Hillside Music Festival 2009: Final Recap

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Brian in Concerts, Hillside | 1 Comment

It’s been a couple of days now since Hillside. We’ve dried off, had some time to reflect, think about what we saw, and come to some conclusions. Here are the acts we enjoyed most (or least) in a number of categories we just made up.

Best Rock ‘n’ Roll Singing Face: The lead singer of Attack in Black.

attack-in-black1

Just look at that scowl! Top notch. Attack in Black were pretty good. They quite clearly listened to an unhealthy amount of grunge music at a young age, but have a pretty bright future ahead of them if they can catch a few breaks. Read more

Hillside Day 2 Recap: Ohbijou, TPC, SPP and Surprising Dryness

Posted on July 26, 2009 by Brian in Concerts, Hillside | 2 Comments

hillside-sign

Since we have no time this morning to post a full Day 2 recap, mostly because we had no energy to write it last night after getting off the grounds at close to midnight last night and passing out shortly after returning to our hotel after a solid 10+ hours of music festing, here is a quick update on Day 2 and what we’re anticipating as Day 3 begins.

The three highlights from yesterday were far and away Ohbijou, Tokyo Police Club and The Sunparlour Players. Delays seemed to hit all three stages, but Hillside tried their best to keep things moving. As a result, Ohbijou and Sunparlour Players appeared to have their sets cut short, while Tokyo Police Club was told at one point they had ten minutes left, then ten minutes later were told they had another ten minutes. Anyway, despite set delays, all three managed particularly tight sets and great performances. Pumpkin ice cream was again a highlight for Trina, and Sausage Brothers italian sausage and grilled corn on the cob was the height of the food fair.

Also, the lineup to enter the festival was not nearly as long as it was Friday night, though arriving at noon might’ve had something to do with that. Leaving the festival was actually not as bad as anticipated, as we waited around in the VIP parking lot for about 20 minutes listening to the new Sunparlour Players album Wave North, giving the crowd a chance to clear, and our strategy worked out pretty well. There was one big dump of rain around 2, but surprisingly, given the forecast, the day was mostly dry.

If you’re not following me on Twitter, here’s some of the highlights:

- Line for coffee far longer than line for beer right now. Already lightly raining could be wet day #hillside – about 23 hours ago from mobile web

- Dozens of people on stage for bruce peninsula. Bruce is apparently some kind of collective hive mind #hillside – about 22 hours ago from mobile web

- Ohbijou best of the day so far, for sure. Great set #hillside – about 19 hours ago from mobile web

- I think i’ve discovered a fetish for girls in rubber boots. Weird? #hillside – about 17 hours ago from mobile web

- If pearl jam grew up in newfoundland they would sound a lot like hey rosetta i think #hillside – about 15 hours ago from mobile web

My phone battery died two tweets after that. Again, if you’d like to follow me at Hillside again, I’m @brianjpike. If you follow me just for this weekend then unfollow, I’ll understand, I promise.

Today, Trina is most looking forward to Rural Alberta Advantage at 6 on the Lake Stage and Great Lake Swimmers at 7 on the main stage, while personally I’m kind of curious how Dave Bidini’s going to sound (Lake Stage, 3:00) and, as always, am looking forward to seeing Patrick Watson again (Main Stage, 8:00).

Forecast is once again for scattered thunderstorms throughout the day, but hey, those are just the risks we take for you people. The work of the independent blog site blogger that somehow got media passes is never done…

Theatre Review: Reesor (Next Stage Theatre Festival)

Posted on January 18, 2009 by Brian in Everything, Theatre | 5 Comments

Erin Brandenburg in a Promo Picture for "Reesor"

In my previous Next Stage theatre review, I made a couple of remarks at the opening about mid-Winter theatre festivals being efforts by large summer festival companies to “bridge the gap of their fundraising dry months.” I meant it as a harmless lede to my review, but got taken to task for it a bit by the Fringe Festival in the comments section, and in hindsight it does seem kind of a shallow and poorly thought out thing for me to have written, so I feel compelled to address it.

The Fringe says that Next Stage’s genesis was from a desire to help support Fringe artists outside of the big summer fest, especially new and emerging ones, and to give them a platform to launch new works and take them as far as they can go. They don’t pay the Fringe a participation fee (which is not true of a lot of fests) and get a lot of help in terms of rehearsal space and promotion. After all the support they give, the Fringe doesn’t make nearly enough cash to cover even their own costs.

Truth is, festivals like this are never put on with the express purpose of making money. It was a poor implication. The biggest reason a festival, company, or artist gets involved in something like Next Stage is because they love theatre. That’s the bottom line. I’ve been around theatre enough myself as a patron and occasional volunteer to see it and know it’s true; I just take it as a given and leave it unsaid that everyone involved in a festival like this does it because they love it, but it deserves to be said.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about Reesor.

I also said in my previous review that what initially attracted my lovely companion and I to Next Stage was hearing about Reesor, and more particularly the involvement with that production of Andrew Penner of Panic Manual favourites Sunparlour Players. Ricky saw them at Pop Montreal; I was one of about 15 people at the downtown Legion in Calgary who saw their terrific Sled Island music fest performance last Spring, and I also saw them last month at the Dakota Tavern here in Toronto but was too lazy to write about what a great show it was. We were too late arriving to catch Reesor last weekend, but were lucky enough to get tickets to their second last performance of the festival, a 9:15 showing last night (apologies to Beth Marshall for missing L’Ange Avec Les Fleurs again).

And despite the blowing snow that made the trek down Queen Street West to Factory Theatre kind of harrowing, Reesor was definitely worth the extra trip.

Sunparlour Players – Bless This City: Play Now