I checked out a slew of shows at the first, and hopefully
annual,
Sled Island music festival
last week in sunny
Calgary.
Overall, I
must say that the event, which lasted four nights (June 27 - 30,
2007), was seamlessly executed. There were incredible performances from
emerging local bands and headlining acts, lots of surprises, and very few last
minute schedule changes.
Dylan
- otherwise known as the Dark half of local duo
Jane Vain and Dark Matter -
and I spoke late on Wednesday night on the patio at the
Ship and Anchor while
C'Mon
was exploding inside. He explained to me how exhilarating it was to open for
Cat Power earlier in the evening
- a band they idolize.
Chan
Marshall's two and a half hour show did not disappoint either.
Edmonton's
Darren
Frank set the tone on the second night of Sled Island
by offering a singer/songwriter set which I likened to a young
Paul Simon.
I sat mesmerized during
Destroyer.
Dan Bejar's guitar and vocals reverberated beautifully off the wooden fixtures
in
Grace Presbyterian Church. I
left the church to check out San
Francisco couple
Mates
of State. It was great to see two people so musically and lovingly in tune
with each other. Later that evening, I raced to a special screening of
Daft
Punk's
Electroma at
the
Stride Gallery - the
second of six in North America this summer.
The small gallery space had been cleared so that a room full of
android enthusiasts could sit on the floor and watch the silent film about two
robots on a failed journey to transform into humans. At
Quincy's afterward, I spotted Dan
Bejar checking out
Miracle
Fortress. I stayed to hear
Hylozoists
close out the venue.
I had a chat with
Mother
Mother before their show on the third evening.
Ryan,
vocalist and guitarist, told me how their show at Sled Island
was one of the main stops on their tour. During the show, they unleashed new,
unreleased material on the cheering crowd. In between sets,
Hot Little Rocket kept the energy
level high. Then,
Spoon
blew the roof of the Old MacEwan Hall Ballroom - including some new songs from
their upcoming album into their show. At 1 AM,
Jay
Crocker & The Electric Apes played for a crowd of revelers at
Broken
City - the venue founded by Festival Director Zak Pashak. Later still, at
the Legion #1, the epicentre of Sled Island, the guys from Spoon were spotted
playing
pool upstairs while
The
Adam Brown were playing downstairs.
The closing night of the festival featured a mind-blowing, heavily percussive
performance by the
Boredoms. They
connected with us through beats drawing from a secret primal source. Earlier in
the night everyone who attended
Les Savy Fav was either
touched,
sprayed, crushed or otherwise rocked by
Tim Harrington directly. Local
Nintendo nostalgists
THWOMP!
covered songs from their favourite video games -
Mega Man 2 and
F-Zero.
The
Ex-Boyfriends and
The Neckers kept the crowd rocking.
Now that the dust has settled, I am left wanting more. Everyone who portaged over to Sled Island
is looking forward to next year's lineup. More photos are available
here, and check out the
call-in segment I did with
Lauren Burrows last Friday.
