there were food tents GALORE with it's own designated lineup of a vast array of dishes....from jamaican cuisine a la the Ackee Tree (one of my favorite Jamaican retaurants in Toronto ~ freakin' delicious!)...to sweet potato fries then to good old BBQ burgers, even of the veggie variety, which pleased me immensely....
anyway...to the reson why a 60 dollar ticket was purchased...the music.
The lineup:
Team Canada DJs
Apostle The Hustle
Little Brother
The Dears
The New Pornographers
Tegan And Sara
Bad Brains
Bedouin Soundclash
The Roots
because i got there half way through the day (partly because it was a Sunday ~ i get a little slow on the sundays and it was sooooo hot it took a lot to muster up the courage to brave the 30+ degree C temperature...not to mention the humidex)...i can only share my thoughts on the last 4 acts...3 of which had good sound and the other...well not-so-much...which is a shame.
first up....
Tegan And Sara~like i said earlier...couldn't really hear them...but that may be due to the fact that i was in the beer tent and things get a little crazy in there as many others could testify....it's like you're at a completely different venue...but whati managed to catch...i thought they were really decent.....
next....
Bad Brains~ oh geez...can not describe how excited i was to see that band...i've seen them once as Soul Brains a couple of years ago and since then, i was anticipating the next time i'd get the opportunity to take then in again...and let me say it was well worth the wait...a short set but a sweet one...al of them looking fresh and into the niceness...it was fantastic to hear their latest collection of works that proved they were back in an ital way.....to see them live made me smile...then sway...then head bang a bit...then smile some more......
then...
Bedouin Soundclash~i've seen this Canadian roots/dub ensemble many-a-times throughout the past 3 - 4 years...opening up for John Butler, Big Sugar...and they were always just o.k....and i've always enjoyed their music...but more on an easy-listening level...i needed more bass...more ballz to their sound (a good dub/reggae/roots/rock band always does...right???)...and low-n-behold...i got the ballz i was looking for!!!!.....this trio is definitely reaching a level of heavyweight class...i went from a so/so, whatever, meak opinion of them to honestly being moved by their tunes and most importantly, the execution of their tunes...i think Mr. Darryl Jenifer has sprinkled some magic upon these lads (he produced their last 2 LPs)...i enjoyed the set.....and i do believe that one of the amps blew during the performance.....ballz.....
lastly....
The Roots~another band i've seen quite a few times over the years....although ?Love wasn't in the mix and pulled a no-show....the carried on as mighty as a headliner should........they added stellar talent and shared the stage with Posdnuos a.k.a Pace 1 and Maseo of DeLa Soul (another progressive hip hop cornerstone collaborative that i am an admitted fan of), Lupe Fiasco to beef up the presence and tear the roof off of an open-aired venue....with their 10 year tenure...they certainly have grown in mass appeal....when i first saw them back in the early 90's, the crowd in Toronto was no more than a couple hundred people with about 1/3 of people knowing their repertoire...now, thousands were grooving along to songs of new and old.....their scope not only encompasses hip hop to the fullest but embraces other musical styles to truly be one of modern day music's true musical band collective.....the Roots laced up the set with songs that ranged from rocked out jams then going back to their funk-filled hip hop classics...true classics....and dare i mention the James Brown funk-fest???????........nuff said.
(Ka)Nish
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