There was plenty of love and records in Galt Gardens, Sept. 17 for Love and Records 6 which was an immediate hit for University of Lethbridge based community radio station CKXU.
They packed Galt Gardens with thousands of people throughout the day, Sept. 17 as Lethbridge’s usual fall wind threatened to blow tent, ferris wheel and folks into the coulees.
Their usual strong line up of live music attracted an ever increasing number of people into Galt Gardens throughout the day.
They began with a strong contingent of local music starting with local alternative rock duo Sparkle Blood, who opened and closed their set of scrappy punk and garage rock by playing the theme they wrote just for Love and Records.
In between there was plenty of massively groove filled punk and garage rock and rearranged pop hits from people like Elle King and even a little bit of reggae music.
To show the softer side of the Lethbridge music scene, Ryland Moranz and his band, drummer Kyle Harmon, lead guitarist Matthew Robinson and upright bassist Tyson Maiko played a solid set of earnest folk and roots music.
Moranz alternated between playing banjo and guitar. They ended by countrifying the Clash’s “ Guns of Brixton.”
I am glad I caught Megan Nash’s set as I missed her the last time the Moose jaw -area musician’s last Lethbridge show.
She grinned and beamed throughout her set of heart-wrenching melancholic folk and roots music she played on an electric guitar as her sister Jenna sang beautiful background harmonies.
“ I’m going to sing you some more sad songs,” Nash promised, introducing a song about “mistakes.” She noted each verse was a song about a mistake she made in various different communities from Moose Jaw to Yellowknife.
The other act wanted to see was Vancouver accordion playing punk Geoff Berner. The politically incorrect and hilarious Berner noted as MC he was wearing a different hat.
“Some of the things in these songs is pretty controversial, so if you are upset don’t take it out on me when I take off the MC hat,” he quipped as he launched into a profanity tinged set of folk music including “ Daloy Polizei” which had some of the audience 
singing along with the f-bomb in the chorus, which lead to CKXU cutting the live broadcast until he was warned to watch his language.
He sang a variety of uptempo folk punk including “The Rich Will Move to the high Ground” and a song about scams before he was joined on stage with frequent collaborator Kris Demeanor and played a couple of songs with Demeanor and his band, before Kris Demeanor took over with a solid set of upbeat alt country and rock music including the bass heavy highlight “Soul Food.”
I had to take a break for all of the fun, so missed a thorough demonstration of First Nations dancing The Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra’s Museaus group. and drumming as well as Boots and the Hoots and Royal Canoe, but returned just in time for the crowd to swell for the always fun and sweaty Five Alarm Funk.
They played a solid percussion heavy, horn fuelled set of funk rock music which had everybody moving. The wind had even died down by then or maybe Five Alarm Funk blew it away with the sheer power of drums, horns and good vibes.
Frontman Tayo Branston thundered away at his kit, shirtless at centre stage, howling and bellowing ear bending lyrics like a possessed Tom Waits. The other drummer Carl Julig sported a sleeveless t shirt and black cowboy hat, while conga player Tom Towers bounced up and down, his hands a blur as he changed costumes several times throughout the set and even combined a couple. He wore his gorilla mask and tight Batman pyjamas for most of the set, doctor’s scrubs for another song about a baby born too funky, and even a glittering purple alien head for a couple other songs.
So they were a lot of fun and could have played the whole night and nobody would have minded it one bit.
I stuck around for fiddle virtuoso Kytami, who used to play with Delhi 2 Dublin, but combined a rapping MC bouncing around the stage and a DJ with some hit fiddle chops. It wasn’t my style of music but it kept thousands of feet moving in front of the stage. I missed Delhi 2 Dublin who closed off the day.
