Glass Apple Bonzai
Musician Dan Mackie finally makes his hometown Detour tonight.
He could win music awards here, but he couldn’t perform here.
That was the dilemma facing St. Catharines’ Dan Mackie and his synthpop project Glass Apple Bonzai.
Not only was there a lack of clubs which could accommodate his elaborate electronic show, but there weren’t any other bands to pair him with. It made for a frustrating few years as he built his name in other cities even as he was being recognized by the Niagara Music Awards.
Two years ago, he won for engineer of the year and album of the year. Last year, he won for EDM artist of the year.
But venues simply didn’t know what to do with him.
“It’s such a hard sell because it’s such a unique, isolated type of music for this area,” says Mackie, who goes by Dan Belasco on stage. “I understand why, so it’s less frustrating.
“I would have the same problem myself if I was a promoter or booking agent in the area. It would be like, ‘Who do I even put you with?’”
Well fret no more, Glass Apple Bonzai isn’t just doing a homecoming show tonight, it’s a home debut. Mackie will team with Winnipeg band Ghost Twin — his label mate on Toronto-based label Artoffact Records — for a high energy twinbill at The Detour Music Hall in downtown St. Catharines.
With a nod to horror movies, ’80s pop and video games, Glass Apple Bonzai walks its own bizarre path in Niagara. The 37-year-old Mackie has been in a handful of bands (including Defense Mechanism), playing Niagara since he was 13. None of those bands, he’s proud to say, were easily accessible.
“Every musical project I’ve ever done has been like that … there’s always some element of it that’s outside the norm, even for that kind of music, where it’s been tougher to get people to pay attention,” he says. “But it also garners me some of the best fans.”
Which is why the long-awaited St. Catharines show was “a mission” to him.
“For personal reasons, I need to play here,” he says. “Because it was so frustratingly not happening. And it had to be St. Catharines, it can’t be Niagara Falls or Ridgeway. I’ve been playing the area for so many years and I’ve seen it thrive and die a number of times. I really grew cynical about it … people just weren’t coming out to shows. But that’s how it is everywhere. The bulk of us in the world have every bit of entertainment we want at our fingertips.
“The people that were reluctant to go out before are now not going out at all.”