“Don’t you know why people love one another it so they can feel their hearts beat together”

By Will McGuirk

There were a lot of plans for the SHWALTZ, over a decade ago now, but for me, building the list of acts, it was to bring together pals who hadn’t hung out in a while. Bands tour, the Durham Region scene was busy, lots of bands and lots of high school buds and Dungeon alumni and Velvet Elvis kids had moved on, mostly to TO, hitting the road, making records and waves and missing each other in person and in spirit. So the Shwaltz crew wanted to gather everyone home for a day.

Pete Carmichael was in the Diableros, they came out, it seems every band in the D-Rock had some connection to Pete; Another Blue Door, Winnie’s Concepts, Sports - I have visions of stored old tapes and CDs in my head from back in those days and have the Diableros vinyl beside me as I write.

We found out last night Pete had passed away at his home in Toronto. He was still making music, still playing and still in the scene, The Volts were, I believe, his latest outfit. Pete and I shared a birthday so we stayed in touch on that day but folks grow up and move away. He was lovely, he had an air to him that perhaps only Rock ‘n Roll emits. He was born for music, it was deep in him and when he sang, such painful beauty in that voice.

The Shwaltz gave us all a chance to hang. It was a celebration of us by us in a city, a region, which doesn’t offer much to kids wanting to create, to make, to matter. So we mattered to each other. It rained in the evening and we had to pull the plug after the Diableros. We moved the whole thing, an entire festival, to the Atria, cramming everyone in, for an unforgettable night, an unforgettable gathering.

There are others on that poster we have lost - Glenn, Michal, Chris and now Pete. We offer our condolences to Pete’s friends and family. And we hold dear onto the memory of that day.

“2020s goal: be the most roaringly loud dandy; get suspenders, a cane and a roadie.” - Pete Carmichael