Canadian Music Fest 2010: Day One

featuring Fergus Brown, The Wilderness of Manitoba and Dead Letter Chorus

Although this year's Canadian Music Fest seemed somewhat more disorganized than usual, I was actually able to keep my personal schedule pretty much in tact, sticking relatively close to my original plans, with the exception of a couple of minor snafus on the Friday night. Even my mood was organized as I opted to go for the festival acoustic ease-in, and lead up to a rock 'n roll finale for Saturday night. (As anticipated, I was a little bit too brain-dead by the time Sunday came along.) Choosing to go mellow for Wednesday night meant that I was starting things off at a place called The Painted Lady on the corner of Ossington and Dundas, a place in my neighbourhood that I must've walked by on several occasions, but failed to notice until this evening.

To describe it as intimate would be an understatement, and when I arrived at the venue, I was a little worried that only myself and the bands would be in attendance for this one. Still, I grabbed myself a beer and settled down at one of the tiny circular tables near the stage. A small but healthy group of people began rolling in, and we prepared ourselves to chill out with the quirky sounds of Australia's Fergus Brown.

When a man named Fergus Brown releases an album entitled Burgers Frown, then you just know that he's going to be of the whimsical sort, and that he was. What made him even more interesting was that those sounds were contrasted with beautiful melodies that could possibly make a sensitive person cry if they're not really paying attention to the lyrics. He started with a solo acoustic number that really highlighted his pitch perfect voice, and even though the guitar was apparently slightly out of tune, it didn't affect his delivery in any way. (I, or course, didn't notice that it was out of tune, but he mentioned it after that first song, jokingly complaining that Air Canada broke his guitar.) For a few numbers, he had some musical accompaniment onstage to flesh out some of the rockier material and the chemistry was obvious. His first single, wryly entitled John, She Was Never Only Dancing (a response to a Bowie song with a similar name, in case you didn't know, although you should) was probably the highlight of his set, which all flowed together nicely as he concluded by thanking us for having him in our "lukewarm city."

Myspace: Fergus Brown
Photos: My pictures of Fergus Brown @ The Painted Lady are up on flickr.
[My refusal to leave my comfortable seat to get up close for a better picture of the man resulted in some of the crappiest photos of my career but I've included them for your entertainment pleasure anyway.]

While the rest of the world continues to sing the praises of the very good, but kinda dull Fleet Foxes, I've been continually ingesting the sounds of The Wilderness of Manitoba, a band that follows that same line of harmony laden folk, but with a lot more imagination and depth, which allows me to listen to their album often, in its entirety, on repeat, which admittedly is something I can't do with everybody's favourite foxes. Still, due to circumstances beyond my control, I had not yet seen them live, and although the opportunity to see them play venues such as The Horseshoe, The Garrison and Glenn Gould Theatre have all eluded me, it seemed somewhat fitting that my introduction to their live selves should be at a place as warm and intimate as this one. Besides the songs from their excellent EP, they showcased a few newer songs as well, some of which were layered in a little bit more atmosphere than before, reminding me a bit of a band that I liked a few years ago called A Northern Chorus. The vibe suited them well and filled me with great expectations on their follow up release, whenever that may be. The song Evening, which is a cover of a song by lead vocalist Will Whitwham's mother, is a beautifully touching tribute to someone who was obviously very instrumental to creating the 60's folk sound that pervades throughout the album and I just loved seeing them perform it. They ended the set with a Timber Timbre cover, that I personally thought outshone the original, making it sound like something that they could have written themselves. There's a reason why they're one of the most loved bands in the city right now, and I'm glad that I got the chance to finally see them live.

Myspace: The Wilderness of Manitoba
Download: Bluebirds mp3
Photos: The Wilderness of Manitoba @ The Painted Lady on flickr.
[Still seated. Pictures still relatively crappy.]

My evening ended with the first really impressive discovery of the festival, Australia's Dead Letter Chorus. The band was mega-excited about their first trip to Canada, and they were clearly determined to impress the socks off of every person that they performed for, and at this showcase they did so swimmingly. A terrific blend of alt-country and power pop, they performed a set of songs that were instantly likable, and perfectly tailored for the live stage. The hooks are strong, the melodies likewise, the musicianship delightful, but the greatest selling point is the vocals of Cameron Potts and Gabrielle Huber, who both encapsulate all of the throaty well worn gruffness and slightly saccharine sweetness that their songs require. They also followed all of the rules of the perfect setlist by starting strong with an upbeat number, simmering down midway so as not to exhaust us all before closing the show with their most anthemic number which no doubt finally made converts of any in attendance who may have been a little bit more difficult to please, although I doubt that there were too many that felt that way. If you missed this show or any of their other sets during CMW, than I highly recommend heading down to The Horseshoe on Tuesday night (March 16th) where they will be playing their CD release show before heading on a cross Canada tour with Two Hours Traffic. It's free.

Myspace: Dead Letter Chorus
Download: Down In The Valley mp3
Photos: My shots of Dead Letter Chorus @ The Painted Lady are on flickr.
[No longer seated and standing much closer to the stage. Pics significantly less crappy.]