Artist: Weaves
Songs: Walkaway + My Generation [The Who cover]
Recorded at Artscape Daniels Spectrum (Venus Fest), September 30, 2017.
The idea of a "feminist music festival" might bring to mind an earnest folkie gathering, maybe off in a forest somewhere, but this first annual event was nothing like that, using inclusive and intersectional ideals as guideposts to programming a day of wide-ranging musics. The brainchild of local musician Aerin Fogel, Venus Fest was an ambitious undertaking, presenting a dozen performances in Daniels Spectrum's spacious multi-purpose Regent Park digs. And it all came together quite wonderfully, highlighting a diverse slate of mostly local musicians and incorporating flourishes like Vanessa Rieger's live-mixed visuals. With this first festival completed, there's a new "sessions" series starting up, and lots of energy to build on the positive vibes this day released.
It'd been more than a year since I last saw Weaves in action, then on the cusp of their first album's release just as this show served as a preview of their second. Those months in between not only saw them spending a lot of time touring the world, but somehow also gave them enough time to turn over their setlist. Besides all the new songs that the band unleashed, it was interesting to see a few incremental changes in their live approach, including an extended cameo by Fake Palms' Michael le Riche on second guitar as well as increased backing vocal duties for Zach Bines. In the blistering set-closing Who cover, he got to play Lenny Kaye to Jasmyn Burke's Patti Smith, providing the sturdy bones of the song as Burke took to the crowd with a monologue that re-positioned the song as an anthem for her generation.
[Weaves will be performing alongside the likes of Feist and Lido Pimienta at the New Constellations Tour's closing stop in town at The Opera House, Wednesday, December 20th.]
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