LOLA Festival: Day 3

September 21st, 2008

Dear LOLA bookers,

I don’t mean to be a jerk about this. I love LOLA. I’ve probably spent more time at the three years of the festival than all but a handful of people in London — I don’t say that to brag, but rather to reiterate how much I enjoy it. It’s great to have something like it in the city, especially for free!! But… could you guys tone down on the instrumental post-rock/jam bands next year? I posed this issue to at least a dozen people throughout the weekend, and it really seems like not everyone loves them as much as you do. I mean, I have nothing but respect for these bands — their musical talent far surpasses anything I could ever hope to achieve myself. I just feel like such an excess of ambient and instrumental music paints a sort of one-dimensional picture of local independent music as a whole, you know? Independent music doesn’t just have to be music school grads, right? Independent bands can write some catchy pop hooks and melodies too, right?

I know you’re probably, like I am, a little sick of all the boys-with-guitars bands that similar summer festivals often feature, and I’m not asking you to pack your lineup with 95% indie rock bands or anything. It’s great to see a band like Bocce, for instance, who can’t really be pigeonholed into any sort of specific genre (especially “indie rock”), play exciting, upbeat music and get the crowd involved as much as they can. I’d just like to see some more of that! Particularly when we only have the one stage to choose from all day. After a half-hour break between sets, it’d be nice to get the occasional cheery, enthusiastic set to celebrate what’ll probably be one of the last beautiful days of 2008. These rock-out jam bands know their way around their instruments, without question, but their sound, when contrasted with the sunny skies that surrounded us this weekend, comes off a little dirge-like.

Maybe I’m way off base here. Maybe I just wasn’t talking to the right people yesterday. Or maybe the whole idea is to build a reputation as the music festival that showcases this particular genre of music. In that case, feel free to take these thoughts with a grain of salt. I just thought you should know.

Yours truly,
Luke

All right, with that out of the way, onto the bands I was able to catch sets from on Saturday at LOLA 2008.

Sandro Perri and Friends: Arriving a little late to Victoria Park in the afternoon Saturday, I missed the first two performances and showed up in time to catch Toronto’s Sandro Perri, reportedly the first act of the day to feature vocals. And it was his vocals that seemed to catch everyone’s attention, inspiring listeners around me to compare his voice to “Antony of Antony and the Johnsons,” “that guy that sang with Bjork on Volta,” and “one of the guys from Broken Social Scene.” For my money, Antony was the closest comparison, with maybe even a little Jeff Buckley thrown in for good measure. Perri employed his impressive vocal chops over alt-country tinged folk music, the sound of twangy guitars drifting throughout the park and providing an exceptionally pleasant start to my day.

Laura Barrett: Another Toronto artist, Laura Barrett, followed Sandro Perri and Friends, and delivered another impressive set. Charming the crowd with extensive stage banter between songs (and even delivering, along with a bandmate, an extensive riddle involving Othello pieces), she alternated between performing by herself and with a backing band that included members of the band that would follow her on stage, the Hylozoists. While the Hylozoists’ variety of unconventional instruments added a few more layers to her sound, the sparse effect of Barrett using just her voice and her kalimba, which sounded considerably bigger than it looked, was beautiful. Barrett’s aptitude with the tiny instrument was admirable; even from a distance, you could see her thumbs moving with such speed that you knew she could take you at any video game. With song titles like “Robot Ponies” and “Stop Giving Your Children Standardized Tests,” and the look of a librarian, Barrett appealed not only to independent music fans, but the groups of families that had stopped by the park to see what was going on.

Hylozoists: Returning to the stage with their full band and their full array of instruments (check out their myspace for a full list of just how many they use), the Hylozists provided an instrumental set that was livelier than many others during the weekend. Now LOLA veterans, the Torontonians returned for the third straight year, making them the only band, to my knowledge, to participate in each of the LOLA Festival’s incarnations, from Dundas St. to Victoria Park. After seemingly holding back a little while participating in Barrett’s more restrained set, the band let loose while playing their own tunes. With no full-length releases since 2006′s La Fin Du Monde, the songs they played were familiar to the LOLA-goers who’d seen them in London the last couple of years, and they further cemented themselves as a LOLA staple with a strong performance, vibraphones and glockenspiels ringing through the early evening air.

Off the International Radar: Taking to the bandshell at about 7:30 pm, Off The International Radar from Toronto (it was a real Toronto showcase for most of the day in Victoria Park) played through a 45-minute set of guitar-driven and somewhat experimental instrumental rock. The video footage playing on the big screen behind them proved an engrossing and appropriate complement to the trio’s sound, displaying animated cityscapes, and diagrams of various subway and transit systems for some of the world’s major cities. Assigned the role of following up local favourites the Hylozoists and preceding the up-and-coming Plants and Animals, Off the International Radar drew a slightly restless but exceedingly polite audience, who applauded the group’s proficiency but never seemed to fully immerse themselves in the set.

Plants and Animals: The park started filling up a little more to see Montreal’s Plants and Animals, whose latest album, Parc Avenue, has been very well received and generated some buzz, particularly in Canada. The trio seemed happy to be a part of the weekend, even performing a 30-second song dedicated to LOLA that they announced afterwards they’d written in preparation for the weekend. The majority of the rest of their selections came from Parc Avenue, with songs like “Mercy” and “New Kind of Love” sounding lush and full for a three-person band. They saved the best for last, closing their set with album standout “Bye Bye Bye” (don’t get too excited now, that’s not an *NSYNC cover), which sounded terrific live, as each band member chimed in with the “bye bye bye” refrain to create one of the more memorable hooks of the weekend. Even better was the group’s encore, which consisted of a cover of Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman.” In listening to Parc Avenue, I’d previously thought that “Mercy” sounded something like a 21st-century indie rock version of “Sinnerman,” so to hear the band play the Simone classic was a treat, and ended the set on a high note.

Holy Fuck: When I first saw Holy Fuck listed as a LOLA headliner, I assumed that one of the main motives was to avoid attempting to sell their vulgar name to the families that would frequent the park earlier in the day. And surely that played a small part in their 10:00 set time, but I have to give the band its props: they packed the park as full–fuller even, on Saturday night, than Do Make Say Think did the night before. It marked the fifth time I’ve seen the band, and even as headliners in the past, they’ve occasionally been outshone by their openers (though, in fairness, they often elect to tour with some of Canada’s most impressive live talent). No one was outshining them on this night though. The band was in top form, rhythmically swaying back and forth over their instruments as the bandshell’s lights pulsated down on them. The crowd near the front of the stage responded in turn, as songs like “Royal Gregory” and set closer “Lovely Allen” inspired some serious movement in the first several rows. Holy Fuck has clearly tightened up their set over the years, perfecting the art of the build-up and the beat-drop, their electronica-driven basslines rocking the park and making it a task to stand anywhere near any speakers if you wanted to wake up with your hearing the next morning. Anyone inclined to write them off as a novelty because of the name is missing out — Holy Fuck proved themselves a more than worthy headliner of a weekend festival filled with great performances.

And there were plenty of great performances. Despite my earlier protests about a lack of diversity (in which I forgot to ask: where was the hip-hop??), LOLA 2008 provided a bevy of memorable performances and new musical discoveries. Sets from artists like Thunderheist, Bocce, Woodhands, We Are Wolves, Plants and Animals, Holy Fuck, and a handful of others will have me out again at their shows if and when they pass through London again. And the overall strength of the weekend will have me back at LOLA 2009 in a year. Hope to see you there!

(Photos by Lulu Wei)

Posted on Sunday, September 21st, 2008 at 8:50 pm by Luke Adams and is filed under Concerts & Events.