The Felice Brothers played Toronto Urban Roots Fest July 6 at the Fort York Garrison Commons. Photo: Tom Beedham
Day three of TURF brought audiences the stylings of a hillbilly jack-of-all-trades five-piece formally known as The Felice Brothers.
Switching off on vocal duties and instrument responsibilities, and ranging in sound as a result, The Felice Brothers showed Toronto what a democratic Americana act from Catskills, NY can do to the traditional notion of a folk group frontman.
Performing liquor-soaked tracks like “Whiskey in My Whiskey” couldn’t have been bad news for the Canadian Club sponsors on site, either.
Hannah Georgas favoured music off her new album at TURF on July 6.
After releasing a self-titled record in 2012 that distanced itself from her previous acoustic work in its pursuit of a more atmospheric synthpop, singer-songwriter Hannah Georgas followed suit at TURF, sticking to her newer material, even if it meant ignoring the inaugural urban roots festival’s designation.
Not that it – like her new album, which received a nod on the longlist for this year’s Polaris Music Prize – wasn’t welcome.
With her four-piece post-Metric indie dance rock band in tow, fans got to hear Georgas perform tracks like her self-titled album’s “Robotic,” as well as her treatment of a portion of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Just Like Honey,” which saw her performing both Jim Reid and Karen Parker’s vocal parts (assumedly one of Georgas’ favourite songs, as she placed it at the top of a list of tracks she said she would put on a mixtape in an interview she gave Canadian Blast during this year’s South by Southwest).
Larry and his Flask gave TURF-goers a furious wake-up at an 11:30 a.m. Fort York set on July 6. Photo: Tom Beedham
Those who know Larry and his Flask can expect to witness a wild and crazy stage party when they see the band live. Playing adrenaline fueled bluegrass folk music with a gypsy punk ethos, the group is known for members that refuse to stay put; even their drummer refuses to play seated. This is a band that takes full advantage of its unplugged components: double bass player Jeshua Marshall performs with particular intensity, lifting his massive instrument to drag it from stage left to right, all the while wailing on it with open palms, summoning the odd bow, or even technical sweeps to sate his seemingly furious need to move.
Larry and His Flask opened TURF’s July 6 festivities at 11:30 a.m., pushing its “workday ahead 12 hours,” as lead guitar and vocalist Ian Cook put it. But when it played day three of TURF, by the end of its set, the group had arrived at a level of exhaustion entirely different from what they would at any old early show – they played an 11 p.m. set just the night before.
The band will also close out the festival at Lee’s Palace with Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls and Northcote.
Arkells played a special set of Motown covers after their regular set at TURF on July 5. Photo: Tom Beedham
If you’ve never been to Detroit, the Arkells have. And when they played Toronto Urban Roots Fest on July 5, they brought enough of Motor Town for everyone to share.
Closing out the regular portion of their TURF set with the Detroit-referencing “Where U Goin” from their 2011 LP Michigan Left, the Arkells then dove into a special collection of hits curated from Motown’s catalogue.
Known to inject a cover or two into their sets, the Arkells switched into shirt and tie and suit attire for the special presentation, going on to play The Four Tops’ “It’s the Same Old Song,” The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love,” The Miracles’ “The Tracks of My Tears,” The Temptations’ “Aint Too Proud To Beg,” “Get Ready” and “My Girl,” Jackie Wilson’s “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher,” and Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours.”
The band contracted some help from super cover band Dwayne Gretzky to make it all happen; friends Tyler Kyte, Nick Rose, and Edwin Sheard played the less Arkells-like saxophone and tambourine parts as well as additional guitar and backing vocals.
The regular portion of the set opened with “Whistleblower” and consisted of other singles like their Hamilton hometown banger “Oh, The Boss Is Coming!,” and “John Lennon,” as well as fan favourites like “Deadlines” and “Kiss Cam.”
Fitz and the Tantrums played Toronto Urban Roots Fest July 5 at Fort York. Photo: Tom Beedham
Filling in the slot just preceding the Arkells’ set, Michael “Fitz” Fitzpatrick and the Tantrums transported a TURF audience that had so far in the day only been treated to antique music forms like JD McPherson’s ’50s nodding rockabilly and Justin Townes Earle’s country western music to an all out dance party.
Channeling soul, pop, and electronic dance music, Fitz and the Tantrums’ set ran on high energy, with Fitz and Noelle Skaggs turning the stage into a facility for physical fitness and doing their best to transfer that energy into the crowd by barking what were technically orders but ultimately fiesta instigating words of wisdom.
Set highlight? Fitz and the Tantrums put on a ramped up cover of the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).”
Justin Townes Earle played TURF July 5 at Fort York Garrison Commons in Toronto. Photo: Tom Beedham
Footnoting most of his songs with words of country wisdom (e.g. “Any good country song should be a good blues song,” and “If you can take care of your momma and you don’t, you’re a bastard. Unless she was terrible”), Justin Townes Earle brought his twangy Nashville Americana to a not particularly well attended day of TURF, but with many a crowd member singing along word for word, the singer-songwriter was at least welcomed by a dedicated fan base.
JTE played tracks like “Mama’s Eyes,” namedropped Gregory Corso, and dedicated songs to the worst landlord (and the worst weed) he’s ever had.
JD McPherson played TURF July 5 at Fort York Garrison Commons in Toronto. Photo: Tom Beedham
Supplying Toronto Urban Roots Fest with nostalgia-satisfying rock music that turns down the guitar while letting saxophone, upright bass, piano, and percussion take the spotlight, JD McPherson’s band was a reminder of a time when people could call a band rock and say it without summoning images of guitar heads churning out what seems to have become an obligatory kind of masturbatory guitar noodling.
McPherson’s is a band that approaches the music of the past with contemporary wisdom, arriving at rockabilly rhythm and blues that sounds like history but nothing its forebears could have done. Count free jazz cymbal crashes, and funky bass lines in the mix.
She & Him’s strict no camera policy at TURF placed audience members in a sour state, and for many, one that wouldn’t be cured by the band’s set. Photo: Frank Yang/TURF
Zooey Deschanel is still the new girl.
What was at first perceived as an innocent request to curb the over-documenting culture that concert-goers have become hyper aware of in recent years soon revealed itself to be a draconian approach to image control when a strict no camera policy demanded by Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward’s group was (passive-) aggressively enforced by a pre-recorded message, flyers posted earlier in the day, and then security guards accosting any front row listeners lifting LED-bejeweled smart phones into the air (and all of the people immediately surrounding them) with flashlights and wagged fingers.
It placed She & Him audience members in a sour state, and for many, one that wouldn’t be cured by the band’s set.
While M. Ward and his backing band are exceptional musicians seasoned to the stage, for an actor whose quirky onscreen qualities are (if polarized) celebrated and whose album work with M. Ward is the stuff of sugary charm, Zooey Deschanel’s performance at Toronto Urban Roots Fest revealed that the actress hasn’t taken to the stage quite as comfortably.
Talented no doubt, Deschanel played song portions on piano, tambourine, and miniature guitar throughout the night, but to say that She & Him made up for the root assault on its fans’ freedoms with its stage show would be an exaggeration.
And that’s what was irritating about She & Him’s set at TURF. While their self-aware camera policy could be appreciated in an age where people go to concerts recording endless video that nobody asked for anyway, it ended up merely magnifying the circumstance of Deschanel’s lack of nonchalance. Appearing for most of the set as a deer in the headlights at the mic, Deschanel’s most crowd-engaging comport was her steering of a call and response rendering of “In The Sun.”
Just a suggestion: maybe it would’ve looked better from behind 3.5-inch screens. Also, if you’re demanding no cameras to keep your live show off the Internet, make it a good show.
Stray observations:
-M. Ward and Deschanel performed a duet performance of Smokey Robinson’s “You Really Got A Hold On Me”
-Guitarist/bassist Mike Coykendall performed a whistle solo that got the most deservedly applauded reception I’ve ever witnessed a whistle solo receive at a concert
-Deschanel’s set banter suggesting that someone in the audience should drink the oversized blowup Molson Canadian beer can promoting the “Molson Canadian Live” elevated listening area was just the “adorkable” humour fans love her for
-The francophone “Sunday Girl,” and “Dear Diary,” which ended in an Ward/Deschanel shared piano jam made for encores worth sticking around for
Joel Plaskett Emergency got the Calgary flood-cancelled Sled Island Festival set they didn’t get to have at TURF on July 4, 2013. Photo: Tom Beedham
“I was looking forward to playing this in Calgary until it actually happened,” Joel Plaskett told the crowd at TURF while taking a break to introduce his band’s “Natural Disaster.”
The song took on a new personal meaning for the singer-songwriter when heavy rainfall and flooding in Calgary forced the organizers of the city’s Sled Island Festival to cancel shows for over 270 artists still scheduled to play, a headliner of which was Plaskett’s band.
Plaskett’s TURF performance was introduced as “the show that never happened, and then did happen.” The show the Emergency delivered was one Plaskett personally illustrated with all the emotions one can imagine experiencing over the course of such a narrative – all under a blue sky the band never got at Sled Island.
Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Morgan and Kenny McKeeve at Fort York for TURF on July 4, 2013. Photo: Tom Beedham
“We don’t usually wear sunglasses onstage,” Camera Obscura guitarist Kenny McKeeve told the crowd at TURF amid a break in their July 4 set. “We’re not pretentious, but we’re not used to this; we’re British.”
Scottish identity crises aside, it is indeed so that the Glasgow twee-poppers have been away from Ontario for some time, as their last set here was at Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre on Nov. 27, 2009.
That – with perhaps some help from their critically acclaimed June 2013 release Desire Lines – all just meant for a warm welcome from the TURF crowd in the ranks at Fort York on July 4.
Although the group played in front of a backdrop sporting a blown up image of the new album’s artwork, 2006’s Let’s Get Out of This Country saw just as much representation on the group’s setlist. They also played “French Navy” and “Swans” from 2009’s My Maudlin Career, and reached 10 years back to 2003’s sophomore effort Underachievers Please Try Harder for “Teenager.” Full setlist below.
Setlist:
“Do It Again”
“Break It To You Gently”
“Teenager”
“Tears For Affairs”
“Fifth in Line To The Throne”
“Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken”
“Swans”
“If Looks Could Kill”
“New Year’s Resolution”
“French Navy”
“Desire Lines”
“Come Back Margaret”
“Razzle Dazzle Rose”
TOM BEEDHAM 