And so begins Rifflandia music festival. After picking up wristbands from the Rifflandia HQ (which is surprisingly hip and posh), I stopped in at Market Square for a little visit to the beer garden. I won’t lie, one of my favourite parts of Rifflandia is Phillips Rifflandabrau, if you haven’t tried it yet get on that tonight. Seriously, they only make this beer once a year and I look forward to it every time.
Local group Sunday Buckets kicked things off at the Market Square stage. The crowd was modest but growing. Everyone was in good spirits and seemed to be enjoying the set. Especially when they threw some unreleased CDs out to the audience. The band acknowledged Rifflandia as ‘probably one of the biggest shows’ they had ever played and were genuinely excited to start it up. As the rain began and my beer ran out, I decided to head up Johnson St. to the
Metro Theatre where I would spend the rest of my evening.
As I traveled across the downtown core, I was surprised that none of the venues I passed had too long a line-up. I stuck my head into the Events Centre to see who was on, but they were inbetween sets. It was only 8:30pm, but I couldn’t help but think about last year’s line troubles. It seems that so far the honchos at Atomique smoothed out the multi-venue concert situation. They even went so far as to provide Facebook updates on venue lineup situations throughout the evening. Haven’t heard any complaints yet.
I arrived at the Metro Theatre just in time to catch most of the set from The Sentimentals. This is another local band out of the Old Life Records crew fronted by Dreamboat/Colourbook/Nail Salon member Aaron Bergunder. They reminded me of The Dead Milkmen and had one of the most entertaining sets I’d seen in awhile. Clearly a new band, they invoked audience participation to help them complete their 40-minute-set. This included having the audience text message Bergunder possible new names for the band (audience & band favourite: The Condimentals) as well as some cheeky comments too. The first song I caught was a little gem called “Dildo in a Free Pile” sung about exactly that. This was followed up by a song about John Goodman and then Victoria’s top 3 burritos. All this ridiculousness on top of a solid rock trio. I can’t wait to see them again, whatever their name might be.
Lily Fawn’s Brightest Darkest was up next. I had always enjoyed the Hank portions of Hank & Lily so I wasn’t sure how to feel about her solo endeavors. I was excited, though, to see Matt Skillings from Run Chico Run on stage and with a deer mask and tuxedo no less. Lily was center stage and told the audience to expect sleepy songs which she did deliver on. I’ve always been impressed by the sweeping composition, stage decorations and costume work that go into a Hank & Lily show. On her solo work, Lily seems to be channeling her inner Joanna Newsom and that’s just fine by me.
Last of the openers, Forestry took the stage at 10:30. Having just returned from their tour with two less members, it was a bit of a new day for the band. They were clearly excited to be opening for Lee Ranaldo who is an obvious influence on their guitar work. Something I’ve always enjoyed about Forestry’s live songs is that they sneak up on you. One second Blake Enemark’s crooning and the next thing you know everyone’s thrashing the hell out of their instrument. The songs slip in and out of Canadiana folk and shoegaze noise seamlessly. They were excited to play and you could feel it in their music. They were determined to show one of their idols that they knew their way around the guitar too.
The evening was headlined by Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth fame. In the end, I had opted not to see Aesop Rock or JFK. The openers at Metro Theatre made it worth it, and here I was ready to watch a set from one of the most influential guitarists in music history and founder of one of my favourite bands, Sonic Youth. I knew Lee was probably not going to play anything like his Sonic Youth tracks but did not expect what I saw either. The set began with his guitar hanging in a little noose from the ceiling. The entire Metro Theatre stage was spread bare except for a pile of tools and pedals.
Outside My Window by Lee Ranaldo – www.leeranaldo.com
In that 40-minute set, Lee Ranaldo showed the audience the utmost potential of the guitar as an instrument. He didn’t play the guitar, he played with it. With his hands, a drumstick, and a bow, as well as some electronic devices I’ve never seen. At the beginning of the piece, he played recorded music through his guitar strings. With the guitar suspended from the ceiling, Lee would strike the guitar and send it swinging across the stage, over the head’s of the audience. This was not exactly what some Rifflandia goers had in mind for their evening, and many people did not stick around. Those of us who made it through to the end met him with great applause.
This morning while cashing in on my delicious 10% off Mo:le breakfast and filling out WinLandia raffle tickets, I continued to contemplate what I witnessed the night before. Here was one of the greatest guitarists in history, playing a guitar like I had never seen before. He hung it from the ceiling as a symbol and absolutely destroyed everyone’s conceptions of how to play this instrument. I will never forget this evening. A haunting lesson from a guitar god.
Stay tuned for Day 2.
CFUV @ Rifflandia 2014 