Lowell - Supercrawl (Sep 12)

Being the lead off band at a street festival that has barely begun isn't the easiest slot but Lowell didn't seem phased. In fact the leading lady could be spotted smiling and smirking throughout her perky pop set in front of her backing fellas. The first tune layered the vocals on and moved slow but sounded lovely before they laid down the pop. Dancing in bare feet Lowell sang out Cloud 69 and then her first single from the released-next-week We Loved Her Dearly, The Bells, a bright song like her hot pink backwards hat that saw her both laying on the stage and emitting her signature screech. Hitting on the live go-tos she carried on with I Love You Money, a cheeky tune to match her cheek decorations. Bidding Summer goodbye on this fresh evening in song brought us to the clap along of Palm Trees before finishing out with the only tune not from next week's release - Kids - another live fave that had the leading lady climb down off the stage, up over the barrier and wrapping her arms around front row fans.

Arkells, Harlan Pepper, Beaches, Dead Tired - Supercrawl (Sep 12)

Arkells
I didn’t exactly make the trek to Hamilton because I wanted to see a certain new song or a particular sequence and that was good because the set highly resembled that of Riverfest, Elora from a few weeks back – right down to the new year’s resolution piano solo. The reason I came was to see the hometown boys, the proudest ever Hamiltonian’s, rock the biggest festival of their fair city. Rock they did, and the crowd came out in droves, jamming (around) Jackson Square and anywhere nearby (even caving in an unfortunately placed van’s roof) to get a glimpse of the Hamilton heroes. Max, speaking for the group, was honoured by the opportunity and had a lot of shout outs and local references to make both through banter and in song, such as pointing out the payphone referenced in Leather Jacket. Starting similarly, with the two High Noon opening tracks before busting out an old one, they managed to mix in a bunch of new with a lot of classics in their hour+ set. They did include 11:11 at 11:11pm no less, which was a notable omission previously. A bummer was that they sucked so much energy in the beginning that they actually cut the speaker system early on, yet continued to play into their monitors. This took a song or two for the technicians to work out – apparently needing to pull from the light grid as the next few tunes were played in the darkness. But by mid-set the technical difficulties were behind them and the Arkells could hit their stride. Plenty of buy-in meant clap-alongs and shout-it-outs galore as there wasn’t much free space for dancing. To close out they Rock(ed) the Casbah, a nod to the venerable local music hall, and a tune that fits their catalog and keys quite well before one of their most Hamilton-proud songs, Cynical Bastards. Not to let us down they returned for a post-midnight encore which blasted Whistleblower before throwing it back to their debut with a singalong on John Lennon. Somehow this morphed into Iggy’s Fancy to the delight of the drunken high schoolers, and wound through a lengthy list of thank-you’s, before closing out in rock. Worth the trip!

Harlan Pepper
In my head it seems that Harlan Pepper dropped out of high school to make music seriously. And by this I mean smoke pot and jam a lot. This because they are young lads that I have consistently seen pulling their weight behind their seemingly large instruments in Toronto, and now Hamilton, for the past five years, and their musicianship is extremely high. The vibes are still throwback with a nod to old school guitar work and psychedelia. They seem comfortable on stage and were playing mostly unfamiliar music compared to the last few times. Bob Dylan’s secret grandson (a dead ringer anyhow) took up the keys for a few track before switching back to the guitar. Seems like they’ve got more than a few more puffs to take as the end is nowhere in sight.

Dead Tired admitted to being the odd one out at this festival, not because they aren't from Hamilton – they are – but because they are playing screaming hardcore. What else would you expect from George Pettit, the former lead vocalist of Alexisonfire? The five of them played their instruments quickly and savagely, except George who did the same with his voice that was definitely screaming but not completely raa-raa. Despite this, the size of the crowd was surprisingly big and they even had a mini pit going with a few teenagers up front.

The Beaches are a four piece all-girl outfit from, I believe, The Beaches, Toronto. Despite being not even a couple decades old they have a comfortable stage presence and can all handle their instruments. This allows them to craft a rock and roll set styled over with punk, even adding elements of surfabilly and 80’s synths. I shouldn't have been as pleasantly surprised seeing as they'd played the Rebel stage at Riot Fest this past weekend.

Operators, How to Dress Well, Spoon, Kevin Drew, Eight and a Half - Supercrawl Saturday (Sep 13/14)

Eight and A Half

This trio who has been quiet for some time entertained with primarily new music. It was the same chilled-out, synthy stuff that they hawked on their first disc. With fellow BSS members Kevin Drew and Charles Spearin taking it in from the street in the early afternoon they swirled the music out as the rain began to fall later into the set. This is when the old single Go Ego emerged before they finished with a Stills song that lead vocalist explained they felt okay with considering two of their members came from the now defunct project.

Operators

With the music still being hard to come by the Operators set was attended by those who had likely heard the first single and were taking it on faith that Dan Boeckner would be producing something as worthwhile as his past endeavours. As it turns out, this is a safe bet. Alongside three other musicians, including Sam Brown on drums (including some electronic drums too) and Devojka playing the keys and synths, and the bass player (whose name I missed), Dan inserts his unique howl while occasionally playing guitar and effects from his board - sometimes all three on one track. The music being made is less aggressive than his Handsome Furs output but maintains a likeable familiarity while focusing on the dance, what with all the fun synths provided by the sequined Devojka. "We're more of a night-time band," she quipped, "I don't even want to see those photos you're taking - I probably look like I'm from Ru Paul's drag race." She spoke almost as much as Dan, but the energy from the whole band seemed to be positive as they said they were glad to be back in Canada and at the end of a tour. The most readily available song, True, was a standout before they closed with a tune about going home.

How To Dress Well

Based on the appearance of How To Dress Well it might lead one to believe that the set wasn't going to be much. Tom did not evoke the title of the band in his sweats, often ringing his t-shirt up with his hands to reveal his waistband and stomach between singing into one of his two mics, or often both at the same time. His primary took his definitive falsetto while the secondary ran his voice through effects which he used well. It was his earnestness, plus the lush beauty of the music that made the difference. With a drummer, and a pair of British Columbians ("we're a band from North America") - the male playing violin and guitar, the female keys and synths, they really did make the music swirl when the time was right such as on Set It Right and Words I Don't Remember. The banter was also out-there, not saying a whole lot but doing it with affectation. With the attention given by the audience they played Suicide Dream over piano and violin which was slow and haunting but very, very strong. On other tracks, such as Precious Love. it was a fairly obvious exhibition of Tom channelling his inner MJ through his vocals. On the whole it was almost surprising just how engaging and entertaining the set was. I would be more than happy to watch it again, probably in a darkened bar setting which might be more appropriate.

Kevin Drew
Kevin himself said that this was basically Broken Social Scene, including Justin Peroff and Charles Spearin among others but missing a few members too, as the six musicians playing with him came in and out, swapping instruments and positions, even drums (there were 3 drummers) depending on the song. Out of the gates were a few from the recent fully solo release, Darlings, starting with Mexican Aftershow Party, but also mixing in Spirit If's Backed Out on the.. before returning to You In Your Were, Body Butter and Good Sex. Kevin obviously doesn't shy away from taboo material and gave a shout out to his parents in the same set as playing Fucked Up Kid. Seemingly slightly agitated with the sound crew (when isn't Drew fighting something on stage?) he provided an acoustic intro before launching Safety Blitz with the band. Then we got some BSS treats - Lovers Spit with just the piano, trying to get us to sing along to a new version of a song, then a KC Accidental instrumental (not the BSS song but a demo that he remarked had been sent to Hamilton's Sonic Unyon back in the .. 90's) that Spearin needed to be retaught on the fly. They jammed out on Frightening Lives to close down the band's set and leave Kevin to do a fully acoustic rendition of Superconnected which was a great way to finish out.

Spoon

Hailing from Austin, Spoon have been at it for a long while now. With the streets full, but not nearly as jammed as the hometown Arkells the previous night, they played from across their back catalog. Britt Daniel's voice is the signature of the band but the five-piece's strong use of shakers, tambourines and the like were standout in the live setting - even drumming with a maraca! There were a few keyboards set up throughout the stage as their sound morphed from song to song - sometimes Britt would drop his mic after a lyric to run across the stage and take up post at the piano. The bass player also comically crossed the stage one time just to abruptly stop a cymbal. The identifiable groove of I Turn My Camera On was extended in a long intro before they dropped the tune as part of their slightly-less-than-an-hour set. This wasn't a problem though as they returned with a generous four-song encore, opening with the strong Knock Knock Knock from their equally strong recent return release, They Want My Soul. Too bad they didn't pull out more Gimme Fiction (Sister Jack, Monsieur Valentine would have been appreciated) but they did close with some strong bass lines and The Underdog in finale.