Hillside 2008 - Bourbonized!

How lovely to get away, to enjoy the earth, music, food, and people....
I spent the past weekend celebrating Hillside Music Festival's 25th anniversary.

Rather than camping in the smaller quiet, U shaped field, my car of people opted for the larger field closer (by a mere few hundred feet) to the bathrooms as well as Guelph Lake island. The thinking was also that the others that I knew were camping may end up over where I was. But, alas, they were in the other lot. Besides a slightly loud Friday night, the larger lot was not that bad. The group that had traveled with me to Guelph decided to leave on Sunday evening and I spent the night alone. By then most people had left for home and there were a few campers here and there along the rows of the all too close overflow camping. Perhaps I can consider that a taster to my travels in 4 months time. (eek! already 4 months!!!)

And on to the music we go...

Friday night I spent most of my time at the Main stage. I wanted to see the Welcome with the Tibetan Monks and Aboriginal Elders. I decided to go to check out Can-American Games and went to what I thought was the Island stage (really it was the Lake stage, not sure how i messed that up) stayed a moment or two to see what was going on there and realized it wasn't what I thought so left for the Main stage again. For the most part I enjoyed the performances at the Main stage that night. I must say I was quite impressed with the Arrogant Worms, to my surprise and also enjoyed Danny Michel and Hawksley Workman. The Cowboy Junkies were quite disappointing. The potential to be something very good turned out to be something very boring and really 45 minutes of my life I will never get back. Poor stage presence and perhaps a bit of Diva-itis, could be the cause. A friend of mine was saying that is there thing, and what they do. I didn't realize that people enjoyed watching others make a cup of tea, sit down yawn, dunk the tea bag a few more times and get back up and start singing. It felt as if I was watching a reality show, but this reality show was different. A hidden camera in the living room of a pretty mundane and ordinary family. Thank goodness it was Mr. Workman who closed the evening, and not The Cowboy Junkies.

Saturday was the day I had been looking forward to since the initial release of the music line up for the weekend. Chris Brown and Kate Fenner played at three with the Citizen's Band. As always enjoyable, relaxing and grounding for me. Even though I know they most likely won't play any of their older songs, I always hope one or two may sneak out. Another band I saw on Saturday that I thoroughly enjoyed was Po' Girl. Very up beat with a bluegrass, twang to them. As the evening rolled on it neared the time to head to the Main stage and see The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir reunite after 13 years.

I fell in love with Chris and Kate's music back in 1997, shortly after the release of their first album together, Other People's Heaven and also after The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir had been on hiatus. Never having the opportunity to see them live, but listening to their music none the less, I enjoyed what I heard.

I stood in amazement, finding myself getting lost in the music as I watched and took it all in. Watching The Bourbons reunite on stage brought back many familiar feelings of how I felt when I first saw Chris and Kate perform at Harbourfront. Many songs familiar to me and some not so, the energy on stage seeped into the crowd.

The set went something like this:
Grow
All Peace
Worms
Whoever Built This Would Never Live Here (now found on Chris and Kate's first album, but played by The Bourbons prior to their hiatus)
Asleep at the Wheel
One More Time
By The Time
Love Like Nothing
Simple
Ain't It Better to Ignite than to Explode

Had the show not been running late and there had been more time, they would have played four or so more songs.

In reality, I think and I'm sure many others would have agreed with me that The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir should have closed Saturday night. Although it's very unlikely, and who knows perhaps it will occur, but it would be nice if they played one more time together outside of the constraints of a festival.

Most of Sunday was spent at the Island stage, starting with the Sunday Gospel Hour and a Half and hoping over to the Lake stage to see Rae Spoon perform. I caught Broken Social Scene in the evening and can't say that I was overly impressed with what they had to offer. Even though their set up is similar to that of The Bourbons, having numerous musicians on stage at once, it almost seems as though they have much too much going on at once to make sense of it all. But at the same time it works and some of it I began to find catchy, but I quickly got distracted with the movement and the mixture of all the sounds and my attention drifted, unable to sustain it as The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir had the night before.

And now, here I return back to reality. Back to life as I know it. Only now I can I say I've been Bourbonized.