Sled Island II: Fantastic, with a couple of suggestions

So we saw most of the Mewata Armoury shows at Sled Island- we got there on Friday in time to catch the last few seconds of a band from E-town called Wet Secrets who play in marching band uniforms and I really wish we’d seen more. Anyway, we sat through Portastic, who were catchy enough (lead used to be with Supersuckers), The Ramblin’ Ambassadors’ not entirely uninteresting Shadowy Men-esque act, Yo La Tengo, who were, I have to say, completely amazing with by far the most diverse set that I saw either day- here’s smiley me with them in the background. Note the cool setting- the Armoury looks like a castle or somethin’:

After this superb set–but also a set that I think went way over-time, more on the consequences of that later–was Elliot Brood, a Toronto sort of modern bluegrass outfit that I saw at Folk Fest two years ago but only at a workshop, not a concert doing their own thing, and they are outstanding, perhaps the high point musically of day 1 (I’m serious).

Then: Tegan and Sara. Loved them, adored them, they have great, listenable tunes and great stage banter: they’re ENTERTAINING! One thin-skinned issue, for me: I have a former student who went to high school with these gals at Lester Pearson HS and so they’re maybe 28 or thereabouts and they would have left Calgary, oh, 8 or 10 years ago. Yet I’ve read interviews with one of them (Tegan? Sara?) about how she has no connection to Calgary and then at the show Friday she gives the city a back-handed compliment about how “fancy” it is and how much “money” there is here and how she they haven’t lived here since “the ’80s.” This is not true. Their history here is a lot more recent and deeper than that. Anyway this event is all about how farking cool Calgary is these days (and the suffocating number of hipsters there were more than I knew existed in the entire province) so I’ll let that go, for now. T&S were brilliant.

Next up: Chixdiggit, a Calgary pop-punk group that’s been around since before I moved here, and they put on a funny show. And depart the stage at, oh, 10:15. When Broken Social Scene, the only act I was seriously dying to see that day, was supposed to be on at something like 9:45. No problem, this is ROCK AND ROLL right? Well, we have stupid noise bylaws here and the upshot was that they got do a set that was about 35 minutes long. I grabbed this pic:

And that’s it for visual aids for this post since I didn’t take my camera for day two yesterday. BSS did a few numbers that I recognized (including the anthemic, and closing, Ibi Dreams of Pavement, a moving, moving number) with too many I didn’t from solo/side projects. No “Anthems for a 17-year-old Girl.” Dammit dammit dammit. I felt ripped off, and I think it was a combo of three things: One was the noise bylaws of course. Two was too-long sets (and this is where the Yo La Tengo endless jams “are the done yet? No guess not” come into play, because I am certain they took a lot of other bands’ stage time), and third was that the schedule didn’t take sound checks and setup time into account adequately- they had to do sound checks during performances on the other stage- and the stages were literally right next to each other. So there was a scheduling issue here that, for an outdoor concert in a public space, has to be managed a bit better. When the schedule goes off, the closing performer ends up taking it for the team, which sucks when that group is the one you (I) came to see. Still, it was a great day and an event clearly bursting with potential.

BUT day two was better! The crowd was very evidently bigger than day one (in fact I’d say the turnout on Friday was downright poor- but remember there were dozens of other shows all over town, Sled Island shows, competing with this Mewata event- there was also the Calgary Jazz Festival over the weekend too); it was hot but not too, and for some reason I liked the music more today even though the only act I was marginally familiar with and marginally looking forward to was Jonathan Richman. We showed up around 4:30 to see the last two numbers of The Gutter Twins, who did bombastic and dark but still very beautiful songs, and I liked them a lot. Next up was Calgary’s Jane Vain and the Dark Matter, and WOW! Outstanding! They did four songs (doing the right thing with a short set to get the schedule back on track), and their sound was sort of Metric/Stars (sorry the Canadian female lead forces these comparisons) with beautiful intricate instrumentalization and “Jane” has a gorgeous voice. Look for these guys.

Main stage next: Jonathan Richman! With a quick setup because it was just him on classical guitar and a fella on drum kit. No backup (so no Modern Lovers) and that was it- and my GOD this man is fun, telling stories and getting the audience involved- at one point the sound cut out and he didn’t miss a beat. I’d never say he had a voice that was anything but “quirky” but he was in great voice for an older dude; he sounded exactly like, well, Jonathan Richman. And know he didn’t do “Give Paris One More Chance” or anything from the one album of his I own (“Jonathan Sings”), and given the day, “That Summer Feeling” would have been an excellent closer, but when somebody has a catalogue comprising so many years of songs, it’s all good.

Another most excellent high point followed: Still Flyin’ (yeah I hate that name too) from SF who had apparently done a set earlier in the day (good thing we came late- the day started at 11:50 and we got there at 4:30) and they did a sort of ska-influenced thing with a huge number of players and it was pure fun and joy. Loved them!

Okay, up next, mainstage, was Of Montreal. Brian assured me I’d love them and I did, but given the name (and I know they’re from Athens GA not Montreal but still) I was sort of expecing a Wolf Parade/Arcade Fire sound, and it was nothing like that; they do this sort of neo-glam thing that has to be heard (and seen) to be appreciated. Huge entertainment.

After that came a short set on the second stage from, I think, a Calgary band called The Fellas (that was in the program but I don’t remember the announcement- there was also “The Dodos” on the schedule and for some reason I think this was the one up there)- anyway I’m sure they were perfectly competent but I can’t remember much- which isn’t necessarily bad.

The last two headliners were punk legends Wire and also-legendary Mogwai, neither of which we’re that huge fans of, and we decided to sit through as much of Wire as we cared to and head home (we’re old, eh, not as old as Wire but still old). This proved to be exasperating as the sound check and related setup took forever (I’d say 30 minutes) so they were behind a good 45 minutes when Wire took the stage and then… I could be in this band. I can play power chords and not sing all that well. It was a letdown; we stayed for three numbers and left. I’m happy to hear about what happened with Mogwai, scheduling-wise…

As we were leaving we saw a sign that said “no re-entry,” which policy we were actually apprised of when we went in. I’m sure there is a reason for this, but it’s also a ridiculous policy to enforce at a festival that’s right on the edge of downtown with tons of places off-site to grab lunch or a coffee. At folk fest I have a pass on a lanyard or wristband or something that permits me to come and go as much as I want, and to not have this policy here is just silly. The food on offer at Mewata was actually quite good but there was not much choice (folk fest has many, many superb options, in fact the food is a high point of the event), but there WAS huge choice outside the gates. What could have been a great boon for area businesses, like those struggling in the downtown west end, didn’t help them at all. Sucks for places like Matsarang Korean resto, which was a five-minute walk to the east…

Anyway I’ve commented on the scheduling issue and the gate issue but cannot close this on a sour note. I am beyond impressed with what Sled Island has accomplished in barely a year and would consider an all-events pass next year. This was huge, is huge, and is getting nothing but bigger and better in the future. The organizers have too much to be proud of.