Sled Island - Yo La Tengo, Elliot Brood, Chixdiggit, Broken Social Scene, and The Clips

While I was decidedly amped about Sled Island after seeing that wonderful Thursday night lineup, after two days of traveling, a sleepless night spent on the road, and a midnight Clips show to check out, I was more than ready to take my time getting to the music on Friday. I could only stay in bed for so long, however, as It was time to get the obligatory hometown visits outta' the way; the sun was shining, my air mattress was deflating, and Yo La Tengo were scheduled to play in the early evening...

Mewata field, just on the outskirts of downtown Calgary, proved an ideal venue for the festival, with the exception of noise bylaws shutting things down early (more on that later). I started the day in a great mood, as festival security actually allowed us to bring in our own food and beverages (liquor not withstanding). And while, as they promised, free water was readily available, there were still a lot of bottled ones and red bulls being bought, and nobody seemed to give two shits about recycling! (Update: apparently, the Sled Island team sifted through the mess post-festival in order to make sure as much was recycled as possible. Wonderful.)

Regardless, there were a lot less Dasani bottles than I'd expect to see at modern music festival (I was searching for something to throw during the Dodo's side stage set on Saturday... just kidding.) But speaking of stages, the Sled Island organizers had a pretty good setup going. The beer garden was located a nice distance from the two stages, which were placed side-by-side right in the heat of the Calgary sun. Bands would set up on the side stage while the main stage band was finishing their set, then play for half an hour while the next headlining act got ready. While the schedule inevitably got slowly pushed back (ultimately costing Broken Social Scene), the organizers and bands did a good job of keeping everything as smooth, timely, and incident free as could be hoped for.

While rapper Beans, Superchunk offshoot Portastic, and the California pop rockers Broken West were all skippable for the sake of social re-energizing, there was no way I was going to be late to Mewata for Yo La Tengo, a band I've somehow never managed to catch. Formed by guitarist Ira Kaplan and drummer/wife Georgia Hubley in Hoboken, NJ (soon taking on regular bassist James McNew), the band is as old as I am (24 years), and I've been a huge fan for about as long as I've had any taste. Their potpourri of pop-music experimentation, longevity, and consistency through 15 albums have made them one of the most unique and important indie bands still playing music today, and I knew it'd be a rare privilege to see them, in my hometown of all places.

You don't need me to tell you that the band exuded confidence on stage. They started the set by telling the crowd that other than the Pumphouse show the night before, they hadn't played a gig in Calgary for 13 years. Well, I know they've certainly played at least a few of these festival-type events in between their Cowtown visits, and the band put on an expectantly tight live show. Unsurprisingly, the trio got their largest reactions (from a crowd that was likely more interested in seeing Broken Social Scene) from material off of 2006's I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass. That both the slowly unwinding guitar trawl of 'Pass the Hatchet, I think I'm Goodkind' and the infectiously poppy, McNew fronted 'Mr. Tough' had the crowd erupting in cheers is a perfect testament to the band's unique power.

Hard act to follow? How about near-impossible... and unfortunately Elliot Brood were just not doing it for me. The 'urban hillbilly' 'frontier rockers' from Toronto released their second album of 'old timey' country-rock last week. My first impression when they hit the stage was veering towards 'gimmick' or 'joke band'; the pinstripe suits making the banjo and ukulele feel just a bit contrived. To me it all felt so damn studied that I was having trouble focusing on the music, which was pleasant -- but nothing I heard left a significant impression. I've subsequently read the boys have a genuine passion for Canadiana, and the newest record is getting some great reviews from some trustworthy people. I'll be giving them a second chance.


I've seen the Calgary born sisters Tegan & Sara play quite a few times, so we took their set as an opportunity to refuel. They sounded wonderful as always from a distance, and had an obviously strong reaction from the crowd.

I made sure we got back down to the stage for another old hometown favorite: Chixdiggit, the one band I probably most associate with my youth in Steak City. I was never a huge fan, but their presence was pretty inescapable in the melody-starved town of my memories.

Their pop-punk sound (think NOFX) may have been a little out of place, but kudos to Pashak and Kannberg for respecting a band that's been supporting Calgary's scene for a lot longer than most. The crowd fell victim to frontman KJ Jansen pretty quickly, with his old-school punk-rock stage dynamics, constant harassment of the thumb-twiddling crowd in front of the main stage, waiting for a peek of BSS, and regular shouts of "we're chixdiggit! woo!" and "yeah! chixdiggit rulez!" It was a lot of fun, and the sheer pop simplicity was probably a breath of fresh air for everyone.

After too many calls of "do we have time?" and "another song?" (phrases I heard from bands at the fest more often than anything else), Chixdiggit left the stage and Broken Social Scene took their time continuing to set up. The excitement level of the crowd was finally approaching proper festival levels, and I'd be lying if I claimed mine wasn't too. To be honest, the last time I caught the band was back in 2002, just prior to the release of the insta-classic You Forgot it in People. The level of excitement I felt hearing those songs for the first time has forever etched the experience, and the band, into my mind as something a bit legendary (despite every subsequent release failing to fully impress).

Overall... Broken Social Scene: incredibly talented. Broken Social Scene at Sled Island: talented but disappointing. Reason #1: No women. I was expecting Amy Millan at least, maybe even Feist (it was in Calgary), but no such luck. It was great to see Andrew Whiteman of Apostle of Hustle in the lineup, but I really needed some female vocals to complete the experience. #2: Their set spent a lot of time on the recent 'Presents...' albums, and was cut quite short because of the long set up time combined with Calgary noise bylaws. And #3, I kind of hate to admit it, but: a field full of others, including a lot of Kevin Drew-oggling girls, were in love with the band as well. I'm usually all about the way a festival (and music in general) can bring a community together... but BSS are one of those rare bands that have, for me, remained private for far too long. They may have put on a pretty fine performance -- I think everyone was entranced by 'Cause=Time' -- but I left Maweta without the full-on festival high.

For what would prove to be the perfect antidote to a mildly underwhelming Broken Social Scene set, we made our way down to the tiny basement club The Underground to check out Vancouver's The Clips. I've talked quite a bit about Brasstronaut here before, and since seeing them play the Media Club I was forced to pick up frontman Edo Van Breeman's other, more upbeat band's self-released debut, Matterhorn. I've been playing it non-stop ever since...

While the band will probably find itself lumped under the 'dance punk' ticket, that label hardly does the experimental quintet justice (they wisely describe themselves simply as Indie/Rock on myspace). It's a genre I can't say I'm usually a huge fan of; each band seems to be playing with same ideas, all trying to replicate that ubiquitous LCD/DFA/Nike-Commercial vibe... and for me they so rarely come out with anything engaging.

From both the sound of the debut album and the band's performance at Sled Island, it's pretty clear that The Clips aren't trying to emulate anyone. With songs driven alternately by keys, guitar, drums, vocals and electronics, the band had the energy needed to sell the sound without ever coming across as silly or self-indulgent, defining features of the bad 'electronic-rock' outfits I've seen. Live drumming probably helps a lot too, as it's always a little difficult watching a over-coked dance-punking hipster flail madly behind a drum machine. Not a lot of flailing or pretense to be had here; these guys are serious on stage and have the mature, professional restraint to match the quality of their music.

They started out with 'The Wire,' a slow burner that nicely shows why Van Breeman's vocal style has been compared to Thom Yorke, and combined with the keys and electronic flourishes, the Clips here almost sound like what Radiohead's latest material would be like if they could handle the depressing electronica as well as they can the rock.

The guys also brought my Prairie-fogged mind back home for a bit, as they dedicated their second song to "all the missing feet in Vancouver," then played a new track called 'Pennies' with a wonderful whistle-driven intro, one which will be featured on the new album "coming out sometime after 2010, post-Olympics..."

Another cut from Matterhorn, 'Eyesuck' is just about the perfect four minute indie-pop song, sounding something like the genius offspring of !!! and Architecture in Helsinki. Quinn called 'Kassel' one of the 'best dance tunes of last year,' and he is most certainly correct; the song had every sore leg in the small crowd moving. And how about the post-rock to dance-punk bliss of "Enrique McTeeth," which may very well prove to be my personal favourite.

Matterhorn is getting a re-release this month and hopefully this time around the record will find the audience it deserves; I expect these brilliant tunes to become justly overplayed during this summer's house parties and Sunday morning sessions.

Yeah, that was long again. On more day to go... and make sure to check out the two shows listed below.

Brasstronaut will play the Railway Club on Thursday, July 3.

The Clips will play at Richards on Richards Friday, July 4.