Dana spreading Sled Island vibes all the way back to Victoria! 

      “Having lucked out so well yesterday with following Victoria bands around Sled Island I decided to start the day off checking out Painted Fruit at the classic venue Tubby Dog. I arrived early so I was able to check out Milk Toast’s set. Indie punk rock from a group of young musicians capped off in a surprising outburst with the guitarist and drummer throwing their equipment around the stage and the drummer grabbing the guitar and stabbing it through their bass drum. Murmurs in the crowd had it that someone brought up the name of someone they shouldn’t have, probably an ex-lover…

 (Milk Toast)

      My understanding of Painted Fruit was that they would likely be an indie punk/post-punk band, which they were. Eventually the band started to lighten up a bit and even get a little playful as they moved into their set. By the end I had come around completely, helped out in large part by the incredible drumming of their drummer. That guy is what I believe they would call a “natural”. His intense drumming served to enhance what was going on in the band without overtaking or taking away from it.

(Painted Fruit)

      Fate intervened next by pouring rain down for a half hour or so. I originally planned to head to Olympic Plaza for Speedy Ortiz, but that being an outdoor stage and with Fountain coming up next, I decided to stay put. I knew I was tempting fate by watching Fountain two days in a row, but yesterday had been so fantastic I decided it would be worth it. The set was largely identical to yesterday’s, but once the crowd got into it it was just as good, if not better! It was weird to be the ones on the stage this time, with them down below, but again, what an amazing set and what a great energy from the band and in the room. Once it was done it was very difficult to pull myself away, especially with a band named Vulva Culture coming up next. But I had promised myself I’d check out Suuns.

 (Suuns)

      The open air of Olympic Plaza brought a very different energy, especially with all the puddles littering the area in front of the stage. Suuns are an experimental indie rock band from Montreal. I heard their album once before the show and was impressed enough to check out their set. After yesterday’s set by Tortoise, however, it was hard not to be let down. In a lot of ways Suuns represent a lot of the reasons I have fallen out with indie rock in the last couple of years. I loved the grooves the band would get into, and the guitar riffs, but the fact that they’d drag them out for the entirety of a song made me think they ran out of ideas or hadn’t flushed them out sufficiently. Compare that with Tortoise who has the musical prowess to know when and where to lead their songs and it’s hard not to see indie rock as somewhat simple at times. There were moments during Sunns’s set where I was rocking just as hard as anything this weekend, but for the most part I was a little underwhelmed.

      Indie rock double-header with Guided By Voices coming up next. As expected, 80% of the songs the band played were ones I didn’t recognize. But with a discography 24 albums deep, not to mention solo projects, eps, and singles, you kind of expect that to happen unless you’re a die hard fan. As the band was setting up you could tell their was a certain amount of swagger associated with this band. Once lead singer Robert Pollard took the stage that swagger was definitively confirmed. Leg kicks, mic twirls, limp wrists, I think the guy even talked in a faux-British accent (the band is from Dayton, Ohio). I almost thought we were watching a Roger Daltrey (The Who) performance. Robert Pollard even had a roadie, who was singing along to all the songs offstage, and would open and bring him beers and shots of whiskey while he was performing. There is something very ironic about this kind of posturing in the indie rock world, but then again they do say Robert Pollard is an indie rock God. My only regret is that I wasn’t familiar with more of their discography because Guided By Voices songs are so catchy that the only way to really enjoy them is to sing along with every word.”

       I was starting to feel pretty burnt out at this point in the evening but I knew I had to push through to Deafheaven at 1 am. I walked past the line-up for Peaches and realized I probably wasn’t going to get into that one so I headed to the legion. I am by no means a fan of black metal, but I follow the trends in indie/hipster rock so I was familiar with the band. Whoever opened before them were the prototype of metal in terms of looks: long hair, beards, denim jackets and provided a perfect foil to Deafheaven, who were described to me earlier in the day as the “gentrification of black metal”. But let’s not fool ourselves, this is black metal being played by hipsters for hipsters. The one guitarist was wearing a Cure t-shirt and the singer, when he stage-dived, was wearing an adorable pair of pointed-toed dress shoes. Metal purists would be right to scoff. Although, as they say, image isn’t everything as this band was very intense! Much more intense than the band that opened for them. So I can understand why they have developed such a large following. It is now 12 hours since the band started performing and my ears are still ringing a little bit. If black metal is your thing and you can get past looks, Deafheaven is sure to be one of your favourite live bands.”

Sled Island days, seem to be the best days! Thanks Dana! 
#cfuvsleds2016