This article was originally published on beingtheremag.com, an independent music and film magazine that ran from 2004 to 2007. It is presented here as part of the Being There Magazine archive.
By Adam Anklewicz | Being There Magazine, September 2005
Venue: the Harbourfront in Toronto, Ontario, Canada | Date: August 19-20, 2005
Another festival in a series of summer weekends dedicated to free shows at Toronto’s lakeshore. Harbourfront Centre was filled with music and food through the entire weekend, celebrating the culture of Canada’s Atlantic Provinces.
Under pounding rain, flooding, thunder, lightning and the threat of a tornado, Matt Mays & El Torpedo were getting ready to take the stage. Fortunately by the time they were ready to go the weather had settled down a bit. I was dumb enough to fear the weather and rather than seeing the wonderful Matt Mays perform, I cowered inside and wondered when it would start raining again. I later found out that Mays was able to get a decent sized audience considering the weather.
The next night, weather was much better and Gordie Sampson started the show with his folk-influenced rock that bored most of the crowd. Sampson is no songwriter of the year… unless you’re the East Coast Music Awards, who honoured him with that title last year. My hopes were high to hear someone who garnered himself such an award, but to hear bad covers such as Sampson’s of “I Shot The Sheriff” does not excite me. Sampson’s own compositions were no better.
Fortunately, the inclement weather continued to hold back for the next act, as the venue was bursting at the seams. Joel Plaskett had only recently performed three solo sold out shows in April and May; he had also sold out two shows as The Joel Plaskett Emergency in March. Plaskett was now back in Toronto with his band in what seemed like the largest Toronto show his band has headlined. With an enthusiastic crowd and a few boats enjoying the show it seemed like a perfect combination. Joining Plaskett on stage was The Emergency Band, this time consisting of for Super Friendz drummer Dave Marsh and former Thrush Hermit Ian McGettigan on bass.
Plaskett’s set consisted mostly of songs from his two Emergency records, Down At The Khyber and Truthfully, Truthfully. Though the setlist was exceptionally good, the best part of the show was the onstage banter. Whether confusing a boat with an island or trying to find the moon, his humour shone through and it was perhaps sillier than usual. The band’s performance was great, but when they left, Plaskett managed to fill the stage without a problem. A personal highlight was his solo acoustic performance of “True Patriot Love,” which keeps on amazing me every time he performs it. Plaskett will be back again in September for the Ear to the Ground festival.
The festival also had performance art, lots of food and films including the excellent New Waterford Girl. With the summer ending, it just means another year until these free festivals start again, always something to look forward to… even with the toxic smell of Lake Ontario.