Festival: Wavelength @ P.S. Kensington

Wavelength @ P.S. Kensington Feat. Lullabye Arkestra / Cloak'ed Claw (a.k.a. Hooded Fang) / Mindbender / The Guest Bedroom / Danger Bay / Isla Craig

P.S. Kensington. Sunday, July 26, 2009.

Walking over from the streetcar, I took my eyes off of the grey, threatening sky only when I had to wind my way past the phalanx of firetrucks. The smoke had cleared, but apparently Massimo's had gone up — though as I went by, I wasn't sure if they were in there or Rancho. Had a few minutes to wander, which, of course was the point of the day, Kensington being closed off to cars for Pedestrian Sunday. Despite the full morning of rain with the assurance of more to come, there were good crowds about taking it in, and the usual variety of small spectacles to behold. I was, however, down here with a purpose, to take in the activity under the Wavelength tents. So I found myself the least possibly befouled spot on the stairs in front of Neutral, somewhere between the cigarette butts and the discarded phone book on the sidewalk slowly being pulped into a mushy maché.¹ Settled down and took in the Faceless Knifefighters stage, hugging the side wall of the convenience store at the top of Augusta as the Wavelength folks finished setting up.²

Isla Craig's soundcheck ambiently rolling over the streetscape melded nicely into her short set. Accompanied by backing tracks and a beat-conductin' companion, Craig lists her genre as "Gospel / R&B / Trance" which is a start. I'm guessing that this particular set was a bit more spare than her usual (if the tracks on her Myspace are anything to go by) but they provided an elegant soundtrack to the streetscape. The first number, with a slightly-wheezy, accordion-like keyboard was the most intriguing, enfolding itself on random chord-stabs by the end. The following songs, one with Craig on guit and the final one with just her vox + beats were pretty fair too. It was a quick set, but certainly left me wanting to investigate further.

And then a super-quick changeover for Danger Bay, playing their second gig. This is a new project for Jonny Dovercourt — who, frankly, you probably owe a hug to for all of the good work he's done — and his cohorts.³ Choosing such a nostalgia-inducing name might be seen a signpost pointing to a backwards-looking aesthetic, and, indeed, you could take your pick of art-punk signifiers to describe their sound.⁴ This could just be my read, of course, but one gets the sense that unlike a bunch of strutting young kids trying to "make it", this looked like a group that were celebrating the music they love, making a racket and having a good time, which are surely rock'n'roll values worth celebrating.⁵ As part of this process, joy, pleasure, and attraction are giving way to strength and creativity. All four members were contributing here, Howlett's bass tugging nicely against the guit, and O'Sullivan's frontwoman hoodoo, if not yet overpowering, was not being overshadowed. Perhaps as much a product of having newer and fewer songs, the band came out swinging with a series of punkish run-and-gun force bursts, but there are signs — such as on "Prince of Gauntness" — of some more complex dynamics to come. After the five-song set was over, I was surprised to note that it had all zoomed by in a sprightly twelve minutes and change. A fun performance from a band just getting wired up — keep your eyes on this bunch, there's undoubtedly interesting things a-comin'.

Listen to a track from this set here.

After a leg-stretching jaunt round to see the sights, came back with The Guest Bedroom already on stage. After seeing them a couple months ago, my notes included the slightly underwhelming "generally agreeable" as a summing up, which might say as much about my mood at the time. Of course, it could say something about my mood on this afternoon that I was much more into their sounds. Some nifty keyboard moves behind Sandi Falconer's guit subvert things enough to keep them interesting. This band is starting to sink in with me — once more ought to do the trick.

If you're of the opinion that a bit of chaos and unpredictability can make a gig better (a notion to which I am not entirely unsympathetic), then a cloudburst at an outdoor show might be just the ticket. It certainly added a unique flavour to Mindbender's set. Completely unknown to me save for the spraypainted stencil reading "MINDBENDER LOVES YOU" I saw as I was walking to the show. Turned out to be the nom de geurre for M.C. Addi Stewart, who came solo, rhyming over pre-recorded tracks. Just as he started his set, a few drops came down from the sky. Which turned into a steady rain, and soon a downpour. Refusing to bow to the elements, Mindbender increased his flow to a torrent and kept plowing through, and when he said he'd sooner be electrocuted than stop, I believed him — even if he was playing onto to a thin line of listeners hugging the building across the street and a few foolhardy passers-by. He came across as someone putting his guts on the line, so dedicated to his craft that he was willing to challenge the storm. Fighting not only the rain but a slightly glitchy sound system, he managed to deftly toss out dense clumps of accomplished rhymes. Eventually someone thought to hand him an umbrella, which he used as much as a prop as protection. It can't have been an ideal show from the artist's perspective, but it was captivatingly memorable stuff. Kudos. Look up "weatherproof" in the rhyme dictionary and there'll be a picture of Mindbender.

Cue the storm. While Mindbender was persevering, the volunteers were busy behind him, lowering the tents and generally battening down the hatches in an attempt to keep the gear dry. When he was done, it looked like there was gonna be a pause to see if things'd clear up any, so I passed some time looking for dry ground to occupy. I ducked around here and there, and on coming back, it looked like things were gonna be a go. Looking at the musicians milling around, I realized I had once again been slow on the uptake and Cloaked Claw, the next-billed band, were none other than Hooded Fang. Geez, you'd think I'd never done a crossword puzzle in my life. Hooded Fang's deck seems to have been shuffled a bit, this show finding Daniel behind the kit. The band sounded a little thin with the street system P.A., but still managed to get their peppy songs across. A bouncy take on "Circles and Blocks" certainly hit the spot, and left me looking forward to seeing them indoors at this week's Rural Alberta Advantage gig.

It might seem jarring to follow Hooded Fang's cuddly pop with the metallic apocalypse of Lullabye Arkestra, but in the Wavelength spirit, it made perfect sense. Both are part of the same community, and though playing last, the band were hanging around all afternoon, taking it all in. In fact, despite their abrasive music, the duo ooze positivity, and outside a union hall, there are few people who can publicly start a sentence with "brothers and sisters" more sincerely than Justin Small. All of which is to say is I love Lullabye Arkestra's spirit, even if I'm not one hundred per cent behind their musical direction. I do find it bracing, though, and it's hard not to pick up on the energy that these two put across. Under a persistent rain for much of the set, after a white-noise selection of their own stuff, their take on "Summertime" was like a cool breeze. The set ended with some mild chaos. After passing a mic out to the crowd for some collective vocals, the tarp covering the seams between the tents overhead began to give, dripping onto Justin mid-tune as volunteers tried to prevent/cause further confusion. Justin and Kat ended the set in a clinch before being called back for one more, offering a cover by 90's Winnipeg sludge-thrash warriors Kittens. Recently signed to Vice, L. Ark. seem poised to make waves worldwide and will serve as fine ambassadors of Toronto.

Listen to a track from this set here.

Feeling pleasantly exhausted, made my way back to Spadina to catch the streetcar, pausing only to gawk inside the smoke-damaged windows of Massimo's a bit.

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¹ This was one place where you would most assuredly not want to let your fingers do the walking.

² In a nice touch, the wall of movie posters behind the bands had been painted over by artist Benjamin Oakley, who supplied a benign-looking cat to watch over the proceedings.

³ Because pedantic tracking of who was previously in what band never loses its appeal, the Danger Bay CV is useful to have on hand:

Jonny Dovercourt (guit, vox, butch moustache) — ex-Republic of Safety, The Magnetars, Currently In These United States, Christiana, Kid Sniper, Secret Agent, A Tuesday Weld

Paul Weadick (drums) — ex-Entire Cities, Forest City Lovers

Brendan Howlett (bass) — ex-Entire Cities, Henri Faberge & the Adorable

Deirdre O'Sullivan (vox, presence) — first band!!

Thanks to Jonny for providing me with this background info.

⁴ For what it's worth, I heard a certain amount of spiky Sonic Youth in there, but feel free to come up with your own.

⁵ This has hitherto been a niche in the local music ecosystem filled by The Two Koreas.