07.25.2009 Hillside Festival Day 2 (Guelph)

I started day two in the Island stage. The first act of the day at this stage was a collaboration between two of the better (imo) up and coming Ontario bands: Bruce Peninsula and The Rural Alberta Advantage. I think Bruce Peninsula was a few members short from the last time that I saw them. I don't remember hearing any Bruce Peninsula songs, but they did jam on Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain". Afterwards they joked about covering Stairway to Heaven. The two bands seemed to be having a good time collaborating. I think The Rural Alberta Advantage played and had Bruce Peninsula jam on a few of their new songs. Pretty cool stuff.



I figured I would walk over to the next stage and try and get a good spot for Julie Doiron. To my surprise, the tent was pretty packed for the band "Green Go". I later found out their a local Guelph band, so I guess most of the crowd knew them before hand. They were pretty entertaining, playing a sort of electro-dance /rock sort of sound. They reminded me of You Say Party! We Say Die!, but instead of punk influences, electro synth.



The sucky part of festivals are that you sometimes get two or three bands you want to see playing at the same time. Case in point, I had to miss Bruce Peninsula playing in order to see Julie Doiron. The latter played a set filled mostly with lower key fan favorites. She was still great though, but with time restrictions she didn't have a lot of time for between song banter.



I checked out a bit of Treasa Levasseur next. Wasn't really too into it and took the time to have lunch after a few songs. Yeah I don't remember too much about this set.



Wanting to get a good spot for Ohbijou, I wandered into the tent to find 'Bahamas' finishing their set. I think Bahamas is just a drummer and a guitarist/singer. People seemed to like them as the tent was filled up. The last song saw them bring up a few friends to help out with extra vocals. The names of those friends have since slipped my mind, however, I do recall seeing members of Great Lake Swimmers, possibly Tony Dekker, and possibly Owen Pallett.



I've heard good things about Ohbijou through other media outlets like cbcradio3. I can't really say they blew my mind though. I enjoyed a few of their songs, however found that were kind of boring live, especially in this sort of setting. However, I did get the impression that they would be more enjoyable in a small club with nice lighting.



I made my way down to the Sun stage next where they mostly had spoken word and workshops. Final Fantasy, Buffy St. Marie and Notre Dame de Grass were doing a workshop entitled "Yes we Can". This slogan was also used throughout whenever any of the artists showed any insecurities onstage. Owen Pallett mentioned that he gets nervous on stage, to which someone shouted "Yes we Can". Anyways, the workshop basically consisted of each of the 3 artists taking turns playing a song. Not really familiar with Notre Dame de Grass, who are a Bluegrass act or Buffy St. Marie, but Owen did do a Buffy St. Marie cover, "The Dream Tree" which was kind of cool. That must have been nerve racking, since he mentioned being a big fan of hers.



The workshop ended a bit late so I arrived at Attack in Black's set midset. The room was pretty filled. Towards the end of the set, they brought out none other than Julie Doiron to sing on a few songs. I enjoyed what I saw from Attack in Black



Everytime I see the name "Hey Rosetta", I also think of "Hey Ocean". Anyways, they're an indie rock band from Nova Scotia, and they're pretty cool. They were one of the better acts I saw today. After seeing them live I'd have to say that they are totally deserving of their Polaris prize nomination. They played a good mix of slow mellow songs and rock out jams. I really wish I saw them with Two Hours Traffic now.



While waiting for the next band on the main stage, I saw the tail end of Buffy St. Marie's set. I suppose you could consider her a Canadian institution as she's been doing her thing for a while now. Not really my thing, but if you don't already know, she plays native/aboriginal influenced folk. So yeah there are songs with the Indian chants drums.



Tokyo Police Club had one of the longer time slots of the day. However due to technical issues, they didn't really make good use of it. I've stated before that I found their songs to be too similar sounding. I don't disagree now, but I will admit to having a much better time seeing them this time around. Along with their regular material, they also snuck in Tom Petty's "American Girl". It was nice to see a band looking like they genuinely like playing with each other as they seemed to had grins on their faces their entire set.



Caught the end of Woodhands' set. The place was packed. I think this was the Volunteer afterparty show this night. I'm pretty surprised, I wasn't aware of their popularity. Anyways, they're a duo that are dancey and the crowd loved it.



I don' think anyone left after the Woodhands set, as the Arkells set was also packed. The latter put on a really good rock show and the crowd was eating it up. I think they're local or something because on the ride over we passed "Arkell" street in Guelph. This show actually had a lot crowd surfing at it. I saw a bunch of beach balls and toilet paper flying around. I don't really remember much about their songs, but it was pretty standard rock out stuff. Actually come to think of it they sort of remind me of the Trews.


$60/$0