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Wakestock 2008 festival review and photos

Bands, boards and bikes at Wakestock 2008 - by Music Vice Editor Brian Banks 29/07/08

It was a rather splendid sunny Sunday morning in Toronto, where I found myself on a ferry taking me across the water to the centre isle of the Toronto Islands. I was on my way for the last day of Wakestock: a four day festival of boarding, moto bikes, bikinis and music. I had shamelessly, but unavoidably, decided not to turn up until the last day of the festival. My only real regret about this was that I'd missed Dillinger Escape Plan, who had played on Friday.

There were just two stages at Wakestock - the main stage, and a second smaller one which was used as a platform for local bands to give acoustic performances to passers-by. The line-up of bands playing Wakestock was a little surprising. It was a far more eclectic line-up than I had expected for a festival based around boarding. All the bands playing Wakestock were from Toronto, except for the American band We Are Scientists.

Shawn Hewitt & The National Strike were the first up on the main stage. I turned up just a few minutes before Hewitt started his set and I became part of an audience that totaled about two dozen. The ferry that had taken me onto this island had been full of people, as had the one before it, so these people must have been more interested in the wakeboarding and skateboarding happening around the festival grounds.

"Next were Crash Parallel... The music is deliberately open and vulnerable, with songs about broken hearts and a broken world. "

For those in attendance, Toronto artist Shawn Hewitt sang music that may be labeled as progressive soul pop. It's music that has its fingers in many pies. I found some of these pies to have decent lyrics garnishing their surface but were let down by some rather disappointing flavours of sound. For the most part I was not moved and couldn't get into it. However, We May Not Be That Different was an exception, an euphonious delight. A slowly burning number with all the right ingredients, plus a cherry on top. It creates an ambience that tantalizes your musical palate. This was Shawn Hewitt at his refrained best.

Next were Crash Parallel, a band of five from Toronto. I saw them play first on the main stage, then caught a few more of their songs over on the second stage where the singer Tim Edwards and guitarist Dan Saitua performed some of their songs again. Their music is of the same melodic rock vein as that of David Gray and Snow Patrol. The music is deliberately open and vulnerable, with songs about broken hearts and a broken world. It's not just mush, and songs like Rain Delays and Casualties Of War capture a powerful sentiment which can impact on you if your willing to let your emotional guard down. Crash Parallel coped well with what I imagine may have been a slightly awkward setting for them, given the small crowd of youth that were in attendance.

"Lights' name is well chosen, performing music to light up faces and hearts."

The crowd grew bigger at the main stage for LIGHTS - the performing name of Valerie Poxleitner, who perhaps likes to make up for her small and delicate stature by spelling her artist name in capital letters. Lights play a style of synth pop which is ready made for commercial success. In fact that's exactly how this artist has become big in Canada, as her music has featured in commercials for a clothing store called Old Navy. I don't watch the idiot box that often, but I have seen those TV adverts almost as much as I've seen the equally-irritating commercials for a Canadian phone dating service, whose name I won't mention but who seem to have an endless marketing budget.

Lights' name is well chosen, performing music to light up faces and hearts. She warmed the Wakestock crowd with some airy-light vocals, sometimes accompanying herself on 'Russel' her keytar, and backed by two guys on drums and keys. The songs are driven by dreamy synth melodies designed to make you chill-out and tap your feet. February Air is the best and biggest hit of her repertoire of synth pop numbers. It's pop music done the old-fashion way. It's clean, innocent and very definitely light. The music is as cutely sweet as the girl who sings it. A modern day pop star with moral fibre? Teenyboppers and their parents can rejoice.

Dragonette's set was dull and they did not get so much of a response from the crowd. It was very much a case of them saving their best to last. I Get Around, the best known song from these electro pop rockers, sprang some life into an audience who had been as unimpressed as myself by everything else that had gone before it.

New York based American rockers We Are Scientists were the penultimate performers of the night. In recent months I've become a big fan of these guys, not so much for their music alone, but for their music videos which are hilarious. We Are Scientists have the best music videos. Ever. During their Wakestock gig the band shared this same kind of humour that flows naturally from them. With plenty of banter and gags in between songs, W.A.S played a mix of old and new material. My favourite song was Chick Lit, which comes from W.A.S's recent second album Brain Thrust Mastery. Such a tune! A catchy number with some cool guitar and synth.

It should be said though that the crowd for We Are Scientists were just about as apathetic as they had been for every other band that had played before them. There was very little atmosphere. But that all changed when the headliners, Toronto rock band Metric, took to the stage to bring the night to an end.

"All eyes were on singer Emily Haines, who revels and glows in the limelight. Haines gave a performance that was on another level. Metric were out of this world."

It had stayed dry but overcast for most of the day on Toronto Island, but it started to rain at the exact moment that Metric began their set. I think the rain played a part as the atmosphere jumped up a few hundred notches. Suddenly everybody seemed to be having a really good time. A crowd that had looked disinterested for most of the day were now actually moving their bodies to the music. What a transformation. A few girls even crowd-surfed, which finally gave the security guards on the other side of the barrier something to do. It's clear that a lot of people had come simply for this band, and Metric did not disappoint.

All eyes were on singer Emily Haines, who revels and glows in the limelight. When not playing keyboards while singing, she'd walk around the stage in her little one piece get-up and purple pixie boots, reaching out to the crowd with her eyes and arm gestures. She had the audience, and you'd almost be blind to the fact that the rest of the band were there, were it not for the sweet sound of Metric that filled the air. Every single song was well received, and the best known ones like Combat Baby and Dead Disco naturally got the biggest reactions. Haines gave a performance that was on another level. Metric were out of this world.

© Brian Banks