blog post Hillside Festival: Saturday

Because (as you may know) I live in Guelph, home of The Hillside Festival, I decided to take advantage of the FREE bus service from downtown to Guelph Lake! The bus was packed, and I was lucky enough to be seated with two fans of The R3-30. Hello to Zane and Lisa! (I told you I'd remember).

My 12-hour day of beautiful music began at the Lake Stage, where The Bebop Cowboys and Texan, Eliza Gilkyson were already swinging The Country Kitchen Jam Workshop. The Cowboys are some of the tightest musicians that I have ever seen.

I stuck around after their set for one of my favourite parts of Hillside. A while back, a Hillside Youth Committee was put in place to seek out and pick three young Guelph-area acts that would be granted the opportunity to play the festival. I was floored by one of this year's entries, Dance Hall Free For All. Afterwards, I had a chat with Zack Leighton from the band and (sort of) chastised him for not putting their stuff up on NMC. So look for that very soon!

Then it was on to work...

I spent most of the day with my good friend and CBC Radio 2 compatriot, Andrew Craig. We teamed up to MC a tonne of music on the Main Stage, starting off with The Bebop Cowboys' main set. If it's possible, they were even tighter now. Damn!

Backstage was like a reunion. So many musical friends that I've passed in the night all over this country, all together in the bright light of day! Stephen and Tom from Blackie and The Rodeo Kings, discussed with me their wicked suits. They're made by a guy in Nashville who makes them for everyone...from the suits Hank Williams Sr. wore to the suit that Porter Wagoner is going to be buried in! Then they hit the stage for a blistering set and because of their strong connection to Guelph (Stephen lives around the corner from me) they are always a favourite with the Hillside crowd.

After an ubelievable Island Stage workshop with Justin from Do Make Say Think and Dave Clark, Andrew Whiteman intimated to me that he would "reprise" the Stephen Harper/George Bush story that Chris Kelly talked to him about. Sadly, I would have to miss it because Apostle of Hustle was playing on another stage while I would be interviewing Murray from The Dears. (pictured above, by Trevor Weeks)

Ever heard anyone play the n'goni? Well, neither had I until I heard Jah Youssouf's set. From Mali, he doesn't just bring joy. He IS joy. Infectious, strangely familar music presented by someone that lives for it. Literally, lives for it.

5 o'clock. Dinner, while the electric grand piano gets tuned. Except for a distant drum circle, all is quiet backstage. I catch up with Alec from Two Hours Traffic. When he sees me he says, "Ah! You're a familiar, friendly face, Craig!" I keep telling people that I'm friendly, but no one's buying it.

Post dinner, and onstage is That 1 Guy. Words like "indescribable" or "unique" get tossed around a hell of a lot by music types like me. Point blank, almost no one fits that hyperbole more that this guy. Playing what looks like something that was stolen from a plumber's truck, he uses loops and samples and his voice to make some insane music. You have to hit the link and read about him. Bizarre!

For the rest of the night on the Main Stage, it's a CBC Radio 2 & 3 love-in. Backstage, Justin Small expresses a concern that Do Make Say Think may have trouble "taking the roof off of an outdoor stage, given that they're so used to playing in tightly packed clubs." His fear is, of course, unfounded when, besides raising the roof, they blow out the imaginary walls, too!

We were expecting the string section to be with Emily Haines for her show. But she has decided to leave them at home and play an incredibly stripped down show. For the most part, it's her completely alone on the piano, with Guy Maddin film footage projected onto a screen behind her. On a couple of songs, she's accompanied by a laptop, but it's still a pared-down show. Stunning. She tells the rapt crowd that this is her last solo show and she's glad to be sharing it with "Hillside, and the sky". Afterwards, when we talk, she's a little less poetic. I ask her if she misses Metric. "F*ck yeah! Back to rock 'n roll!"

The Dears close the night with an intense, swirling set. John Paolozzi would have been so happy. Even though the capacity crowd was clamoring for it, there would be no encore. Fake or otherwise.

Trevor Weeks and I meet up and we leave the island in his SmartCar. And I am blown away by the decorum of such an enormous crowd...

What has struck me, too, is the love for CBCRadio3. Grant once told me I'd be "amazed" at the amount of people that would recognize me once The R3-30 Podcast started. I guess because of the concentration of indie music fans at Hillside, that experience was acutely elevated. Every 20 feet, someone stops and chats. It's amazing, and humbling. I'm giving out slide whistles like they're going out of style. Maybe because they are?

I can't believe that we're only half-way through Hillside!!