Chucks, ankle boots and low black heels are a “shoe-in” for Edmonton musicians when it comes to their performance footwear.
Forget about $890 (US) Buscemi high-tops or Nicki Minaj’s gravity-defying Zanotti stilettos — our musicians want to be comfortable onstage, without blasting their bank accounts.
“If I’m tour, I bring options — usually a pick between flat ankle booties or heeled ankle booties,” says soul-pop songstress Nuela Charles.
“If I’m playing a local gig, I always assess the stage during sound check to see the state in which it’s in because I don’t want to get a heel stuck in a crack or lose balance or any other unpleasant things. I never wear anything ever too high. I tried that once — platforms. Nearly died.”
Some local musicians go so far as performing in their socks.
“Wearing shoes feels so clunky,” says Jim Cuming, better known by his stage name, Jom Comyn. “I rehearse shoeless. Mind you, I don’t take my socks off. Nobody would appreciate that.”
“It feels like you’re at home,” says Joe Nolan, who has yet to be called Shoeless Joe. “Sometimes you gotta keep ’em on, though. I wore (shoes) at an outdoor gig in Lloydminster when it was minus 40. You gotta keep your toes alive.”
We surveyed the feet of a few of Edmonton’s musicians:
MITCHELL LAWLER
This hip-hop artist loves to perform in his skateboarding shoes: Nike Zoom SB Stefan Janowski, to be precise. “They’re mad comfy so you can rock them all day and they’re snug so you can jump around onstage without fear of them slipping off or chafing you,” says Lawler. “They’re a low cut so you can show your sock game off too, which always a nice touch.”
He also loves his “hella fly” Jasper sneakers — by Diamond Supply Co. — but he can’t wear them onstage. He found out the hard way.
“They’re not the most flexible shoe and their grips are near non-existent. The first and only time I wore them performing, I almost lost my footing multiple times. It probably didn’t help that we had to perform on a wall of speakers — where people decided to leave their drinks — but I’d still never perform in them again. I’m gonna save these to get dressed up and hit the town.”
Chuck Taylors are Ben Shillabeer’s choice of footwear.
BEN SHILLABEER
As the drummer in country-rock band The Dungarees, he might be the only member who doesn’t wear boots onstage. He prefers his Converse high-tops.
“I wear them when I play drums because they are light, subtle and never seem to go out of style,” says Shillabeer. “Many times I’ve had to go buy a new pair simply for the fact that I’ve walked in vomit in a club at the show the night before. They’re only 50 bucks and I’m not gonna wash the old ones, especially in some motel sink when I’m on tour.”
Would he consider playing shoeless? “Imagine sharing gear and the drummer before you was walking around this packed club with 800 drunk people and there’s god knows what on the floor, then you go up there and put your bare feet on the same pedals that he played with just before?!”
We’ll take that as a no. “Plus, it’s not very rock ‘n’ roll to play in socks,” says Shillabeer. “Unless you’re the Red Hot Chili Peppers.”
Cue rimshot.
A little heel goes a long way for Rachel Woznow.
RACHEL WOZNOW
“I love shoes. I love all kind of shoes,” says the 19-year-old vocalist behind Big & Loud, a recent Top 40 radio hit in the U.S.
“I think it depends on where I’m performing and what I’m singing, but I definitely love my fun heels,” says Woznow. “I love things that are kind of edgy but girlie at the same time. I wouldn’t see myself in stiletto pumps onstage, but I have these chunky sandals that are really, really fun.
“I wore them for my performance at Hot 107’s Hot Factor block party and I remember how much fun I had. They were very flattering and I could still dance around in them.”
P.S. Steph Blais has another Blundstone boot just like this one.
STEPH BLAIS
This singer/guitarist takes her black leather Blundstone boots wherever she goes with Post Script, a bilingual folk-pop trio. “They are by far the best purchase I’ve ever made — excluding my guitars,” says Blais.
“They go with anything and everything and are very versatile. I absolutely hate wearing heels while I perform. I always end up losing my balance and being a clumsy person in general, I try to avoid any bad situations that could potentially happen.”
Soft bottoms are one of the selling points of Rebecca Anderson’s Cuban tap shoes.
REBECCA ANDERSON
“I think it’s important to have shoes you can trust onstage,” says Anderson, who sings and plays keyboard and accordion for F& M, a baroque-pop trio.
“Since 2014, I’ve only worn my old Cuban tap shoes (without the taps) onstage. They have soft bottoms so it’s easy to feel (my keyboard) pedals and also manoeuvre on a messy stage, and I like how comfortable they are.”
In the past, when she wore boots onstage, Anderson often kicked off the right one so she could feel the pedals under her toes. But her tap shoes offer many more benefits than going shoeless.
“My tap shoes have the perfect heel height!” she says. “They give me good balance when I’m standing with my accordion and great knee height for sitting with it. They are very ratty looking but I love them.”
Jesse Northey makes a point of going shoeless at the Stanley A. Milner Library Theatre.
JESSE NORTHEY
Pedal power is also key to this singer/guitarist/producer. He opts to go shoeless onstage because he uses quite a few guitar pedals — and he can operate them better in socks than in his Doc Martens.
“My boots are usually too big and hit too many pedals at once and cause trouble,” says Northey, who fronts Jesse and the Dandelions. “And I only wear one pair of shoes. I’m the kind of guy that when I go to buy a new pair of shoes, I throw the old ones in the garbage.”
“But there are certain bars that you don’t want to go shoeless because you’ll be bleeding on the floor if you step on glass, so I play it by ear. I wouldn’t go shoeless at Wunderbar, but I would go shoeless at The ARTery.”
Talk about a diplomatic answer. Both bars no longer exist.
