By Laurie Lonsdale
As most people know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, jam packed with a multitude of affairs and fundraising events. For the ninth year in a row Hard Rock International has stepped up with a charitable campaign, joining together once again this year with breast cancer survivor, Grammy winner, and multi-platinum recording artist Melissa Etheridge, in order to launch Pinktober.
The promotion is intended to raise awareness as well as money with sales of merchandise that includes a collectible Pinktober pin; this year's design incorporating a guitar with the familiar pale pink ribbon.
Additionally, Pinktober fights against the disease with a series of live music shows taking place at Hard Rock locations worldwide. Performers this year embrace Etheridge herself, in addition to rock band The Donnas, ex-Spice girl Melanie C, Starsailor, and multi-Grammy winner R&B vocalist Chaka Khan, to name a few.
Toronto's Hard Rock at the Yonge Street location hosted their event on Friday October 24th, with three all-female power acts that included DAME, Scarlet Sins, and Basia Lyjak.
DAME, the power trio from Brampton, is quickly making their mark on the music scene. Gigging non-stop over the past two years, the band has become quite comfortable on stage and has matured in their song crafting, as well as in their performance. While singer and bass player Katee Lee has grown dramatically with her vocal delivery, guitarist Faye Moreau has blossomed into an engaging performer, and drummer Kayla Faye has perfected her delivery and stage presence.
With this in mind it's no wonder that 2008 has packed a punch for the band and has bestowed several accolades, including In-Tune Magazine's Publisher's Choice Awards for Best All Female Act, Best Rock Act, and Most Likely to Succeed. Early summer saw the energetic threesome stake their place among Toronto's Top 1000 Women in the Arts, in Luminato/Lancome's Mille Femmes, while later in the season brought impressive back-to-back wins at the Toronto Independent Music Awards, for Best Alternative Rock Band and Best Song.
Along with the awards have come acknowledgements from some of Canada's leading music authorities, including veteran producer, songwriter, and musician Greg Godovitz, and George Stroumboulopoulos, former Much Music host/current host of The Hour, as well as the Strombo Show on fm radio 102.1 The Edge. He speaks favourably of Dame, and supports them with interviews and regular airplay on his radio show.
Nevertheless, the socially conscious group are not all about awards and recognition, as they generously donate a large amount of their time to performing at charity events. One of their biggest causes is breast cancer, as the disease recently struck close to home for the band. As such, it makes sense that they opened the show for the Toronto contingent of Pinktober.
Also on the bill was Scarlet Sins, the Toronto-based progressive metal band that features Sylvya NuVynska on vocals, Cristina Bishop on guitars, Tanya Nicklaus on bass, and Elie Bertrand on drums. This kick-ass foursome is taking the metal world by storm with their eponymous debut album produced by Richard Chychi, who has worked with such bands as Rush and Aerosmith. Critical acclaim for the album and support from the Heavy Metal Music Association of Canada and has allowed the women to branch out beyond playing at local clubs, and has brought forth the opportunity to share the spotlight with metal queen Doro Pesch, and open for such prominent bands as Buckcherry, Cyrus Hill, Helix, and Anvil.
This past summer the band showcased at the North by Northeast Music Conference, ironically with DAME. Later in the season they were presented with the memorable honour of opening for Motley Crue at Sarnia's Bayfest, after the Crue themselves selected Scarlet Sins over 600 other Sonicbids applicants. That's no small feat!
And now, as testament to their talent and popularity, the band has secured a place on the ballot for the 2009 Grammy Awards, for categories including Best Rock Album, Best Hard Rock Performance for "Drown" and for "Strangelove", and finally, Best Rock Song for "Drown."
With new management in place and a follow-up album in the works, Scarlet Sins is riding high, and recently stated that they were happy to give back by appearing at Pinktober.
Also chosen for the Toronto assignment of the concert series was rock chick Basia Lyjak, where she debuted a new single titled "Never Wanted Anything." Her current EP Writings on the Wall has collected five International Online Music Awards and is garnering much in the way of positive feedback from the industry.
In the past two years, Basia has showcased twice at the North by Northeast Music Conference, and has shared the stage with April Wine, The Mudmen, and possibly the most memorable Canadian rock chick from the '80's, Lee Aaron. Basia's efforts have also been cited by the media, with articles in the Toronto Sun newspaper and Canadian Musician Magazine, and she's been interviewed by former Rockstar contestant and recording contemporary Tara Slone, for Sun TV's Canoe Live. More recently, her single "Don't Talk" and her EP Writings on the Wall were each nominated for Toronto Exclusive Magazine Awards. These are but a few of Basia's accomplishments to date, but instead of looking over her shoulder she's already looking ahead, firmly focused on what's to come.
She soon will be collaborating with Juno award winner and former lead vocalist for Slik Toxik, Nick Walsh, and also plans to cover the Ô60's tune "These Boots are made for Walkin'!" originally made famous by Nancy Sinatra. Along with band mates Ron Bechard (guitar), formerly of Crazy Babies, Glenn Nash (drums), and bass player Dave Carreiro; Basia is set to return to the studio, and is quite prepared to extend her already-impressive resume.
With testimonials that read like this, it's no wonder DAME, Scarlet Sins and Basia were tapped to play Pinktober. Surely they were suitably chosen for the event, for they exemplify strength, courage, and determination (three key ingredients in beating breast cancer), and undoubtedly represent and inspire strong women.
