Hillside from the Inside - 2009

The day started with a traditional welcoming ceremony that consisted of two aboriginal ladies telling us how a tribe would welcome foreign visitors with a song and then proceeding to sing the song while playing small hand drum instruments.

Immediately following this was a band formed in Guelph, made up of four 'Shwa/Whitby boys - the D'urbervilles. They played an energetic set - especially the frontman who seemed to dance/convulse all over the stage. It was altogether too brief as they were forced off the stage after only five or six songs - which included Spin the Bottle, but sadly was too short for Dragnet or Hot Tips.

The reason I focus on the brevity of this set is that the next followed on the main stage, but not for another ten minutes. I thought the point of two stages was seamless transitions for maximum music.

Tony Dekker and the Great Lake Swimmers took the stage eventually and played a handful of new songs interspersed between old favourites. It was these that struck me as standouts - especially Bodies and Mind's Various Stages, and Ongiara's Your Rocky Spine and from the self-titled Moving Pictures, Silent Films. They were as good as ever but it is tough for a band that demands quiet attention to be at their best when in a giant arena full of teenagers who'd just begun to get warmed up with the D'urbervilles. Attention waned and the band ended before their allotted time and were asked to return for another song to fill the gap.

Another Guelph band arrived on the Island stage - The Magic - fronted by the Barmitzah Brother himself, Geordie, decked out in a huge white boa, tight pants and shades. He crooned and squealed into the mic while his backing female vocalist accompanied him, and the guitar-player from the D'urbervilles played in front of the drummer. Door-to-Door was decent but I realized how repetitive the lyrics get, and it was a bit early in the day for the hint of electro that was involved. So I wasn't too disappointed that I had to bow out at this point to begin my first volunteering shift.

From the info booth in the middle of the concourse I had a decent view of the massive crowd that was assembled for K'naan - the buzz band of the day, probably due to the onslaught of press he's been getting before the drop of his new album. I'd say he lived up to the billing - playing a bunch of tracks from his former release that included In the Beginning and Soobax, as well as the new single ABC's. I found that this track lacked only slightly due to the absence of Chub Rock, though K'naan did have another rapper along with him. There was also an interesting full rendition of Coldplay's Viva la Vida. A spoken word element of the set was interesting as he preached a bit about love, have the crowd shout out the word "love" on his command whenever it would fall into his talk. Overall the dusty foot philospher didn't disappoint.

Jay Malinowski (singer of Bedouin) played on the mainstage next, apparently accompanied by Rich Terfry aka Buck 65. The details are sketchy for me since I my vantage point from the info booth wasn't the greatest, and in part since it was just the two of them on acoustic guitars or conga drums, playing unreleased music.

The Bell Orchestre uniquely placed the drumset to the side of the stage rather than the back and surrounded it with a varied assortment of instruments that they used to build up their intricate compositions. It was neat to see how things would come together, and Throw It On a Fire was awesome. Perhaps it is just me (and my lack of instrument-playing abilities) but without lyrics a set can become tiring, and during this hour-long one I snuck away to grab some lunch provided for the volunteers (and some amazing Salsateria nachos!)

Re-energized and ready to go just in time for the dancestorm that is Thunderheist. Having seen what they could do at the island stage of hillside outside last summer I was ready for an onslaught of high-energy dance tunes and I got what I came for. Isis was having the time of her life, running around the stage belting out lyrics in between high-fiving fans and telling everyone things that she "hearts so hard." There were even two female backup-dancers that came out and did just that for a couple songs. The half-hour set was jammed full. Even the DJ, Graham, got up and danced for a bit, and later went out for a bodysurf. Right on schedule, Jerk It, closed the set and for it Isis helped a handful of fans onto stage to dance while security ran out to keep things under control but were decent enough to allow it to continue. A full-fledged dance party complete with confetti and flailing limbs ensued. Fun.

Bedouin Soundclash had to follow that up, but left a solid time-gap for things to cool down first before bursting into Until We Burn. Having the mainstage and the hour set that comes along with it they played through all the hits and more. Walls Fall Down was there along with St. Andrews. 12:59 Lullaby saw just Jay and his guitar give it a new treatment. When the Night Feels My Song (the song-title that the awful emcee had butchered during their intro) was the standout track of the set for me (maybe because I skipped out of my shift for a few minutes to watch it from the floor). Overall though, I was slightly disappointed that Jay often trailed off from singing the vocals which are the unique part which make the band. I did find the two-piece brass section enjoyable though.

That 1 Guy once again brought his 1 instrument for a Hillside spectacle. It was this year's answer to last year's Xavier Rudd performance. I won't get into it here as it is impossible to explain in words and I'm sure others have made a more full-fledged attempt in the past than I'm willing to hazard. My general sentiment was that the sound was mostly a novelty because of how it was made and not because it was particularly good music, barring the exception of the unfortunately titled Butt Machine which I thought was a catchy song.

Canada's bearded rocking wonder, Sam Roberts, the first of the co-headliners was up next. (Also the first band all day to begin noticeably late but he played beyond his timeslot so all is forgiven) I had to watch the start of the set from the concourse but it was obvious that Sam was excited to be there and we were in for one of Sam's notorious high-energy sets. Being distracted by all the requests for beer mugs I was getting at the Info Booth, the first half of the set list is a bit sketchy but they played mostly cuts from the recent, excellent record Love at the End of the World plus a bunch of throwbacks to better-known tracks from the Chemical City and a couple (maybe not as many as I would have liked) from his smash breakout, We Were Born In a Flame. When I was finally able to get on the floor to see him up-close I was rocking out just as were the boys of the band, as they produced hit after hit. Glancing at the clock I correctly predicted Brother Down assuming it would be the final song of the night from them, and it was definitely good enough to be, but instead of finishing on that high note they proceeded to play what seemed like a fifteen minute self-indulgent prog rock track from Chemical City that caused my enthusiasm to wane as my concentration wandered. It actually took away from my enjoyment of the set, just as it had the last time I'd seen Sam Roberts, though that was understandably during the Chemical City tour. Honestly the light show was the best of the day and the guitar work was impressive in its own right.

A brief break ensued as Stars set up their trademark rose-covered set (which according to insider information nearly didn't happen due to a lack of available roses because of the proximity to Valentine's Day). The final act of the day played a wonderfully dramatic set, full of emotion as it was their final show after nearly 16 months of straight touring since the release of Up in Our Bedroom After the War. (Apparently they are taking a break now to work on the next record, as well as side projects. So look for some Memphis (Torq), Amy Millan, and Dead Child Stars (Torq again) music in the coming year or so). I'm sure I've written about their shows before and with their extensive catalog it is hard to get into set list (Reunion, Going Going Gone and many Bedroom cuts; The Night Starts Here, Take Me to the Riot, Bitches in Tokyo, Genova Heights) and then gripe about songs that weren't played, since it takes away from the show (however Calendar Girl was a notable omission, probably due to the lack of a violinist and the new 14 Forever from the recently released Sad Robots EP which I was excited to hear played live wasn't played either.) However the fan-favourite Ageless Beauty was beautiful (and ageless.. is that too far?) As always Torq and Amy really played it up dramatically, especially on the phenomenal Elevator Love Letter, and the equally exquisite Your Ex-Lover is Dead but that is part of the romance that is a Stars show. Though perhaps it isn't as much of a 'show' just for the audience as I first believed, since after the set I wandered backstage and nearly got caught in the miriad of tour-ending, truly expressive hugs between most of the band and their crew, marking the end of their 16-month journey.

Another successful Hillside that blew away some February blahs while at the same time built up more anticipation for the summer edition.