This afternoon, the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) announced the line-up for the 2014 Fall Kickoff concert, with five artists set to perform in Convocation Mall on Friday, September 19.
Unlike the previous two concerts held by the SFSS, the night will feature both live bands and DJs. Local bands BESTiE and The Faceplants will open the night, followed by Vancouver-based electronic dance music (EDM) artist LUVLYF.
Headlining the show will be Thomas Newson, a 19 year old DJ from the Netherlands, as well as the Montreal DJ duo Paris & Simo.
SFSS VP student services and concert lead, Zied Masmoudi, told The Peak, “It’s sort of a natural progression of the music. When we were looking at the artists we thought, ‘This might be a successful combination.’”
Masmoudi continued, “As the night progresses, it’s going to get crazier. If you notice, the first band is more like slow music, and it gets faster and faster and faster and builds up towards the end.”
The evening will begin at 5:00 p.m. with BESTiE, who won $50,000 as a finalist in November, 2013, in a radio talent competition called The Peak Performance Project. Started in 2012 by a group of East Vancouver boys, the band recently completed their first Canadian national tour.
The second band, The Faceplants, will follow, playing from 5:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Featuring local talent from Coquitlam, the band formed in 2010 and have recently released their debut self-titled EP with the help of Tommy Mac, the basist of Hedley.
“As the night progresses, it’s going to get crazier.” – Zied Masmoudi, project lead
Masmoudi explained that the organizers wanted to include local bands in the evening because the event is meant to promote the undergraduate student society, but also to promote Vancouver talent in general. “We thought that some local talent might have some pull and some following,” he said. The team also hoped that including bands would allow them to cater to students with different musical interests, since the last two concerts only had DJs performing.
Following The Faceplants, the evening will transition to electronic dance music with LUVLYF performing from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Also known as Colette Trudeau, LUVLYF is a DJ, singer and songwriter hailing from Vancouver. She defines her style as the “perfect balance of progressive house and pop music,” and is the first female performer to grace an SFSS concert lineup.
From 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., international DJ Thomas Newson will take the stage. Newson made history in 2013, becoming the youngest person ever to have two records simultaneously reach Beatport’s Top 10 list, which is chosen by the world’s largest DJ and electronic music community. In the last few years, Newson has also received support from Hardwell, Avicii, Tiesto, W&W, and Afrojack.
Newson will also perform at the event’s after party at the Highland Pub.
Finally, the evening will close with DJ duo Paris & Simo performing from 8:30 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. Formed in 2010, the band has earned support from industry leaders like Tiesto, Bob Sinclar, Hardwell, and Max Vangeli. In 2011, they reached #13 on the Beatport progressive house charts with their hit “Aura,” a collaboration with Mark Mendes. In the same year, they also opened for Deadmau5 and Skrillex at Resolution Quebec, playing for a crowd of 6,000.
Masmoudi hopes that these artists will bring lots of energy and enthusiasm to Convo Mall this September. “If you look at all the artists, they’re all young. They’re all less than 21 years old, except for the bands, so they’re all up and coming and they’re all motivated to play at the show,” he said. “We don’t want someone to show up, [to treat it as] just another gig, so we always want all the people around the concert to be motivated.”
Overall, Masmoudi and his team are confident that these artists will offer an exciting start to the school year for all concert-goers. “I think it’s a solid lineup. I think they have a lot of talent,” Masmoudi said. “I’m just hoping that they will give the students the best experience they can have.”
Tickets for the 2014 Fall Kickoff concert will go on sale this week, with regular prices for students set at $30 and discounted tickets for student groups set at $20.
