Local music festival delights enthusiastic crowds across the city
This year’s Kazoo! Fest absolutely nailed creating a diverse, multi-cultural lineup to delight Guelph locals and visitors.
While Kazoo! Fest runs events throughout the year, a five-day festival is thrown every spring and aims to feature young and emerging artists and acts. The beloved music festival is 10 years old this year and a multitude of music, arts, and handicrafts were available throughout the city from April 5 to 9.
Between the craft expositions like the Guelph Night Market and the Print Expo, local celebrities like the Constantines, and acts from across Southern Ontario and beyond, there was truly something for everyone. It was difficult to cover everything Kazoo! had to offer, but here is a brief rundown or some of the shows.
WEDNESDAY @ EBAR
Claudia Idzik
Klarka Weinwurm
Klarka Weinwurm opened up the night with a backing bassist and drummer. Travelling all the way from New Brunswick, Klarka punched out songs that were reminiscent of lo-fi rock. The audience fed into her grunge-styled songs and dreamy vocals throughout the set.
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Richard Laviolette and the Oil Spills
Richard Laviolette has been popping up all over Guelph during the festival to showcase his new album, All of Your Raw Materials, which was released just in time for Kazoo!
With a noon-hour set at the University earlier that day, Laviolette gave a sneak-peak into what his show at the eBar would look like later that night. However, the noon-hour set didn’t prepare for the large crowd that gathered to the venue later that night. Packed from front to back, it was clear that many fans poured in to see the local Guelph ambassador.
His latest album is packed with emotional and personal tales of his family and experiences, and when performed live, it was evident how truly reflective he was of these memories. Backed by a seven-piece band, including a violinist and a second vocalist, it made for a unique experience. The harmonies between Laviolette and Jessy Bell Smith resonated the emotional messages that he sends across with his songs.
THURSDAY @ MITCHELL HALL
Claudia Idzik
Guelph Night Market
Every few months, Guelph is treated to a night market that showcases local vendors. This month, Kazoo! collaborated with the original organizers to bring Guelph the biggest night market yet. Advertising itself as a “thrifty-pop-up-flea-market party,” the two co-organizers brought only the best independently owned vendors under one roof.Held in Mitchell Hall, the event was bursting with vendors from across Ontario. For those who needed new kitchenware, Hinkleville Handmade had beautiful ceramics on sale, while anyone with a vulgar comedic side had the option to buy plates and mugs from Wolf Dottir. There were so many vintage clothing options available, from Outpost’s thrifted finds to Mermaid’s Purse’s hand-picked clothing. Along with vintage clothing, anyone who wanted to decorate their jean jackets with pins and patches had the opportunity to do so with Sad Truth Supply and Lady No Brow.
There were many unique vendors that traditionally aren’t at markets, such as Shanti Hietkamp’s ink animal portraits and Sweet & Simple Co., a company that makes sweets from locally-sourced ingredients.
For those who wanted their cards read, The Witch’s Tools Tarot made their psychic services available at the market. Using both tarot cards and healing stones, and guided by open conversation, this group made hearing your fate a special experience.
Those who wanted to try the festival’s own beer, the Kazoo! Brew, had the chance to buy a can at the market. Along with coffee from Detour Coffee Roasters, juice from Guelph’s own [RE]fresh Juice Co., and sandwiches made by Al, no one left hungry that night.
THURSDAY @ ANAF
Alex Harris
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Baby Labour
Local math rock instrumental outfit Baby Labour opened up the show, serving up their usual affair of controlled experimental rock chaos. The first time you see Baby Labour, you might walk away from the set wondering what the hell you just witnessed. By the third or fourth time, listeners will be blown away by the band’s hairpin rhythmic pirouettes, otherworldly aural soundscapes and precision tightness. Their Kazoo! performance was no exception as they debuted a few new tunes.
Fountain
Montréal’s Fountain threw down an energetic art-rock/post-punk set which was as equally difficult to dance to as it was mesmerizing. Picking up on the Talking Heads vibe that seems to be prominent in the Montréal scene’s sound these days, Fountain injected the band’s own frenzied personalities into the music to make a truly unique sound.
Casper Skulls
Upon returning from a run of shows at SXSW, Casper Skulls was in fine form with some new songs that clearly demonstrated the group has been dedicating a lot of time to writing.
Combining post-punk sensibilities with Toronto indie-rock flavour, highlights of the set came from stage left vocalist and guitarist Melanie Gail St-Pierre. St. Pierre’s weightless vocals provided some stark contrast with the group’s heavy guitar riffing.
The only downside was the short sub-half-hour set which left some members of the audience wondering how the show could end when it was running on all cylinders.
FRIDAY @ SILENCE
Dana Bellamy
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Gregory Pepper and His Problems
Every time Gregory Pepper performs live, it’s a completely unique experience—but his set at Kazoo! Fest 2017 was probably the most bizarre yet.
The four-piece band emerged from side stage, clad in black, with homemade Pepper masks—complete with tiny moustaches. Without a word, the band eased its way into a slow and sludgy rendition of “Dearly Departed,” a Pepper classic usually played at twice the speed.
Glazed over with a blood red light, the entire performance embodied the grim tone of Pepper’s latest release, Black Metal Demo Tape—taking well-crafted pop songs and drenching them in heavy distortion and haunting harmonies.
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John Southworth
Introduced as one of Canada’s finest songwriters, John Southworth took the stage with two young bandmates to accompany him with electric guitar, bass, and some electronic looping.
Southworth’s indifferent vocal style was elevated with some unusual lyrics and musical phrasing that completely mesmerized the crowd packed into Silence on Friday night.
Jumping back and forth from folky guitar leads to bouncy piano tunes to new wave electronica, it was difficult to imagine classifying Southworth as simply a singer-songwriter. There was a little something extra there: something progressive, something mysterious, and something wonderfully weird.
FRIDAY @ MITCHELL HALL
Will Wellington
Jessy Lanza
Hamiltonian electropop artist Jessy Lanza has a crazy resume, including two Polaris nominations and glowing write-ups from outlets worldwide. But despite all the press, keeping a low profile is part of the Lanza allure and her set at Mitchell Hall was steeped in shadow.
Lanza prowled behind her rig on a barely-lit stage, whipping up a gorgeous soundscape full of haunting vocal samples that gave way to a bumping mechanical grind in opener “5785021.” It feels like music you listen to with your eyes closed, boundaries dissolving into pulsing emotion.As the crowd loosened up in the second half of the set, Lanza moved front and centre, grooving and squawking, her grin visible even in the dark.
Violet Ice
The Kazoo! crew know a thing or two about programming after so many years, and the festival-headlining set on Saturday was a masterful mission statement of everything the group is about: the old, the weird, and the new.
Some of the girls from Violet Ice, who opened Saturday night, have been playing for a matter of weeks.The five-piece got together in March for Girls Rock Camp, which empowers girls age 10 to 13 to start rocking. Violet Ice have done their homework. They powered through a two-song all-original set full of chuggy guitars, tom-heavy beats, and sparkling keys. Guitarist Hannah Roth even peeled off a sweet solo.
SATURDAY @ MITCHELL HALL
Will Wellington
Weaves
The loud and eccentric “bent pop” group ran through most of their hugely catchy self-titled record Saturday night with joy and bombast. Singer Jasmyn Burke lurched around the stage on chunky tan heels, coughing and sobbing and howling and warbling and winking and glowering and in all ways commanding attention while the rest of the band lifted her up with rollicking drums, snakey bass lines, and guitars that could tear right through you. They made me laugh and scream and jump and I can’t read any of the notes I made during this set, so you better just take my word for it that Weaves was pretty darn awesome and I’m sorry if you missed out.Constantines
Constantines are the perfect band to headline Kazoo! Fest, not just because they’re hometown heroes or because Kazoo! hosted their first show back after hiatus in 2014, but because their charging, heart-on-sleeve post-punk makes a forceful case that art can spin community and significance out of the day-to-day in a small town.
“Years from now, they will make water from the reservoirs of our idiot tempers,” sang frontman Bry Webb on “Soon Enough,” a down-tempo track that came as a break late in their surging set.To many of the men and women who screamed along to “Hotline Operator,” “Young Offenders,” and “On To You,” music like this is essential as water.
“I’m learning to survive,” go the words to encore number “Insectivora.”
Yeah, me too. I’m glad I’ve got Kazoo! and Constantines to help.
Photo by Dana Bellamy/The Ontarion.