Preview: SummerWorks Festival 2011

The SummerWorks Theatre Festival — Music Series

All shows are at The Lower Ossington Theatre (100A Ossington). All opener/headliner sets are at 10:30 p.m. / 11:45 p.m.

Now a summer tradition in its fourth year, the musical component of the SummerWorks Festival continues to shine a light on cool, mostly local bands. This year, the Music Series has been curated by the awesome Lauren Schreiber, who puts on concerts under the No Shame banner. That should be enough to let you guess that there will be plenty of intelligent pop with a high probability of dancing — and looking over the bands she's lined up, that looks to be about exactly right.¹ The shows are a reasonable ten bucks and take place in the comfortable space at The Lower Ossington Theatre, a venue where both those-who-want-to-sit and those-who-prefer-to-stand can be accommodated. You'd do well to check out any of these shows, but if you're wanting to learn more about the bands, I've reached back to some of my past live reviews to give you a hint of what to expect — and some live samples, too.

Hooded Fang / Steven McKay

Friday, August 5, 2011

Hooded Fang have been delighting local crowds with their catchy, sunny pop for a couple years now, so some were taken by surprise when they torqued their approach on their recent Tosta Mista EP to foreground a tougher, scrappy beat group-inspired sound. It's still good to dance to, and the band will almost certainly be excited to show off more of their new tunes in a live setting.

Listen! Hooded Fang - Almost Done

Steven McKay, backed by a rotating cast of friends, is becoming known on his own merits, and not just as the drummer for Bruce Peninsula. His unassuming manner goes well with his songs, which are earnest little creations. Handled wrongly, they could have a fatal lack of pretense — songs about the quotidian pleasures of doing the dishes can easily be as dull as, well, doing the dishes — but the arrangements and musical collaboration are what makes this memorable. It might sound underwhelming, but if slow and steady wins the race, he'd surely take first place.

Listen! Steven McKay - Emma Comes Home

Bonjay / Lioness

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Gathering together different crowds is a by-product of the fact that Bonjay singer Alanna Stuart and sound provider Pho aren't interested in limiting themselves too much. This was proven on their EP Broughtupsy, which manages to straddle several divides. Founded in a fusion of dancefloor and dancehall, Bonjay have moved it to the next level with their ability to craft songs fortified by a lot of other pop influences that work just as well on headphones as sound systems. Their live energy has been boosted lately with the addition of a drummer, and the whole package is tied together by Stuart's glorious vox. Be prepared to sweat.

Listen! Bonjay - Frawdulent

Lioness is fronted by Vanessa Fischer (ex-No Dynamics) along with the ex-controller.controller rhythm section of Jeff Scheven and Ronnie Morris. The band's sound is an aggressively soulful death disco laced with bass-heavy maximalist reverberations that work like subliminal dancefloor invocations.

Listen! Lioness - You're My Heart

Great Bloomers / House League

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Great Bloomers, fronted by talented craftsman Lowell Sostomi have slowly been winning me over. Working at the poppier end of the roots-rock spectrum, the band is reving up after a period of lying low — expect some new material in their set.

Listen! Great Bloomers - Dark Horse

What we'll be hearing from House League, meanwhile, is mostly unknown right now, but the mystery comes with the sweet tang of anticipation. Listed as a supergroup "featuring members of Evening Hymns, Forest City Lovers, Matters, and The Magic", we can conclude that this is a new name for the "family band" that has played a few times at celebrations put on by local label Out of This Spark. In the past this has involved both reinterpretations of the members' own songs as well as some goofy-fun cover band action. Whatever we get from this set should be a pretty cool time.

Bruce Peninsula / Jennifer Castle

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Bruce Peninsula should be in a celebratory mood for their show. After taking off the first half of the year while vocalist/guitarist Neil Haverty was treated for leukemia, the band is finally gearing up to release their second album Open Flames. There should be a lot of good vibes as the band raises their voices on their new folk-inspired tunes. This will be one of the most-anticipated sets in the music series, so grab your ticket ASAP.

Listen! Bruce Peninsula - Open Flame

Meanwhile, the excitement for that shouldn't be allowed to eclipse opener Jennifer Castle's set. Following on the excellent Castlemusic album (released earlier this year), Castle is on a creative tear right now, her haunting, hazy songs animated by her blues-y guitar styles and expressive vocals.

Listen! Jennifer Castle - Poor as Him

Miracle Fortress / Ruby Coast

Friday, August 12, 2011

When Graham Van Pelt returned with his Miracle Fortress earlier this year, some were surprised with his new sound, sporting a strong Talking Heads vibe and an 80's DOR undercarriage. But it was actually something that had been foreshadowed when he played SummerWorks back in aught-and-nine. I'm expecting a rabid crowd out for his return to the festival.

Listen! Miracle Fortress - Everything Works

Meanwhile, the scrappy Ruby Coast, purveyors of Tokyo Police Club-esque pop, will be making themselves heard as well.

Green Go / Powers

Saturday, August 13, 2011

It's been awhile since we've heard much from Green Go, but word is that a new album (following up 2009's Borders) is in the works. So expect some new songs constructed with a stripped-down, dance-floor chant sensibility. Bring your dancing shoes.

Listen! Green Go - Brains for Breakfast

Powers were formed out of the ashes of The Ghost is Dancing, and admittedly haven't yet impressed me any more in their new incarnation than they did in their previous one. This unit is at least admirably stripped-down and focused, providing a blacklight dance party, though they have something of a propensity for overreaching for epic grandeur. But with two keyboard players, they're a rhythmically intensive crew who can get a crowd dancing.

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Besides all of this, don't forget the Festival's Opening Party, taking place today (Thursday, August 4, 2011) in the MOCCA/Edward Day Gallery Courtyard. It's free and there'll be performances by The Elwins, Modern Superstitions, Light Fires and others. And also also, don't forget that besides all of this, there's the main theatre component, with a lot of shows worth investigating. (Me, I think I'll check out the one about Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger.) And don't forget to support the festival, which seems to be the victim of some fairly craven political interference with arts funding.

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¹ You can check out more info on all the bands from Lauren if you dig through the SummerWorks blog — look for the posts called "I Love This Band, and You Should Too".

Gig: Green Go / Shellshag / Fiasco / The Guest Bedroom

Green Go / Shellshag / Fiasco / The Guest Bedroom

Over the Top festival. Sneaky Dee's. Saturday May 23, 2009.

Celebrity encounter! Coming up the stairs to Sneaky Dee's, I was dying of thirst and made a beeline for the pitchers of water at the back of the bar. And by coincidence, the person that I almost pushed out of the way to get the water turned out to be local music blogger/ listings curator Historyjen. Instead of giving me a glare, she actually introduced herself and noted we'd been at several of the same Over the Top gigs. A class act!

Meanwhile, on stage, The Guest Bedroom were already playing, though I think I caught most of their set. After I composed myself, I moved to the back of the crowd to check them out. A nice sort of post-punk sound, a bit herky-jerky, and Sandi Falconer's vox brought to mind, say, Yeah Yeah Yeahs a bit. Some tunes were less hooky than others, but I found their set generally agreeable.

Brooklyn's Fiasco started their set with a hi-hat rocking selection that implied a dancey, post-punk sound, but that was a sly bit of misdirection — the band's true underpinnings turned out to be hardcore. They exhibited a kinetic physicality on stage, guitarist Jonathan Edelstein and bassist Lucian Buscemi lurching back and forth, doubled over their instruments. Edelstein's secret weapon was his rapid-fire fingertapping guitar style, which, to my admittedly limited knowledge, is a bit unique in the hardcore game. It brought a "technical" edge to their songs but never diminished their immediacy. Playing a number of instrumental songs from their new Native Canadians album, Jonathan commented, "we're playing everything really slow tonight for some reason," which makes one wonder what their pace would be like when they were really working at it. Those in the audience who were into this really seemed to dig it a lot.¹ I was reasonably entertained, and had a lot of respect for these guys' proficiency and energy. Plus, their final song bore the nobly-titled sentiment of "I Figure It's Better We Do Something Ridiculous Than Nothing At All".

The stage set-up for Shellshag says a lot about the band: Guitar (Shell) stage right, a stand-up, three-piece drum kit (Shag) stage left, and a double microphone in the middle, looking like the frame for a Valentine's Day heart if you squeezed your eyes tight together in the right way. The duo stood facing each other while playing, a sort of he said/she said rock war, fueled by by primitivist riffs and Mo Tucker beats.² The band careened from one tune to the next, nearly a dozen in a half-hour. A lovely DIY mess of domestic squabbles and everyday gestures, Shellshag looked a bit older and more world-worn then most bands at this festival, but exhibited an admirable amount of belly-fire. When the pace slowed for the lovely "Gary's Note" ("Everybody is a magnet some of the time") it seemed like a bit of well-earned, hard-won happiness. The set ended with the most "rock'n'roll" conclusion that I've seen in some time. After unclipping the mics from the drums, Shell passed them down onto the floor in front of the stage, while Shag stepped down to keep playing among the crowd. Soon, one drum was knocked over, and things went mildly chaotic as Shag mounted one of the drums and began stabbing the head with her stick, piercing it, while Shell was prying at his guitar strings, chanting "One! Two! Three!". Of course, the one time something like this happens immediately in front of me, my camera batteries were dead. My recording, however, ended satisfactorily with the sound of a drumstick clattering to the floor at my feet. This was sweet and rough in all the right ways.

Listen to a track from this set here.

And then Green Go.³ The night's headliners have been an act I've wanted to see, not only from general praise for their live show, but also for the fact that I've seen Jessica Tollefsen and Fez Stenton at the front of crowds at various gigs but not on stage at one of their own shows. Premised as dance music played all live, the five-piece delivered a satisfying experience. For music like this, a good live drummer makes such a huge difference, so give credit to Adam Scott for propelling the songs with the right mix of drum-machine constancy without going overboard. The songs were also constructed with a stripped-down, dance-floor chant sensibility, but again, mostly smart enough to not be too merely repetitive. Fully enjoyable. On the one hand, I'm still slightly worried about hearing this music on headphones as an album — speaking broadly, this kind of dance-y stuff doesn't always translate well.⁴ But I'm more than willing to go see 'em live again.

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¹ It was, overall, a kinda thin crowd for Sneaks on a Saturday night, but certainly a there-for-the-music-crowd, and not the unloved we're-here-to-be-seeen yappers.

² Besides her kit, Shag also had bells on her belt, for some extra jangling as she shook.

³ No matter what I do, some wayward perceptual apparatus in my brain always catches this as "Green Goo".

⁴ Although who am I kidding? It's pretty certain I'll end up buying the album regardless. That's just, like, what I do.