Wednesday
Julie Doiron & Nap Eyes @ eBar
Written by Alex Harris
Is it possible to open a festival with what could be the highlight of the entire week? At Kazoo! Festival 2016 anything was possible, and performances from two of the East Coast’s best acts proved it. Wednesday night at eBar featured a torch-passing of sorts in Canadian indie rock, with improvised visuals from Toronto’s Versa as the cherry on top.
Nap Eyes are one of Canada’s fastest rising groups and for good reason. Their down-to-earth bed-head rock taps into a universal apathy and desire to disconnect for even just a few minutes. The songs are honest and to the point. Each member of the band does exactly what they need to do and nothing more. Songwriter Nigel Chapman’s vocals are without gimmicks and reverb; an increasingly rare treat these days.
Julie Doiron has been making music for a decade and a half, and has earned a reputation as royalty in Canadian music. Her performance was similarly forthright, with Doiron exploring her personal faults both in her music and stage banter. It’s impossible not to connect with Julie’s authenticity, and her performance at Kazoo! showed she can still rock out when the moment is right.