Oh! Canada Road Trip! Part 6: Dawson City Music Festival

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For a while, Dawson City in the Yukon Territory was one of the biggest and most important towns on the west coast of Canada, serving as home to over 40,000 people in 1898, as the home to the Klondike goldrush. Just a few years later, with the goldrush over, the town shrunk in size, with just a couple of thousand inhabitants remaining. While mining continues, during the summer the town plays host to groups of tourists, eager to experience a little piece of Goldrush fever, try their hand at panning for gold, visit some of the original buildings that have been preserved from the the boom days, and wonder at the goings on in small town where in the summer the sun never sets. For a couple of days each year the town rediscovers the craziness of old as it doubles in size to host Dawson City Music Festival, the biggest event of its kind held in the territory.

Situated 500 Km North of the territorial capital of Whitehorse, and around 450 km south of the Arctic Circle, traveling to get to Dawson City is part of the adventure- be it the six hour drive through the mountains from Whitehorse, the twin prop plane ride (which at this time of year almost certainly means you will be flying alongside some of the artists performing at the festival, in our case Owen Pallett and Shotgun Jimmie), or you could join a handful of hardy individuals who make the trip by kayak each year, departing a mere 5 days before the festival starts for what must be one of the longest, but certainly one of the most memorable journeys to a festival.

Prior to the Festival itself, Thursday evening saw a warm up event take place at The Palace Grand Theatre, originally built in opera house style in 1899 by Arizona Charlie Meadows, an old west showman, but now used mostly for review style shows and community events. Opening the show were Jean Martin (Drums/ Traumaphone) and Jeremy Strachan (Baritone Sax), who capably demonstrated why they are considered to be amongst Canada’s finest improv musicians, with Strachan’s florid runs being complemented by Martin’s intricate loops and rumbling bass notes from the Traumaphone (a trumpet with a saxophone mouth piece). Owen Pallett followed, performing material from Heartland for the first time in Canada with his old band Les Mouches. A three song section of ‘Tryst with Mephistopheles’, ‘Scandal At The Parkade’ and ‘The CN Tower Belongs To The Dead’ early in the show set the tone for what followed, Pallet and his band locking in to each other and bringing ‘Tryst…’ to a soaring climax and riding the energy for the rest of the evening, throwing in a new song that saw drummer Rob Gordon almost bringing out the breakbeats, before closing with a stomping take on ‘This Is The Dream of Win and Regine’ to a standing ovation.

Friday afternoon saw the threat of rain move a planned afternoon show into the Oddfellows hall, where celebrity puppet Chef Mamma Yamma greeted visitors to CBC North sessions. First up was a solo Shotgun Jimmie, a former Dawson resident, who clearly took delight in his return home (the local bar had even named a cocktail after him in honour of the festival), even throwing in a song about breakfast for the kids in the crowd. If Jimmie’s show was full of joy the same can’t be said of what followed- Simone Downes of 100 Dollars and banjo player Chris Coole teamed up for a set of ‘post-murder ballads’, the subjects of their finely played country-noir more often than not meeting a grizzly or unpleasant end. That isn’t to say they didn’t make concessions however, with Downes deadpanning that the penultimate number was more child friendly, as the guy was already dead). Amelia Curran’s minimally picked storytelling continued on the darker, more emotional side of things before Tim Hus and his band whipped through a set of Cowboy-hatted old-style country, explaining with tongue firmly placed in cheek before each song that their forte is Driving songs. They even have their own answer for Johnny Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere”, in their case a list-based song of independently produced Canadian Beers by Province, and the men that deliver them.

It is to DCMF’s credit that they attempt to vary their programming as much as possible, rather than just sticking to one ‘safe’ genre. Thus, after another storming set of love lorn lo-fi from Shotgun Jimmie (with members of Ladyhawk and Attack in Black acting as his band, or, as Jimmie himself refers to them “The Beatles and Michael Jackson”), things turned decidedly more electronic with a high kicking, high energy set from Edmonton’s Shout Out Out Out Out: Triple bass guitars, screaming synths and twin drummers combine to create an electro-dance party in Dawson’s signature stripy tent, the perfect performance to warm the crowd up for Rich Aucoin’s multi-media extravaganza. Teaming up with Nathan Lawr of Minotaurs on drums, Aucoin projected a slideshow pre-performance, effectively acting as his own hype via the power of the computer. Despite a couple of minor technical difficulties meaning that some of the projections that from a key part of Aucoin’s performance weren’t able to be shown, he more than dealt with the situation by throwing himself into the crowd (literally) running around and leading the audience into singalong afer singalong. Just 8 hours later Aucoin would be back in the tent performing the same show as part of the kids festival, the children managing to take part with more understanding than many of the more worse for wear adults the previous evening. Coupled with an electro-workshop held by Shout Out Out Out, it would be no surprise if a few years down the line some electronic musicians appear out of Dawson as a direct result of the show.

With relatively few artists performing over the weekend, there are plenty of opportunities for workshops and one off collaborations. One of the most impressive, and moving, of the weekend was between Niger’s Etran Finatawa (a group made up of both Tuareg and Wodaabe Tribesmen) and the Kaska Drummers, of the local Kaska Dena First Nation, outside the cultural centre of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation. Initially, the collaboration seemed more like turn taking to play traditional songs, one of the First National Elders took it into their own hands to get thing going, getting up to dance to the multiple rhythms and sparking a mass dance including both audience and band members. In a town that trades so much on its history it felt appropriate that it was through traditional musics could fuse together and create something new, all-inclusive and overwhelmingly positive in front of one of the few modern buildings in the city.

Mid-afternoon called for a palette cleanser, and it was delivered in spades by the bass and drum blues punk of Whitey Houston (Gravy and Lyle of Shout Out Out Out Out)- who turned in a heavy riffing set murkier and faster than the Yukon River they were playing next to. Before long it was time to return to the Palace Grand, where Etran Finatawa took to the stage to perform their extended desert blues whilst clad in full traditional dresses of their respective tribes. The fluid grooves and multi-rhythms were hypnotic, entrancing much of the audience. Headling the evening, Throat singer Tanya Tagaq joined forces with improvisers Jean Martin (Drums) and Jesse Zubot (violin). Beginning by explaining the origins of traditional throat singing (as a game played between two women face to face until the other person laughs) before embarking on a 40 minute tour de force improvisation that managed to be at once beautiful, horrific, moving, and terrifying all at once, Tagaq twisting and contorting, shrieking and emitting low groans as Martin’s at times frenzied drumming and sample loops altered the pace and Zubot’s treated violin shifted things towards darker territory. As people emerged into the eerie 10pm daylight, there was a mixture of amazement and shock at the remarkable performance.

Perhaps feeling the need to prove themselves given their choice of band name, Yukon Blonde pulled out all the stops for their first Yukon show, and were given a heroes welcome as they threw everything into their tight 70s indebted rock n roll (including a special guest appearance from Mamma Yamma) before The Stampeders rolled back the years to close out the evening. As the sunset became the sunrise and the days merged into one, the party continued into the small hours, with many of the bands playing extra sets in houses and bars around the town.

The final day saw the collaborative spirit of the festival taken to it’s natural conclusion in the traditional ‘Pot Luck Afternoon’ in which members of all the bands playing at the festival were drawn in groups to play together, covering songs of their choice with varying levels of success. Closing the evening, Nathan Lawr (Royal City/ Feist)’s Minotaurs brought the jazz-tinged party, saxophone and trombone soaring and bass lines and frontman bouncing along in unison. 1am rolled by and there was time for one final collaboration- all the festivals artists joining together for a chaotic run through of OutKast’s Hey Ya, the chorus of which could be heard throughout the streets of the town as bands and festival attendees a like kept the party going in various backyards, streets and houses around the town in a permanent daylight induced delirium.

Without doubt, Dawson City Music Festival is a unique event in the Festival calendar; its combination of remote location, intimate shows and spirit of collaboration leading to a unique spirit that seems to lift everyone and drive them to put everything into their performances. It is a testament to the work put in by the festival and their volunteers that a quick survey of artists waiting to return at the Dawson airport that the common highlight seems to have been making music with new friends and then playing music with them. That, and the beer canoe.