Club Push (one of the more informal events that take place throughout the festival at Performance Works on Granville Island) local music legend Veda Hille organized a birthday party. She invited various artists and musicians to prepare 'presents' - mostly songs, videos and comedy routines complaining about Vancouver but admitting that we all kind of like it, despite everything. Contributors included Geoffrey Farmer, Meryn Cadell, Maiko Bae Yamamoto, Geoff Berner, Laura Barrett and Chris-a-riffic.
The bulk of the evening (and the highlight!) was performed by the Vancouver Complaints Choir. It turns out there are Complaints Choirs all around the world - where was I? Veda Hille is the conductor and organizer but the song lyrics come from real complaints from real people. "The number 20 bus is the most useless bus in the universe," and "I also don't like plant theft, Main Street hipsters, homelessness, Kitsilano body beautiful," were a few of my favourites. The songs were hilarious and the choir itself sounded wonderful.
More Club Push events Feb 2nd-5th. Tickets are $25.