It was quite a night in Toronto at the Phoenix - ten of Canada's most talented artists all in the same room, being recognized for a year of fantastic, underrepresented music. Here are my picks for the Top Ten highlights of the night:
- Defying oddsmakers who predicted 'bigger' acts like Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, and Wolf Parade would be a lock, Final Fantasy (aka Owen Pallett), walks away with the Polaris Prize, $20K, and more media attention than he's ever seen before.
- A huge amount of mainstream media coverage - Owen did TV interviews with ET Canada, E-Talk Daily, MTV Canada, MuchMusic, Global, and CBC. Did anyone ever think they'd see Final Fantasy on ET Canada? Anyone?
- Polaris emcee Jian Gomeshi firing off a series of zingers about how many members Broken Social Scene had, culminating in BSS' Kevin Drew hucking a dinner roll at Jian on the stage.
- Polaris emcee Jian Gomeshi blaming any joke that bombed on Grant Lawrence.
- Wolf Parade saluting their pick for the band that should have been in the top ten, but wasn't: Black Mountain. (I actually don't think Black Mountain was eligible because their album was released too early, but it was still a very nice gesture.)
- Cadence Weapon wearing a CBC Radio 3 hat all night.
- Carl Newman suggesting that if the Polaris Prize actually had to be physically fought for, that the New Pornographers would kick Broken Social Scene's ass.
- Hearing inside dirt about the backstage squabbling between the jurors making the final decision, including a glass thrown across the room!
- Despite a technical glitch, Final Fantasy's live performance absolutely blowing away the audience.
- The album title for the first ever Polaris Prize: 'He Poos Clouds'.
What do you think about the Final Fantasy triumph? (Check out pics from the night on
Flickr)
