Saturday
Bonnie Trash & Surfing on Acid @ The Cornerstone
Written by Alex Harris
What would a music festival be if it weren’t for the crucial addition of some local talent? The final night of Kazoo! delivered on its grassroots promise while packing in a capacity crowd around two up-and-coming bands from the Royal City.
Bonnie Trash is the latest project of Sara and Emma Bortolon-Vettor; two local sisters who have a genuine connection to each other which spills out into their music. The music falls into the rough category of dream pop/rock, but there is something decidedly darker about the music. Sara’s voice is deep and haunting, yet unobtrusive, and the music leaves plenty of space for Emma’s spectral guitar work. The majority of the audience was hypnotized into a head-bob throughout the set, emerging only to the gracious thanks of the band when it was all said and done.
Surfing On Acid features the voice of local rocker Jon Charles, known for his work with Guelph band East to Exit. A three-piece act, this latest project exuded vibes of jangle-rock with less of the jangle and more of the rock, and a hefty injection of psychedelia. Sound is always tricky at the Cornerstone, and this band deserves a larger stage to fully unleash.
Prison Break, Keita Juma, Mauno, & Yonatan Gat @ TNT Boxing Academy
Written by Adrien Potvin
In one of the most maddeningly intense and memorable Kazoo! shows of recent years, the TNT Boxing Academy on Wyndham St. hosted Guelph-based industrial act Prison Break, Mississauga rapper Keita Juma, Halifax garage-psych outfit Mauno, and NYC-via-Israel guitar virtuoso Yonatan Gat. The duo of guitarist Yonatan Gat and drummer Gal Lazer stole the show, and arguably the festival as a whole.
For the first show in what will hopefully become a local music staple, the TNT Boxing Academy was the only appropriate venue for guitarist Yonatan Gat and drummer Gal Lazer’s blistering, literal gut-punch improvisations. With influences spanning from surf rock, free jazz, and worldbeat rhythms, Gat and Lazer played an hour-long set of wild improvisation, punk energy, and primal ferocity. Though they were supposed to be joined by a bassist who could not make it across the border, the two musical pugilists went at it like animals and hardly stopped for the whole set, blowing the minds of the barefooted audience in the boxing ring.
I think I can speak for everyone there by saying I’m pretty sure my brain is still melted. This might take a few days to process, but it was so worth the hearing loss the next day.
Kazoo! Print Expo & Art Openings
Written by Dana Bellamy
The Kazoo! Fest programming also featured opportunities for artists of many different disciplines to showcase their work. Not only were there multimedia components for most of the music shows, there were a number of shows and exhibits dedicated to visual art.
The Print Expo has been a treasured Kazoo! tradition for many years, celebrating the more tangible forms of art, such as prints, zines, books, and comics. This year’s exhibitors shared their work at the Central Public School on Saturday, temporarily transforming the gymnasium into a colourful art fair and DIY dream. The public event gave people the opportunity to interact with the artists, support the local scene, and even learn a thing or two about bookbinding and letter-pressing.
Later on Saturday afternoon, the Boarding House Gallery hosted the openings of two very contemporary exhibits from artists Gregory Pepper and Walter Scott. Upstairs, Pepper’s “I Grew Up in the ‘90s and Now My Brain is Mush” exhibit was decked out with pop culture references and a twisted kind of nostalgia. In the tiny, closet-like Capacity 3 Gallery, Scott presented excerpts from his comic series, “Wendy’s Closet,” centred on the character’s innermost thoughts about boys, music, and procrastination.