SummerWorks Festival 2011 — Music Series
While it's all fresh in my mind, a few notes from the SummerWorks Festival. Longer, more comprehensive reviews will follow down the road a piece.
I managed to make it to four of the six shows in the Music Series. Logistically, everything went very well — pretty much on time and with nice, quick changeovers. And good-sized crowds as well.
Hooded Fang / Steven McKay
Friday, August 5, 2011
A stripped-down lineup for Steven McKay compared to what I had seen before, with McKay backed only by Bram Gielen (stand-up bass) and Thomas Gill (guitar). The suit-wearing McKay (he'd dashed over to the show from a wedding reception) also mixed things up in his setlist, which focused less on his album. There was some older stuff (like the amusing "Immersion Jerks") and a couple brand new songs. An amusing presence as always, the crowd sat down for this one, laughed at McKay's banter and joined in for a couple crowd participation moments. Low-key but engaging stuff.
Like a lot of people, I was pretty eager to hear Hooded Fang attack some of the rocked-up material from their ace new Tosta Mista EP. But I was also curious to see how they'd integrate that with their older material. Unsurprisingly, in the end, it all meshed together pretty well. Leading off with a couple Album cuts, a frenzied version of "Promise Land" was the entry point to the newer stuff. Little details — like more glockenspiel on the new songs then you hear on the album — tied it all together. Ultimately it all found unity as a big dance explosion. And to cap it off, the band finished the night with a brand new song. Not the most polished performance I'd ever seen from the band, but one of the most fun.
Great Bloomers / House League
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
An interesting case. Given this grouping's pedigree, I was thinking we would be getting something along the lines of what we had seen from the versions of the OOTS Family band that had come together at various Out of This Spark-related events. This, however, turned out to be something more like a real band — even if this turns out to be their only gig. The brainchild of Matters/Forest City Lovers guitarist Tim Bruton, the band actually presented a handful of songs that he had written for the occasion. They were voiced by Evening Hymns' Jonas Bonnetta and the band was filled out with the rhythm section of Kyle Donnelly (Forest City Lovers) and Paul Weadick. The originals were solid guitar rockers, and they were joined by a couple covers, including an amped-up version of an Evening Hymns song and a lovingly-reverential take of The Flashing Lights' "Highschool".
Word is that Bruton is heading out of town to further his education. The enthusiasm he brings to the bands he plays with will be missed, but hopefully we'll still get a change to hear him play.
Listen to a song from this set here.
Taking the stage, three of the five members of Great Bloomers were wearing plaid, and "3⁄5 plaid" is actually a pretty apt description of the band's sound. Lowell Sostomi's band has a pop feel welded to a rootsy frame, which creates a fairly wide terrain in which they can work. In the past, I've found Sostomi more convincing in more stripped-down formats than as a rocker, and though this was a generally agreeable set, it didn't cause me to alter my overall impression. Still, there were some pleasingly jaunty moments, like in closer "Speak of Trouble". Bolstering the band's poppier side, a few songs included a pair of female backing vocalists, and the band closed with a Fleetwood Mac cover. There was also some new material in the mix, looking ahead to the band's forthcoming album.
Bruce Peninsula / Jennifer Castle
Thursday, August 11, 2011
A different look in The Lower Ossington Theatre on this night, with the stage reduced to a small riser for the drumkit. That left a string of gear for the headliner stretching across the length of the room, with chalked-on flames licking out to the space where the audience was sitting on the floor for a quiet set from Jennifer Castle. Playing solo with guitar, Castle's set rambled around her songbook — while featuring a fair amount from this year's excellent Castlemusic album, there were some excursions beyond that. The set led off with "For My Friends" (from '08's You Can't Take Anyone) and there was also a gripping unaccompanied run through that album's "One Two Three", only Castle's voice and the hum of the a/c audible in the room. Castle still has a propensity to segue from song to song without pausing, but there are more breaks than there used to be for the crowd to take a breath. Castle's solo music is trance-inducing in the best way, though that might well mean that for some listeners there'd be a lack of dynamics over a half-hour. But an admirable set, as far as I'm concerned.
I hadn't seen Bruce Peninsula's return to live duty at NXNE1, so I was glad to have a chance to see the band back in action. Vocalist Misha Bower, who had missed that show, was back in the fold and was the night's most enthusiastic banterer, spinning out a set-long metaphor comparing creating music to baking a cake. Stretched out across the length of the room, there was a considerable distance between guitarist Matt Cully at one end to the choir at the other.
Unsurprisingly, there was a lot here from the band's forthcoming sophomore album Open Flames (being released on the Hand Drawn Dracula imprint on October 4, 2011). Some of the songs have been around for long enough to be familiar, but there was still a lot to discover in them, like the nimble guitar tripping along during "In Your Light". And any worries that vocalist Neil Haverty would be performing with less vigour after returning from some health issues were largely put to rest during "Crabapples", where, although he didn't run through the crowd while belting out the lyrics, he did dive into it a bit before dashing backstage to grab a bundle of streamers to brandish as the song finished. It all sounded pretty good — the band should be in fine form right off the bat when they hit the road to support the new album.
Listen to a song from this set here.
Miracle Fortress / Ruby Coast
Friday, August 12, 2011
Friday night, and a slightly different crowd on hand, skewing a little younger. It looked like openers Ruby Coast have a bit of drawing power, as there were a fair number of people trying to get up close to the band. I'd seen the band before, and though I recognize they're pretty good at their version of contemporary yelp-pop (shades of Tokyo Police Club/Born Ruffians), that's not particularly my thing. That said, as the band stretched out on their first number and dared to get a little groovy, I was finding it enjoyable enough. There were a few brand-new songs in the set, and the fact that I found a couple of them to be the best things they played augers well.
I had seen Miracle Fortress back in March, when the songs (and sound) of Was I the Wave? were an unfamiliar surprise. This time around, mainman Graham Van Pelt brought a pretty similar show, but it came off quite differently in front of a more knowledgeable audience. One thing that remains a constant is Van Pelt's apparent dislike for traditional stage lighting — working in near darkness, he had just a single spot below him (creating some dramatic shadows on the wall behind him), his bank of coloured lights and his laser projector, zapping red and green shapes on the back of the room.
Van Pelt plays to backing tracks, adding keyb and guit parts as necessary and backed by a live drummer. The drummer feels musically superfluous at times, merely doubling up on the programmed beats, but it does add an appealing visual element to the show. Regardless of the means of production, however, Van Pelt is creating something pretty compelling on stage. In fact, I was pulled into the sound enough that when he returned for an encore to play "Next Train" (from 2007's Five Roses), it actually sounded a little spare.
All in all, a pretty good time. Once again, a massive amount of appreciation has to be extended towards series programmer Lauren Schreiber, whose work continually enriches this city. And kudos to the festival for again bringing together different branches of "indie" culture.
1 That show was, however, recorded by CBC radio, and can be listened to here.
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