006, and then returned to host the 2007 edition, as was the tradition for the champions of each previous year.  The two sets Moke Cove played during their hosting duties of the 2007 edition of the festival were recorded and released on MySpace as Live at the Glacier, and would serve as the only official recordings of the band.

Moke Cove live at the Battle of the Bands at the Glacier in 2007. Photo courtesy of Dave Whitty.

Accompanying Whitty in Moke Cove was bassist Colin Coombes and drummer Tim White, who were both also members of the Mount Pearl punk band De-Mons. Of the bands to re-invoke and test the “no mosh pits” policy of the Battle of the Bands, De-Mons are near the top of the list. De-Mons first played the Battle of the Bands in 2004 at the Reid Centre. The bands were told that points would be deducted in the competition for moshing by the audience, as well as any use of profanity by the artists on stage. Despite a disregard for these rules, De-Mons still came in second place. De-Mons returned to the Battle of the Bands at the Glacier for a second and final time in 2005.

As the crowds of these shows grew with the larger and more widely accessible venue of the Glacier Arena, some young and impressionable minds in the audience were blown in ways that would alter the course of generations to come for Mount Pearl punk rock. Brandon Coaker was in his early teens when he first attended a Mount Pearl Frosty Festival Battle of the Bands in 2005. Coaker credits his experience at the show as his first exposure to the local punk and alternative music scene. By 2007, Coaker had started his first band, The Lost Ark!, who would also follow suit by entering the Battle of the Bands competition. In the years that followed, Coaker would play with other Mount Pearl bands such as Astonish Yourself, Narrators and Clocked In.

As bands like Moke Cove finished up their run at the Battle of the Bands as hosts in 2007, another generation of punk bands had made their way into the festivities. In addition to Coaker's aforementioned band The Lost Ark!, young local pop punk band King Sized Kids also headed the next wave of bands to appear as a part of the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival. 

Frosty Festival Battle of the Bands ad made by members of King Sized Kids

The Battle of the Bands event continued to offer a big stage, elaborate production and large audience to young punk musicians from Mount Pearl for many years to come. There was even backstage dressing rooms offered to bands. "Backstage" was an unfamiliar concept for bands in the scene, because in most cases, a typical all ages punk show didn't even have a stage. Mount Pearl bands such as King Sized Kids morphed into other punk bands such as I Was A Skywalker, and their vocalist Matt "Walt" Earle recalls the festival event as being a "yearly party that everyone looked forward to". While there's no secret as to what a high school aged party entails, some anecdotes are best left unpublished.

 

The cash prizes offered by the Battle of the Bands was also an uncommon perk for punk bands. With the expense of putting off your own all ages punk show, or playing matinees at clubs that couldn’t serve alcohol, breaking even was a challenge, let alone making money. The monetary winnings from the Frosty Festival Battle of the Bands may not have always been spent responsibly, but the bonus prizes of Reid Music gift certificates, or the stack of A&W coupons as recalled by I Was A Skywalker, were fringe benefits enjoyed to their fullest. You can't tell the story of Mount Pearl punk without the Frosty Festival Battle of the Bands...

Despite moments of conflict, the relationship between punk and the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival doesn’t have to be remembered as being… well, frosty. While the incidents of rule-breaking is remembered by some just as well as the winners of the Battle of the Bands event itself, the platform put forth by the festival is culturally significant. For many years, the Mount Pearl Frosty Festival has provided the unlikely opportunity for underage musicians who made their own original music to take a stage in their home city, and on an increasingly larger scale. Just as importantly, the event has also offered an entry point for many kids to witness and draw inspiration from an all ages music scene that couldn't continue to flourish without their involvement.

Ultimately, you cannot tell the story of punk music in Mount Pearl without the Frosty Festival Battle of the Bands event.

The Mount Pearl Frosty Festival may have been interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but as the organizers gear up for the 40th anniversary in 2023, one thing is clear: what would a “Ruby” celebration of four Frosty Festival decades be without a little bit of Mount Pearl punk on the bill?