Hillside thoughts and highlights ...

[Wassink Wild Card!]

Jeez, how many people skipped Broken Social Scene to see Mr. Something Something and Taxi Chain?!?!?

I skipped BSS to see Pick up Trucks and Gravel Roads - The Sadies/Po'Girl...this was the best thing I saw on Sunday for sure.

[Tungsten Gruvsten]

had a good time - rain was too short to be bothersome(sunday aft for a couple bits) and I only had one er, um, 'incident' of the psychedelic variety on Sat. that put the tilt in my whirl but I recovered well enough...

Highlights for me were:

Friday -

Hawksley! fack, the missus loves him but i've never been a huge fan...this was only the second time i've ever seen him, and he delivered - lotsa covers, starting it off with Jackson 5 and hitting on 'the ocean' by Led Zep and even 'Record Body Count' by Rheos...kee-rist it was good. ScottieMcKingerson has the full list scribbled out somewhere.

Sat.

Skipped Elliot Brood for Magic - what a treat that was. Wow...Burning Hell outta Peterborough was great - electric ukelele and husky vocals on a hazy afternoon...

Plants and Animals was Brilliant! Just lovign this band right now. played a great set and nailed the one song I was wanting to hear all weekend that I can't get outta my head.

Thunderheist was powerful booty-cru$&*(^@*%^&*#$%^%^*#@&@&*##$$%&*(#&^@(#*&AAAAAAAHHHFACKKK#%@$!@!)(!@*(*@%^@(*)*()#@$)(*@#^&@*&(#@()**()@#*(*()@#*()^@#*&(%@%(#&()

...ok fast forward 3 hours later and i'm walking back to the festival...missed a couple good bands but Bourbon and Islands are killer and send me back to camp smiling - couldn't believe how effortlessly the Bourbon singer could belt it out, and the band was killer. The song Chris Brown wrote for his father that Kate Fenner sang was spinetingling - Oh yeah, and there was a drunken photographer that teleported from the crowd in front of us to sidestage. No shit.

Sun.

Akron/Family was a tent-burner...lotsa crazy party energy for these guys. Reminded me of Firehose or Minutemen at times.

Acorn was cookin - apparently I saw them in Ottawa once....gap in memory there.

Mr Something Something was great but there was a problem with the bass, or should I say the bass was missing almost entirely that distracted me too much - otherwise great energetic set but left a tune early to get in good and deep for BSS - they were great, so much talent in that band.

I didn't think the line-up was that great either but it really was a packed festival - I was entertained the whole time I was there! Great to see so many friendly faces there that I don't get the chance to hang with much anymore.

[mark tonin]

Mr Something Something was great but there was a problem with the bass, or should I say the bass was missing almost entirely that distracted me too much

I agree that there was almost no bass in the mix, which was unfortunate. I compensated for that by closing my eyes and imagining the bass. Seriously.

On another note, one thing that always impresses me about Hillside is the food. Tasty, tasty food. Plus there is free drinking water. And clean portable toilets. And cool workshops. And stuff to do with kids. It's a very family friendly festival.

Peace, Mark

[bouche]

Musically, I there was lots that I enjoyed, but the absolute highlight for me was The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir on the main stage on Saturday night. Wow!!! They absolutely blew me away. Very soulful, very danceable, very emotional, very tight! I would go and see them again for sure. Hopefully they will get enough positive feedback from this show to play some more shows.

that Kate Fenner has one helluva voice.

[boiler]

Mr Something Something was great but there was a problem with the bass' date=' or should I say the bass was missing almost entirely that distracted me too much[/quote']

I agree that there was almost no bass in the mix, which was unfortunate. I compensated for that by closing my eyes and imagining the bass. Seriously.

No Bass in the Something Something set, now that would suck ass. Liam is such a wicked bass player, I've gone into the "Liam Zone" almost every MR SS show I've ever been too. Why didn't somebody punch the sound guy in the face? :susel: (or threw their granola bags at him or something)

[Giggles]

Great weekend!

Highlights for me include:

Friday:

Rebekah Higgs -never heard of, pretty good stuff

TONY SCHEER - enough said

Abrams - good friends of mine, great set

The Most Serene - ripped it UP..

Saturday

Land of Talk- again, good friends, great set w/ Mr. Andrew Barr on drums

Good Bros. - bad-ass bluegrass

Sarah Slean - GORGEOUS

Jason Collette - good show with lots of guests

Spiral Beach - weird, awesome stuff

Po' Girl - they were great and had a reall good band w/ them too

Sadies - enough said

Pork on a Bun - good bros/foggy hogtown = BAD ASS!!!

Sunday

Harry Manx - great musician

Hayden - been MANY years since I've seen him...great band and good tunes...

Foggy Hogtown - rippin bluegrass set

BSS - For me the stand out performance of the weekend...lots of old tunes, tasty new ones and great, magical energy on stage...

Gawpo Giggles

-my only negative thing was the short set times...I could go with getting rid of some bands and giving longer set-times to the good acts there...

Edited July 29, 2008 by Guest

[DevO]

Thanks for the reports, wish I could've made it!

Did Kevin Breit play with Harry Manx? Did Kevin Breit pop up on any other stages?

Did Andrew Whiteman play with Bourbon Tabernacle Choir?

For me, the lineup looked amazing.. So good that I wish I hadn't looked at it! All it was missing was The Spades.

I wish The Acorn was playing around here sometime before I left.

[AD]

I wish The Acorn was playing around here sometime before I left.

wolfe island!! you know you want to!!

[Giggles]

Andrew joined his old band mates for the entire show, which was quite sweet...

And Mr. Breit was nowhere in sight...

Gawpo Giggles

[jazzyjeff]

Wow, this year was awesome.

I discovered so many new acts.

I loved The Magic.

We Are Wolves was so much fun. Space invader style costumes at the start were a nice touch. So much energy.

Spiral Beach was very cool. They came back out after much coaxing at the end of their set and did one of the shortest encores ever (basically just a few beats) and it was quite hilarious when they immediately walked back off, saying they didn't know any more songs.

It was probably my favorite time seeing BSS. One minute we were at the very far back by the lake taking it all in and then the next we were right up close to the stage. Magical for me.

Dubblestandard/Mr SS workshop was one of the best things I saw and it was at 11 AM. Skipped the gospel hour to catch this workshop and it was so worth it.

Dubblestandart main stage was also fun.

I had only seen Bell Orchestre once before and was so underwhelmed but the Hillside set definitely clicked for me.

Plants and Animals were on fire. I had seen them twice before and this was by far their best performance to me.

I heard a bit of Lights and definitely have to check them (or is it her) out in the future.

I wish I had seen Miracle Fortress but missed them. I heard they were great.

Hawksley Workman put on a very weird set. It was mostly his older songs mixed with a lot of well known covers (Zeppelin, Queen and others I can't remember). Supposedly he did not play a single song off his new album. I liked what I heard of his set.

Cowboy Junkies were supposedly more jammy than usual. Did not see much of them.

Anyway there are too many other bands I caught part of that made this one of my favourite years.

I have some friends who went to this years festival who had a horrible time and did not see one band that they liked. What a downer. I can't see how you can have a bad time at Hillside.

Edited July 29, 2008 by Guest

[Booche]

I compensated for that by closing my eyes and imagining the bass. Seriously.

Arent you a teacher? Seriously.

I can smell your hippie from here.

[phishtaper]

The Tibetan Monks were also a special treat this year. Here's a pic of the Mandala Sand Painting they were working on throughout the weekend. Stunningly beautiful.

And a link to a big blog about the festival full of pics.