CMW 2012: CHUM FANFEST WITH TRAIN, MARIANAS TRENCH, THE NEW CITIES AND MORE!

CHUM held their 5th annual FanFest during Canadian Music Week 2012 at the legendary Masonic Temple in Toronto. This year the two big headliners were due to be Hedley and Train – but rumours started days before the show that Hedley wasn’t going to make it to the show, and moments before the show started it was confirmed. In their place would be a performance by Fefe Dobson- not quite the same as Jacob Hoggard, but as a last minute replacement (that wasn’t Slash…) it was pretty damn good. Those who drove such a long distance to see Hedley though, have a very different opinion.CHUM FM really knows how to show their listeners they’re important besides the incredible entertainment – they provide the fans with free drinks and finger foods throughout the night.

The line up also included Kristina Maria, Victoria Duffield, The New Cities  and that’s not the end of it – other big names were Marianas Trench and America’s new favourite Canadian sweetheart – Carly Rae Jepsen.

Headlining and proving why they’ve been around since the mid-90′s were Train. They could write the book on pulling off the -perfect- set for a FanFest. Every big hit was touched on, lead man Patrick Monahan had the PERFECT amount of crowd interaction and when he had to refer to the lyrics for a brand new song he signed those sheets off to fans. At a high point of the performance, he brought two fans on stage to battle it through Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” – and the winner walked away with a signed acoustic guitar.

There was hardly a soul in the building who wasn’t belting out hits like “Calling All Angels”, “Meet Virginia”, “Marry Me” and “Drops of Jupiter”. Even up in the media and VIP balcony you could feel the sense of community that few bands can invoke in a crowd that diverse.

Click below for all my photos of the night: