Currente calamo: Out of the Box Festival

Out Of The Box Music & Arts Festival

While it's all fresh in my mind, a few notes from this weekend's Out of the Box Festival. Longer, more comprehensive reviews will follow down the road a piece.

There were definitely some things to celebrate in these three days and seven shows. First and foremost, there was a chance to see a whole lotta local talent on display in generally well-curated shows. For that, Randal Harris and his fellow organizers deserve congratulations. Unfortunately, each of the shows I was at were rather under-attended — with two large spaces to fill (simultaneously on two nights to boot) there just weren't enough bodies on hand to give the events the critical mass required for an exciting show. And, as K. adroitly noted, most of the time it felt as if there was a different crowd for each band, but too few people who just came out to experience each night as a whole.

Friday, July 29, 2011. Toronto Underground Cinema

Each of the shows were presented as a themed night, and the first two evenings at the Underground were billed as "3 Dimensions of Rock And Roll", with 3-D glasses being handed out at the door to watch the films being projected on the big screen behind the bands. Now, I'm no big fan of cinematic 3-D — I began to suspect it was a scam after the likes of Jaws 3-D and Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone — but the implementation here didn't really win me over. The projections included a repeating series of random clips that looked as if they were sourced from some 3-D version of youtube — hi-def they weren't. The visual quality was often pretty lousy once blown up to movie-screen size. But it was what it was, and at any rate it was usually a harmless diversion that didn't distract from the bands.

And this was, by my standard, a pretty decent lineup, with bands familiar to anyone who dabbles in the garage-ier end of the local scene. I only got down just in time to catch the last couple songs from The Cheap Speakers, which was a little sad as they were the only band on the bill I hadn't previously experienced. I was just starting to appreciate their groove when a song clattered to a halt, the set ending abruptly, it appeared, with an amp conking out.

I was more settled in as Davey Parker Radio Sound took the stage. Playing their first show with a new drummer (welcome to Mike Jacques), the band pumped out a series of snarling nuggets.

The Hoa Hoa's followed up, taking the stage the same day that the bittersweet news came out that the band would be taking an "extended break" after the release of their forthcoming EP. With a lot of friends on hand, the band played some of the songs from that, mixed in with a couple older ones. "We don't often play with the keyboard anymore," noted Richie Gibson before launching into "Modern Men". There's only gonna be a few more chances to see The Hoa Hoa's for a while — mark down August 25 & 26 at The Boat as a must-see farewell party.

After an appealing set from Rival Boys, the night was closed out by Planet Creature. Having finished recording for their forthcoming full-length, the band is playing with a lot of confidence and mastery of their material. Sometimes that shows in an ability to put the foot down on the accelerator and take their songs to previously-unheard velocities. That was a helpful move, as by the end of a long night, I was wearing down some.

Saturday, July 30, 2011. Toronto Underground Cinema

A second night of the 3-D projections made some of the same material feel even less fresh, but that was countered by a lineup with a couple bands that I'd been meaning to catch live. Foxes in Fiction, the bedroom-pop project of Warren Hildebrand, was just getting underway as I arrived. With an ironing board holding up a heap o' electronics as well as guitar, Hildebrand built up a series of warm and slightly-woozy tunes. Though backed by drum-machine steadiness, there was mostly a relaxing, chilled-out vibe to his songs. On stage, the lack of showmanship might have been a drawback, but in a lean-back-and-watch-the-screen environment like this, it worked out pretty well.

Listen to a track from this set here.

There was a visual switch-up for Human Bodies, with the 3-D remake of Night of the Living Dead playing behind the band. That wouldn't exactly be the sort of imagery that their music would bring to mind — with five players, some horns and a propensity to switch instruments between songs, there was a particular indie-pop sensibility at play here, a sort of languid echo of Broken Social Scene with the shoegaze-y sprawl stripped away. Paint Movement came to mind a little, though this crew wasn't evoking the same kind of Yacht Rock signifiers.

There were a reasonable number of bodies on hand at this point of the night, but in the rather large cinema (it could easily fit well over six hundred) it felt a bit like a Tuesday night at the Skydome — whatever crowd there was was simply dwarfed by their surroundings. Still, the band did manage to get a few people up in front of the stage dancing.

They were followed by Kitchener-Waterloo's Trap Tiger, who were broadly in the same genre as Human Bodies — a sort of third-hand Modest Mouse/BSS thing — but with a bit more of a generic, mersh approach. This wasn't my sort of thing — especially a lengthy, shifting "epic" penultimate song — but there was a group of excitable younger folks up and cheering for it.

Better results from Heartbeat Hotel, who have been getting noticed lately for their recordings. Their textured, swoony pop was propelled by a countervailing propensity towards mildly psychedelic noise, which was a pleasant surprise, and though there was a tension between those modes, it wasn't an unfruitful one. The rhythm section (Andy Smith on drums and Matt Mitchell on bass) drove this along nicely in an unflashy way. High on my list for further exploration.

There was some extra-fancy 3-D for closers Papermaps, with new-fangled glassed being handed out, but it wasn't particularly more effective. But I did enjoy the quartet in front of the screen. The band's stock-in-trade hearkens back to a certain strain of early 90's alt-pop — not in-your-face, but generally effective.

Sunday, July 31, 2011. The Great Hall (and The Great Hall's Theatre Centre Lobby)

Went for different surroundings on the festival's final night. With one of the city's most intriguing acts slated to play ten minutes after the nine o'clock door time, I hustled to get there in time to find a pretty quiet scene. In fact, there wasn't even anyone in sight to work the door as I headed in, but a few minutes later Loom did indeed take the stage to a thin handful of people. On this night, singer/guitarist Brooke Manning was joined by Elaine Kelly (harp) and Thom Gill (keybs), adding subtle touches to her hushed songs. I'm captivated every time I see Manning perform — her songs are like the quiet aftermath of some sort of emotional neutron bomb, but still situate themselves in a world where tenderness is possible. Her Epyllion album (forthcoming on Nevado Records) is going to be a big deal — but instead of waiting for it, I suggest that you seek her out at the earliest opportunity.

Next up were the more sprawling numbers of The Cautioneers. Bringing to mind a couple of the bands I'd seen the night before, this was another example of that sprawling BSS-y thing, taking that sound and severing it from its more unruly precedents and replacing it with a pop-flavoured twist. The band was decent at it, though, and had a reasonable sound, even if the songs weren't strongly memorable. Keyb player Amanda Barroso's vocals stood out on the crowded stage — there seemed to be a half-dozen core members, but there were also some guests on percussion and extra horns. Nothing very unique yet, but there's some potential here.

A sudden shift in the evening after that, as the crowd was led down from the Great Hall to the street-level gallery/café space that acts as the entrance to the Theatre Centre below. At first I thought this was going to be a quick mix-it-up site for a quick set before returning upstairs, but it turned out that suddenly this was the site for the rest of the night. I don't know what happened behind the scenes, but suddenly a totally different crowd was milling around to take over the Great Hall for a DJ night, while the smaller OOTB crowd was consigned to the more intimate room below.

On the one hand, this space felt sized to the crowd that was on hand and gave the rest of the night a not-unpleasant livingroom feel. But the un-airconditioned space was a real sweatbox, which wasn't so pleasant. And the art/theme element of the night ("Planet Earth - An Art Installation celebrating our home. Earth.") was abandoned — a giant globe that someone had put some work into ended up undeployed.

Meanwhile, after the delay of shifting things around, there was a most pleasant set from Lake Forest. This is a new-ish side-project from The Wilderness of Manitoba's Will Whitwam. He was joined for the set by Elaine Kelly (backing vocals and violin), doing double duty on the evening. Given Whitwam's other band and the hardly-less-woodsy name here, I was surprised that the material was less straight-up folks-rootsy here, and hewing closer to a classic singer/songwriter template. Once the lights in the room were replaced by candles and the shifting glow of the Dovercourt traffic lights, the surroundings felt about as cozy and intimate as the songs. Good stuff.

And then something else entirely, courtesy of The Jessica Stuart Few. The quartet played a sophisticated, jazzy brand of pop, with Stuart's nimble guitar work and strong vox at the centre — Joni Mitchell comparisons are the easy route here. She was backed by drums, stand-up bass and glockenspiel — and then, for something even more unique, she played koto on a couple songs. That added an appealing slightly-out-of-kilter element to the music.

Listen to a track from this set here.

There were a couple more bands on the bill after that, but I decided to let that be an agreeable ending to my festival. It had been a long day out in the sun, and I was feeling wiped, and, frankly, the vibe was starting to get a little weird. People looking for the upstairs DJ party were wandering in in increasing numbers, treating the space like a holding chamber for their event, making it feel like the festival was receding into background noise.

Although there were some bumps on the road, everyone behind the festival should be applauded for making a worthy effort. And though the crowds that I saw could have easily accommodated in a smaller, bar-like space — Sneaky Dee's would have felt fine — it's laudable to want to present a different kind of show in a different, er, out-of-the-box environment. If there's going to be a second annual festival a year from now, hopefully there will be some lessons learned here that can be applied to balance music and art and audience.