How does one sum up 4 days or 35 hours of concerts? Whereas I watched an Aussie play a guitar while he worked a didgeridoo I did not see a single kilted Scot play the bagpipes. It was a privilege to see and actually meet Dave Gunning in person but I do wish he hadn’t felt it necessary to play the same few hits from the latest CD he’s schilling every time I saw him. It was great to see Garnet Rogers Friday Night but by his own admission he got up on the wrong side of the bed the remainder of the weekend. Did someone give him a bad brew Friday Night? As the temperature climbed toward one hundred twas a pity the Pool beside the Arena wasn’t open. It’s a Festival built on Nostalgia for an artist who died too young and its music reflects nostalgia for a way of life that died with the fisheries, for friends and relations lost, and for family members who had to leave to find work. A few happy songs every now and then would be welcome.
The two-storey inflated screen to stage left was an interesting concept. Watching Sharon Epic stage right work on her painting each night helped relieve some tedium especially when the MC’s ran out of things to say during stage changes. Not knowing the local characters I found a lot of their humour just plain corny. Stanfest may ban profanity from the site but they have less control over those on stage. Sunday night was my first unpleasant experience of sitting beside someone who felt it necessary to text during a performance. I do wish people would shut up during a concert and I’ve wished more than once I could tell the people blocking my view to park their butts so I didn’t have to look at them. I realize this isn’t Roy Thomson Hall but.... Did I get up on the wrong side?
After spending $113 for the weekend I balked at spending nearly half that in addition to see Ricky Skaggs and would think twice about the Kick-off Party @ $10 which proved to be more party than live music event. Many of my 'neighbours' had preset their chairs and didn't show up until later in the evening. The opening Discovery Set saw 5 artists do one number each with mixed results. Number two's high gain guitar caused the speakers to 'clip'. The sound system at the main stage was far superior to that in the arena and the bank of speakers projected sound without being deafening or distorting. Corin Raymond from Toronto who was unintelligible last night sounded much better but he's nothing to look at. We heard again about how he financed his first CD with $7000 in Canadian Tire Money. Garnet Rogers was the only person to come on stage without an ID. He lives in Canso part time and listening to him talk provided as much pleasure as hearing his singing voice so close in timbre to his brother's. He talked about his large extended family and the deck that appeared at the back of his house built by his neighbours while he was away on tour and the lady at the CO-OP who opined in front of many others that he had a small 'dick'. His taxes went up. And of a hut graffitied by soldiers, airmen and sailors who went off to war from Canso and there at the bottom in pencil his mother's name--as someone opined, your mother under a pile of sailors. And of touring with his brother. He was followed by Barney Bentall a name I'd heard but never followed, he brought his son Dusty out and they sang together backed by both groups.
Jowi Taylor appeared in an extended entre-act with his guitar built of bits of wood historic and special in many ways from across Canada--Paul Henderson’s Goal Winning Stick, Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s Paddle, wood from a residential school. Projected were pictures of the various artists who have played it and those who posed with it across the nation. An artist named David Baxter came out to play a number on the Six String Nation as the guitar is called. The Backyard Devils were a rock style band heavy on the slap style bass and followed by a Zydeco inspired group with accordian and clarinet fronted by a 5-string violinist in radioactive painted pants mentored we heard by Oliver Schroer. I just wish he'd have played straight up Zydeco. Many departed long before his set finished but I stayed until they turned out the stage lights picking my way across the dew-drenched grass and dodging the beer cans that managed to get onto the field despite security's best efforts.
The two-storey inflated screen to stage left was an interesting concept. Watching Sharon Epic stage right work on her painting each night helped relieve some tedium especially when the MC’s ran out of things to say during stage changes. Not knowing the local characters I found a lot of their humour just plain corny. Stanfest may ban profanity from the site but they have less control over those on stage. Sunday night was my first unpleasant experience of sitting beside someone who felt it necessary to text during a performance. I do wish people would shut up during a concert and I’ve wished more than once I could tell the people blocking my view to park their butts so I didn’t have to look at them. I realize this isn’t Roy Thomson Hall but.... Did I get up on the wrong side?
After spending $113 for the weekend I balked at spending nearly half that in addition to see Ricky Skaggs and would think twice about the Kick-off Party @ $10 which proved to be more party than live music event. Many of my 'neighbours' had preset their chairs and didn't show up until later in the evening. The opening Discovery Set saw 5 artists do one number each with mixed results. Number two's high gain guitar caused the speakers to 'clip'. The sound system at the main stage was far superior to that in the arena and the bank of speakers projected sound without being deafening or distorting. Corin Raymond from Toronto who was unintelligible last night sounded much better but he's nothing to look at. We heard again about how he financed his first CD with $7000 in Canadian Tire Money. Garnet Rogers was the only person to come on stage without an ID. He lives in Canso part time and listening to him talk provided as much pleasure as hearing his singing voice so close in timbre to his brother's. He talked about his large extended family and the deck that appeared at the back of his house built by his neighbours while he was away on tour and the lady at the CO-OP who opined in front of many others that he had a small 'dick'. His taxes went up. And of a hut graffitied by soldiers, airmen and sailors who went off to war from Canso and there at the bottom in pencil his mother's name--as someone opined, your mother under a pile of sailors. And of touring with his brother. He was followed by Barney Bentall a name I'd heard but never followed, he brought his son Dusty out and they sang together backed by both groups.
Jowi Taylor appeared in an extended entre-act with his guitar built of bits of wood historic and special in many ways from across Canada--Paul Henderson’s Goal Winning Stick, Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s Paddle, wood from a residential school. Projected were pictures of the various artists who have played it and those who posed with it across the nation. An artist named David Baxter came out to play a number on the Six String Nation as the guitar is called. The Backyard Devils were a rock style band heavy on the slap style bass and followed by a Zydeco inspired group with accordian and clarinet fronted by a 5-string violinist in radioactive painted pants mentored we heard by Oliver Schroer. I just wish he'd have played straight up Zydeco. Many departed long before his set finished but I stayed until they turned out the stage lights picking my way across the dew-drenched grass and dodging the beer cans that managed to get onto the field despite security's best efforts.
No comments:
Post a Comment