Three floors, two nights of metal, indie, hip-hop
There’s a pretty great pun in Guelph and Area Independent and New Music’s (GAIN Music) acronym. If you’re a musician or electronics techie, you’ll certainly get it, but to clarify – in amplifiers, the gain level informs the ratio of an amplifier’s output/input magnitude, controlling its ability to amplify the signal from the instrument to the amp. Gain controls an amplifier’s volume capacity in its purest sense, really. GAIN Music loves volume – as is clear from its year-round music programming – and its love-for-loud reaches its apex with a yearly festival held in March.
Presenting 25 bands and musicians across two evenings and an afternoon, the fifth annual GAIN Music at Art Festival (GMAF) offered three floors of high energy performances and some of Guelph’s most active artists.
Hosted on all three floors of Van Gogh’s Ear, the annual GAIN Music and Art Festival (GMAF) was held between March 6 and 8. With two nights back to back and an afternoon in between, the yearly festival’s fifth installation featured 25 bands and musicians from the area across the weekend, as well as an art sale, a drum workshop, a showcase of young musicians studying with the JamSchool, and a breakfast courtesy of Salsateria on the Saturday afternoon of the festival. Rebranded as the GAIN Music and Art Festival (GMAF), this year’s installation featured a welcomed presence of the area’s artists, further represented by Creative Persistence’s “Bangout” – a weekly live art-making show and raffle where anyone can participate.
Tactfully organized to bring out the most diverse crowd possible…
Tactfully organized to bring out the most diverse crowd possible, the Friday and Saturday nights of the festival split the metal/punk and more indie-oriented offerings, respectively, almost straight down the middle. Among the first night’s heavy-hitting highlights were Say Yes, The Ooh Baby Gimme Mores (OBGMs), and Strays. Toronto’s Say Yes, featuring ex-Alexisonfire drummer Jordan Hastings and ex-Saint Alvia bassist Adam Michael, performed a set of indie-pop tinged songs that certainly wears the influence of their former bands on its sleeve (namely, the rich vocal harmonies marking Alexisonfire’s music), but still carves out decidedly new territory for the trio’s inclinations. The OBGMs, always a crowd favourite (as obvious by the mosh that broke out), performed an unhinged, wild handful of synthpunk songs, sort of like a blend of Bad Brains, Freezepop, and Death From Above 1979. Guitar and drum duo Strays, based out of Simcoe County, closed the night on the third floor with a set of fuzzy, vaguely blues-influenced songs with a distinctively 70s-metal edge.
The second night of the festival toned it down a bit from the heaviness of the Friday night sets – focusing more on indie, folk, and hip-hop. One of the more noteworthy aspects of the weekend, the third floor lounge was almost entirely occupied with hip-hop sets by Toronto-based YYZ (pronounced “Wise”), Guelph’s Vic the NorthStar, and London’s A-Fos and the Rude Youth. The first and second floor’s music included The Elwins, Fitness Club Fiasco, The Folk, and Marcellus Wallace, who closed the night to a raucous crowd.
…the third floor lounge was almost entirely occupied with hip-hop sets…
The music of Keswick-based The Elwins, fresh off the release of their latest LP Play For Keeps, is characterized by breezy indie-pop flavours and articulate melodies, making them a certified crowd favourite. Guelph’s The Folk performed a set on the second floor with material off their latest album We All Say. Perhaps giving the name a certain tongue-in-cheek irony, the five-piece’s music is marked by jangly guitars, heavy drums, and epic build-ups. Another synth-driven group, Fitness Club Fiasco, provided more danceable tunes with 80s vibes, strong hooks, and epic swells. Marcellus Wallace, a sort of Motown-influenced five-piece from London, closed the evening with some soulful, tailfeather-shaking rock, getting the weekend’s swaths of music fans leaving DSTRCT on a funky, fresh note.
Over the past year, DSTRCT has become a headquarters of sorts for the GAIN Music organization. Founded in 2011, the group has done countless concerts year-round, in addition to their yearly festival, but now with a venue to call its own, and a growing online A/V presence, the three floors of Van Gogh’s/DSTRCT are quickly becoming a consistent staple of the area’s musical talent. There’s something to be said about GAIN’s representation of the area’s metal scene as well, which is a quiet-but not-so-quiet aspect of Guelph’s music scene. As Guelph’s scene is often punctuated by folk, indie, and experimental music, GAIN Music’s efforts to establish a locale for the city’s metal and punk voices were surely highlighted by the weekend’s live music offerings.