Winter version of Guelph’s iconic festival features small storefront performances, big rock shows
This past weekend, a dizzying variety of acts took over downtown Guelph for the winter edition of Hillside. This year’s Hillside Inside featured storefront performances by women- and queer-identified performers, bluegrass jams, loud punk shows, and much more.
Partner, all smiles, surges through old faves, new material
Power pop group turns cock rock on its head
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Opening for Metz at Mitchell Hall on Saturday night, Partner reminded their Guelph audience — who probably didn’t need reminding — why they’ve quickly scaled the Canadian indie rock ladder. Goofy east coast lesbians Josée Caron and Lucy Niles, along with their solid backing band, are experts at wielding humour and heavy guitars. Their set played like a microhistory of their career, beginning with short, snappy early singles like “Hot Knives” and “The ‘Ellen’ Page,” moving through the singles from their 2017 record In Search of Lost Time, and even squeezing in a new tune, “Big Gay Hands,” toward the end of the set.
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Their performance was confident and polished, their stage show tight — Niles dressed in a baggy Supreme tee, Caron dressed in shiny black tights and a black sweater. Their banter was, as always, hilarious. But I’ve recently found myself tiring of the Partner shtick. There’s only so far you can go with gag-driven arena rock — “Big Gay Hands” struck me as particularly rote — and Partner left some of their more artful tunes, like “Creature in the Sun,” off the bill. However, the closing track “Ambassador to Ecstasy,” one of their best, left the show on a high note.
Metz turns up the volume on new tunes at Mitchell Hall
Toronto punk rockers threw themselves into a memorable show
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Toronto punks Metz put on a tight, engaged show in their first Guelph gig since the release of their third album, Strange Peace, in September. Personally, I found the new album somewhat thin-sounding compared to their forceful first two records, Metz and II, and I was excited to see whether that material would better translate in a live environment. In this respect, Metz did not disappoint: “Raw Materials,” with its wiggly hook and epic breakdown, and the pounding “Drained Lake” sounded great. “Raw Materials” and 2016 single “Eraser” also included spacey guitar interludes, a nice complement to the heavier moments of the set.
The sheer volume, however, perhaps compounded by the acoustic properties of the space itself — going to a show at Mitchell Hall always inspires flashbacks to high school gymnasium dances — reduced the mix to a muddy blare.
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The band themselves gave the furious performance they’re known for. Frontman Alex Edkins in particular, short of breath and soaked in sweat after one or two songs, owned the stage, leaping, whirling, and thrashing. The decently sized crowd responded in kind, throwing down in the pit for “Headache,” the opening track from Metz’s 2012 debut record. The show never really topped that, however, although the pit got moving again for closing number “Acetate,” a funky highlight from 2015’s II. The few remaining moshers moshed through the first chorus, then paused, hands on each other’s shoulders, one of them stooping to tie his shoe.
Photo by Claudia Idzik
[Correction: The print version and previous web version of this article mistakenly listed the title of “Big Gay Hands” as “Hottie.”]