festival ∙ Rock the Shores 2012 · Victoria BC

In photography by webmeister Bud

Some very weird (but great) memories from the inaugural Rock the Shores.

20120717 - Rock the Shores-0001Canon EOS 550D (T2i) · Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM
10 mm · 1/1000 s · f/20 · ISO 1600

While awaiting my ride, this happened. What the what?

In what was perhaps a foreshadowing of the rest of the day’s weird weather, clouds of what I can only presume are steam washed over the cruise ship dock and Helijet terminal.

What’s that, Bud? Did you say Helijet?

Yes, Helijet. I FLEW TO ROCK THE SHORES.

 

It was a fantastic day of music, with performances from Jets Overhead, Current Swell, Sam Roberts, and headliners lightning.

20120717 - Rock the Shores-0002Canon EOS 550D (T2i) · Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM
11 mm · 1/15 s · f/11 · ISO 100

Yeah, that should’ve read “headliners The Tragically Hip,” but Mother Nature had other plans. Three songs into Sam Roberts’ set, the wind and lightning was threatening enough to force the organizers to temporarily shut down the show, lower the crane-raised speaker stacks, and lift every scrim which could act as a sail and pull down fences or, y’know, the stage.

Here’s Sam Roberts, starting his second song, unknowingly 2/3 through his set:

20120717 - Rock the Shores-0003Canon EOS 550D (T2i) · Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM
73 mm · 1/250 s · f/4.5 · ISO 800

It took a while but, eventually, the storm passed over us. The audience, crew, and volunteers were kept greatly entertained by Mother Nature, who showed us she still knows how to rock.

The majority of the patient crowd hung around, texting and calling friends (very possibly the cause of the network outages experienced around that time), singing O Canada, “Ooh”ing and “Ahh”ing at every lightning flash, and generally being very well behaved under the circumstances.

By the time the clouds, wind, and lightning finally made their way far enough north for the show to continue, the sun had reappeared beneath the clouds, and:

20120717 - Rock the Shores-0004Canon EOS 550D (T2i) · Sigma 10-20mm F3.5 EX DC HSM
10 mm · 1/15 s · f/11 · ISO 100

It was a very cool show in the middle of a very cool show.

There were a number of elements which needed to be reset, rejigged, or rebooted but, eventually, as the sun set and the odd lightning strike lit up the night sky, The Tragically Hip blew on to the stage.

20120717 - Rock the Shores-0005

Gord and the gents were at their best, making for a hell of an apology for the delay.

=)