Editorial & Photography: Amber Waves
One of the highlights of last year’s Canadian Music Week was the so-out-there-it’s-brilliant Live Rock And Roll Spin Class, hosted by Quad Spin and local band Goodnight, Sunrise. Coordinating with Indie Machine, the band arranged to not only play their album start to finish as live accompaniment for a spin class, but filmed the proceedings to create a music video for “The Honeymoon Is Over”. Even I was unsure of how smoothly such a venture could run, but all parties involved created a memorable afternoon.
This year, the festival embraced the event as an official part of the week, which brought with it the reward of Molson 67 beers. The event was also shifted to the Quad East location for more space to watch and spin. Whereas last year’s participants were largely friends or extended acquaintances, by many accounts, this year brought in novices unfamiliar with the band or the concept. As one participant told me, “I saw it on the schedule and thought, ‘That looks very cool!”
With Quad owner/instructor Micheline on board once again, the band tore through an hour of music, earning smiles, sweat and the repeat fulfillment of Vanessa Vakharia’s Adele-esque dreams to lead a spin class (and yes, she managed to sing while on the bike, proving she’s in way better shape than I ever would be). Check out the gallery below, and see how much fun you missed!
(And yes, I PROMISE: if you do it again in 2015, I will spin, not shoot!)
Open 'Til Midnight 