Antifragile making debut performance


By Greg Price Taber Times


Talk about a grand entrance. Practising for a few months now,


Antifragile’s first performance as a band will be on the Cornfest Stage for the young- sters.


While lead singer Katelynn Simmons has


performed on stage since barely into grade school, this will be the first time the band has played publicly as a whole with Sloan Dube on bass,Gavin Kinniburgh on drums and Elliot Cyre on guitar. Simmons did play a small show with guitarist Cyre in Taber in July, and has performed numerous times over the years in Lethbridge at Rock Band shows hosted by Long and McQuade and a number of other recitals and small shows hosted by her various vocal instructors. “I asked a few of my current and former music teachers for recommendations for a bass player, drummer and guitar player.We started practising in early June,” said Simmons.“I’ve been taking vocal lessons since seven years old, pretty much every week, with a few different instructors in


Lethbridge. I love the rush of adrenaline as I perform on stage.The first time I went on stage, I was seven, and it was a lot easier back then.Now, there’s a little more pres- sure because I want everything about the performance to be perfect.” If one were to see some of Simmons’per-


formances that have been recorded on social media, you will see how those les- sons have paid off, with powerful, clear and soulful lyrics,perhaps inspired by some of her favourites in Elle King,No Doubt, Ed Sheeran and Adele. As the band first started to practice


together, they could not reach consensus on a band name. Instead, they decided to go to social media among family friends. One suggestion that caught the band’s eye that took it to a vote was the title of a book, ‘Antifragile’by Nassim Nicholas Taleb — an


investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision- making in a world we don’t understand. Taleb is a Lebanese–American essayist, scholar, statistician, and former trader and risk analyst,whose work concerns problems of randomness, probability,and uncertainty. “What I liked about the name is the deep- er meaning of it — that antifragile gets bet- ter with added stress, it does not break,” said Simmons, adding she hopes that plays out with the band’s first performance in front of a big Cornfest crowd. Still too early in the infancy of the band


to venture out into any original material, Simmons promises the band’s set will be an eclectic offering of recognizable favourites. “In terms of the type of music, it’s really


across the board, from rock and classics, to a wide range of other music styles,” said Simmons.“For Cornfest,we’re hoping to provide a high-energy show that everyone can enjoy.” Antifragile will be performing on Cornfest


Friday (Aug. 23) from 2-3 p.m.on the Cornfest Stage at Confederation Park.


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CORNFEST 2019


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