Show #62 - July 22-25: Calgary Folk Music Festival

Sitting in the afternoon sun, the grass beneath my bare feet, between my fingers with my palms to the ground, a vibration of pure and genuine enjoyment permeated Prince’s Island Park in Calgary. A diverse crowd emerged – young girls in short dresses, older men in fedoras and button downs, mothers and daughters, young children on shoulders with glow bracelets, rapt by what is going on around them. Hipsters, hippies, punks, cowboys, politicians, local celebrities and teens in flip flops and board shorts, a deficiency of shirts, some barefoot, the younger boys collecting plates for deposits.

This crowd watched workshops during the afternoons. A gorgeous wall of sound flooded our meadow seats as Library Voices, St. Vincent, Timber Timbre and Sunparlour Players jammed for what seemed an eternity on only the right notes. Side stage performances from Dan Mangan and Ohbijouinvited the wistful and communally spirited to join them. Brits Laura Marling and Frank Turner transfixed, while international acts Etran Finatawa and Coolooloosh destroyed the concept of genre through clashing and bending.

I would have never expected this vibe from a province seen by those of us ill-informed and ill-served by the partisan regional politics of Canada, to be uptight and staunchly conservative. In the evenings, the tarped field and fenced off ‘dancing only’ sections filled before the main stage. Fuelled by Cat Empire,Michael Franti and Stars the city became a bohemian mecca; flowing skirts, closed eyes and arms held high in a haze of sweat and dance. Calgary Folk is sonic bliss in the Canadian west.

Show #61 - July 16-18: River and Sky Festival

Lying on my back, through the trees, I can see a sky full of stars. The river where we had swam that afternoon, cut through the bouldered channel and added an ambient texture over Daniel Romano'sunplugged campfire set. Around us, the tent village buzzed. New friends and old acquaintances sat around the stone circles that contain their fires, each blaze illuminating it's denizens instruments of choice; another night of music continuing after the music.

Along side local favourites, bands like By Divine Right and Born Ruffians created a lineup of performers not to be missed in River and Sky's second year. The main-stage sat hill side, an Ozark cabin relieved of a wall, exposed to the small field where perhaps a few hundred of us gathered. With ample room to sit, lie in the grass, or dance, the park served as the ideal venue for The Pinecones, Boys Who Say No, The Wooden Sky, Yukon Blonde, Plants and Animals and Ohbijou.

This is a wood-nymph music festival dream of the near-North; miles from the nearest city, a club-sized audience dancing riverside in the night-breeze before sleepily singing their own songs and shutting their eyes under a spalled black blanket of a sky.

Show #57 - June 18, 2010: Toronto Island Concert

I first went to the Toronto Island Concert at the beginning. Back when Arcade Fire was the festival opener; an upstart band from Montreal with a sparsely package "Self Titled Demonstrative Album" and BSS weren't the international rock superheroes they are today. Summers away from Toronto pulled me away for several years however. 2010 marked a return for me to Olympic Island. Toronto hummed on the sunny Saturday morning and as we approached the ferry turnstiles off Queen's Quay, bands played mid-day sets in the park on a NXNE side stage. It seemed odd that one would have to choose between the city's largest music event and the show curated by it's darling stars and sons, but thousands had sold out the grassy space of the park.

Reaching the island, we passed a pile of discarded blankets at the festival gate, as 2010 Polaris long-listers Zeus finished their set. We zig-zagged through the seated crowd to find ourselves a spot in front of the soundboard from where we caught the haunted wanderings of Timber Timbre and surf-washed, teen dreams of Beach House. Broken hearted rockers Band of Horses inspired girlfriends to clutch boyfriends arms and sigh. But with a full compliment of guests including Feist, Amy Milan, Sebastien Grainger and Forgiveness producer John McEntire this was homecoming for Broken Social Scene. Lisa Lobsinger, who has taken her share of lumps from the BSS faithful, triumphed over the crowd with the call of forgiveness in "All to All" and the orgasmic release of "Meet Me In The Basement" brought the sun beneath the horizon. The bulk of those born after 1980 made their way home as 90's legends Pavement took the stage. Burning their way through a veritable greatest hits, opening with "Cut Your Hair," they played into the night. Looking to beat the crowds we left pre-encore, but as the ferry made her slow crawl across the small Lake Ontario inlet back to downtown, the head-nods and cheers played us out with "Summer Babes."

(Note: A different version of this article appeared on nxew.ca on September 10, 2010)