Oh! Canada Road Trip! Part 4: Halifax Pop Explosion

-
Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse, Nova Scotia

With over 130 bands over 5 days in venues spread all over town, Halifax Pop Explosion is quickly becoming one of the most respected festivals in Canada. Under the guidance of new artistic director Jonny Stevens, the festival has grown, and this year includes the Music Matters conference, a handful of label showcases, a mix-tape swap and plenty of extra curricular activities to keep even the most demanding festival goer satisfied. Kicking things off on Tuesday evening are Long Long Long. Having already garnered a strong local following with their former act York Redoubt, the band take the stage, teasing out waspish guitar lines from their guitars while drummer Rob Shedden holds things together with snare hits that boom out as loud as the noon-day gun for which Halifax Citadel is famous. The rougher edges of York Redoubt have been replaced with a more surfy feel, although the infectious rush of energy the band, and their impressively inebriated fanclub, who sing along to every word, puts the ‘pop’ into Pop Explosion. You can, and should, download all their releases here for free.

Long Long Long

After Long Long Long it was time for a trip to the North End of town to Gus’ Pub, a dimly lit bar with a punk spirit that is more a rite of passage than a gig venue. If the tired and torn ‘woodland scene’ wallpaper behind the stage could talk, the tales it could tell would almost certainly be the stuff of legend. Directly opposite the stage lies what resembles a giant aquarium-a room inside a room dedicated to gambling machines whose lights blink in near-synchopation with the clattering drums of Montreal two-piece The Nymphetes, whose frontman strains every sinue as the band tear through their male/female vocal onslaught that harks back to the glory days of the early 90s Pacific coast garage punk scene. Then it was on to the main attraction. Despite suffering from the after-effects of a bad Donair, Mark Sultan still managed to turn in a raucous display of rock n soul. Slipping off his shoes to play kick and snare drums with his feet, the man they sometimes call BBQ rampaged through a blistering set of self proclaimed Rock n roll type music, letting his soulful croon ring out acapella before tumbling in to another riff, speak-snorting like a man possessed, Before long the floor of Gus had turned in to a sweaty mass of bodies. While for the most part this was good natured, Sultan repeatedly had to break off mid-song to calm the audience down, and to get them away from the monitor holding his kit together. By the end of the set the overindulgence added a sour edge to what had been a triumphant dirty garage-soul party.

My Brightest Diamond

Day two of Pop saw an early visit to the lobby of CKDU, the local student radio station for a live radio session from newly returned Haligonians Cursed Arrows, a husband and wife duo who riffed their way through a short set packed full of attitude and swagger, with the occasional sash of righteous fury thrown in for good measure. With the main action really starting on Thursday, Wednesday’s choices were fairly straightforward: The Metal show, The Pop show, The Punk show, the Electro show and the Scumdogs of the Universe show. To the disappointment of my thirteen-year old self, I turned down the chance to get covered in blood at Gwar (although watching the roadies unloading the 18-wheeler full of props before the show was impressive enough), in favour of the Pop show: The New Pornographers (with Neko Case), making the first trip to Halifax of their 13 year career. I arrived just in time to witness My Brightest Diamond working her magic over the air-craft hangar like venue. Switching from swirling round gleefully while playing the kalimba, to indulging in a full foot on the monitor rock out, Shara Worden commended the attention of every eye in the room. Seemingly making up for lost time, Carl Newman and his cohorts hit the ground running with a sparky rendition of ‘Sing Me Spanish Techno’. Pausing just enough to joke about local-boy band member Todd Fancey, the set amounted to a power-pop masterclass, chock full of huge pop-hooks and three way harmonies shared between Newman, Calder and Case.

Neko Case of The New Pornographers

Although The New Pornographers may not have played Halifax before, fellow power-pop merchants Sloan are the local boys who did good. Returning to the city in which they launched their career, the band are one of the big draws of the festival, with a noticeably older crowd lined up to see the band perform seminal album “Twice Removed” in it’s entirety. While openers Amos The Transparent were full of an exuberant energy, Toronto’s Dinosaur Bones seemed a little daunted by the task of opening for Sloan. Beset with technical difficulties, and trying to placate an excitable crowd, the bands brooding songs didn’t quite fit the mood. Surprisingly, they were not the only ones seemingly struggling with the occasion. Although turning in an accomplished performance, Sloan ran through the whole of the ‘Twice Removed’ set without addressing the audience. Returning on stage for the encore, the band seemed relieved to have got the album out of the way, and, laughing and joking with the crowd, ran through other back-catalog hits to the delight of the heaving and sweaty audience.

Sloan

After spending the weekday mornings investigating the historic citadel, the beautiful but freezing Peggy’s Cove lighthouse and learning about the explosion from which the festival takes its name, Friday night was time for one of the most anticipated shows of the whole Oh! Canada road trip. For the last three years Halifax Pop Explosion have teamed up with Symphony Nova Scotia for a special show with a ‘pop’ artist. This year it was the turn of Basia Bulat, who had arrangements produced by last years guest artist Owen Pallett. Starting with a new classical piece by Toronto composer Jordan Pal, the symphony was then joined by Bulat and her bandmate Holly Coish and brother Bobby Bulat. While Bulat is often cited as having an orchestral-pop sound, the success of much of her work relies on the simplicity of the structures of her songs. For the most part Pallett’s undulating scores served to emphasize and heighten the emotions conveyed in Bulat’s songs, weaving in and out of the pieces, adding colour here and there, without attempting to over embellish the sound. While the work with the symphony worked perfectly well, it was with the impromptu encore that Bulat truly made the show her own. Clearly reveling in the experience, she returned to the stage for a second encore of ‘Death Come Creeping’, delivered off-microphone using only her voice and the acoustics of the building as amplification, and a stomping foot as accompaniment. After the lush and beautiful symphonic sound, the sparse simplicity of this unscripted action was a fantastic way to end the evening. Despite plenty of shows going on into the early hours, to attend another show afterwards would have been to the detriment of both Bulat and whoever else was performing.

Basia Bulat and Symphony Nova Scotia

The final day of the festival began early, as I had been invited to take part in a panel discussion alongside Frank Yang of Chromewaves, Matt Jordan of You Ain’t No Picasso and Bryan Acker of Herohill about the power (or otherwise) of the blogosphere. After a spirited and interesting session it was a quick dash across the street for a ‘secret’ show from the Great Lake Swimmers. More used to playing soft seater venues and churches these days, the show saw the band play the decidedly darker Seahorse Tavern. Seemingly refreshed by the change of scene, the band turned in a decidedly rockier set than usual, the chiming guitars of ‘Pulling On A Line’ and ‘Palmistry’ providing the perfect soundtrack for a crisp autumnal afternoon in the Nova Scotian sunshine.


Handsome Furs

If Great Lake Swimmers were more used to churches than sweaty clubs, then the opposite might be said of Handsome Furs, who found themselves in the beautiful surroundings of St. Matthew’s Church. Trying their best (and failing) not to swear, Dan Boeckner and Alexi Perri stalked the stage swathed in smoke and coloured lights, strutting, high kicking and frequently falling over throughout their crazed dance party of a show. Also intent on ending the festival with a party were Polaris prize nominees Radio Radio, whose good time Acadian hip hop filled the tiny Tribeca venue. Be it bouncing across the stage or singing upside down, it was clear that nothing was going to get between the band, or their crowd and a good time. With the question of what to chose between a penny loafer or a deck shoe ringing in my ears, it was time to head home for the final time, and to bring Oh! Canada’s road trip to an end. With a finely crafted blend between established names and up and coming talent Halifax Pop Explosion was a great place to witness the rude health of the Canadian music scene, and the perfect way to end the trip. The only complaint? That it wasn’t physically possible to be at two or more shows at once.