Guelph’s annual winter music festival, Hillside Inside, launched in a big way Friday, Feb. 7 with Ottawa’s A Tribe Called Red. DJ NDN, DJ Shub, and Bear Witness’s mix of Aboriginal music and contemporary dance-beats turned a sold out St. George’s church into the party of the weekend.
Toronto’s Lido Pimienta started off the evening, moving from ambient soundscapes to up-beat dance. Mixing powerful vocals with haunting harmonies and woodwind instrumentation, Lido’s group set the tone for a night of dancing, at one point giving Hillside’s security a fit when she invited the crowd on stage to join her.
After Pimienta’s performance, A Tribe Called Red (ATCR) took the stage. Coming off recent Juno and back-to-back Polaris Music Prize nominations, ATCR wowed the audience with pulsing beats, looping visuals, and captivating sounds.
Although known for their political tone and support of Idle No More, the concert felt more like a party than a protest, with ATCR mixing club-bangers with songs off their two albums and some new, unreleased songs for their upcoming album. Their unique blend of music dubbed “powwow-step” blends the traditional sounds of Aboriginal singing and drums with modern reggae, dub step, and other electronic influences to create a unique and memorable sound. Their performance was well received, with attendees dancing in a frenzy, raising the temperature of the hall significantly in defiance to the bitter cold outside. It was impossible to not be captivated by their unique music and impressive DJing skills.
A large screen behind the DJs showed clips of movies, cartoons, and other film depicting stereotypes of First Nations and other aboriginal people throughout the world; ranging from old black and white film depicting natives as savages, to digitally manipulated clips of New Zealand All Blacks’ cultural appropriation of the Maori “Haka” war dance.
The show also included multiple appearances from a talented and compelling hoop dancer. Using one to ten small hula-hoop like props, the dancer wowed the crowd with impressive balance, strength, and dexterity, creating dynamic formations portraying various animals, symbols and shapes. The juxtaposition of the modern music, traditional dancing, and looping visuals created a one-of-a-kind evening – certainly something to remember.
A Tribe Called Red will be back in Toronto Mar. 7, as they travel through Canada on their four-month tour of North America.