This year I'm making my first visit to the Sled Island music festival in several years, combining the event with taking care of family business.
I've covered enough of these multi-venue/ multi-stage festivals to know that if you try to catch everything, you spend more time standing in line or traveling and ending up catching nothing.
So that being said, and knowing I've been known to get lost in my own house let alone in the midst of downtown Calgary, I chose the wise course of action of picking one venue with a lot of different bands including one or two I really want to see, parking myself in a chair with a beer and catching all of the bands on the bill.
I’ve never been one to stand in the rain with thousands of people waiting for the big headliners, like there were in Olympic Park, on Friday, June 20. Apparently Neko Case cancelled, but Joel Plaskett and his band kindly took over and from what I heard, did a hell of a job. I wanted shelter and alcohol.
So I parked my car in a parkade, knowing I would not be able to find it later and dashed through the pissing rain to get my press badges and then to the Palomino where my choices of the night, the Invasives and Public Animal were to play.
Having dealt with family business, I was in the mood for a greasy, sleazy, crazy punk show and that's exactly what I got in the Palomino basement.
I arrived in the middle of a set by Sontag upstairs, it was all right, but the band I really wanted to see was Vancouver based B-Lines, who took their time getting the show started. It was totally worth it. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
When they started an energetic set of nasty Telecaster powered punk. The guitarist stood back thrashing away at his axe while tall, lean, lanky and toothless lead singer Ryan Dyck weaved, dodged and tried to stand up straight while dodging beer cans thrown by the “fans“ going insane in front of the stage.
They yelled, shouted obscenities, started a half hearted mosh pit, jumped on the stage and knocked over the towering bassist's microphone stand. I don't know if they brought in their own fans from Vancouver or not, but the singer shouted “Come on, we heard people from Calgary are nice,” which drew a resounding chorus of “fuck yous” from the audience.
One of them tackled the lead singer and apparently bit his finger.
“Now I have HIV,” he laughed good naturedly, after telling them off for knocking down the stand, laughing that the bassist's background vocals were part of thespund and the audience doesn't get the full effect of the music without him.
He laughed about the difficulty of pronouncing “Fs” with no front teeth and joked about the thundering bass coming from upstairs saying “that's not the between song music we chose.”
They held things together for a very tight set which sounded like a blend of Billy Talent and the Dead Kennedys.
They ended their energetic set with the singer jumping on top of the audience for a little crowd surfing.
I wandered upstairs for Edmonton's The Gods, who were the source of the thundering bass, even drowning out the thunder outside and the chaos down below.
The God were impressive with two lead bassists and a drummer making “ungodly” amounts of racket. But it was a beautiful racket. In addition to thundering rhythms there was some lead bass being played and the two bassists Andrew Patrick and Krista Wynne even sang vocal harmonies.
Downstairs, Sudbury punk band Strange Attractor looked like the Hanson Brothers as they all wore thick glasses as they played an appealin
g set of energetic pop punk with adenoidal vocals like the Dickies and the Dead Milkmen. They played a fantastic, energetic set which was a pleasant surprise and even included a drum solo. The other must see band for me was the Invasives who were playing progressive rock with a touch of punk upstairs.
They will be a nice treat at CKXU's Love and Records this year on Sept. 13.
They played a heavy yet melodic set full of complex guitar riffs and solid rhythm getting the crowd moving. I would have stayed longer, but the deciding factor for me choosing the Palomino were about to take the stage downstairs.
Toronto's Public Animal, who played to all of 10 people in Lethbridge in January have since really picked up their game and showed it for their set.
It was mind and ear-blowingly amazing. I was glad I remembered earplugs.
Frontman Ian Blurton supplied all of the big , beefy, blues based guitar riffs you could ever want— big meaty riffs you could put on a barbecue and really sink your teeth into. You can't miss with a band that includes members of Toronto indie rock royalty like C’mon, Tricky Woo, Bella Clava and the Lyin' Cheats.
Blurton and organist Caitlin Dacey traded high pitched vocals and blew everyone away with a sound that was like a mix of Deep Purple and Hole. They rhythm section of bassist Eric Larock and drummer Ryan Gassi were iron clad and watertight. Blurton dived into the frothing crowd, wandered over to the bar the crowd and put back a shot of Jagermeister.
they return to Lethbridge on Monday to play Bo Diddly's, so if you like huge riffs and a touch of blues , fantastic organ and a whole lot of energy, don't miss them.
I figured it couldn’t get any better than that and wandered off through a drizzling rain in search for the ever elusive car and found it— eventually.
As for tonight, Bob Mould is tearing apart the Republik with Montreal drums and guitar duo Solids who did a wicked job at the Slice last weekend, so that looks like my night.
Though local garage rock band the Yeah Dads are playing the Royal Canadian Legion #1 at 9 p.m. tonight opening for an act to be announced, Roman Polanski's Baby and Mindtroll.
Jesse Northey, who was hanging out at the Palomino as well will be playing with Doug Hoyer at Dickens Pub and Public Animal are playing again at the Ship and Anchor with White Women and the Ex- boyfriends.
There is lots going on.
