While we Torontonians burn with quiet jealousy, the fine university hamlet of Guelph continues to kick our ass with their annual Hillside Festival. The three-day event on Guelph Lake Island on the last weekend in July runs on volunteer power, green principles, and plain old good vibes.
Yeah, it all sounds too granola to be true, but clearly they’re doing something right, as the festival just celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. While the music is always an eclectic mix, this year’s programming seemed to suffer a bit of post-milestone letdown (Coldplay clones Pilate in the headlining Saturday-night slot?!). But it’s hard to go wrong with three days of good music under blue skies and bright sun. Some highlights:

FRIDAY, July 23

Metric – Main stage, 10 p.m.

After breaking hearts and blowing minds in a smaller tented stage last year, it was no surprise that spiky keyboard popsters Metric were invited back for the all-important Friday-night headlining slot. With hordes of teens excitedly pressed up against the stage, fierce frontwoman Emily Haines appeared, wrapping duct tape around her arms and legs. Equal parts drama queen and ice queen, Haines is the ace in Metric’s pocket-she’s a fearless, dynamic performer that wraps her little girl alien voice around some sharp, smart lyrics.
The rest of the band has also stepped up their game, especially guitarist James Shaw, who appeared to be having a blast as he flailed away. By the time Haines started pulling people onto the stage to boogie away during the aptly-named “Dead Disco”, there wasn’t a soul without a huge grin plastered to their face. Killer. Why have we been yammering away about Metric’s former flatmates Interpol and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs again?

SATURDAY, July 24

Nathan Lawr and the Minotaurs – Island Stage, 2 p.m.

Over the last year, the debonair Lawr has been putting the lie to the old drummer stereotypes, as the former stickman for Royal City and his fine Minotaurs combo have been playing progressively solid gigs in support of his gentle The Heart Beats a Waltz disc. With girlfriend Kate Maki (why didn’t she have a Hillside slot?) blending rootsy backing vocals with Lawr’s warm croon, he charmed the packed tent with bruised ballads like “Barking at Your Door.” Lawr could also teach fellow performers a thing or two about the power of a smile and a quiet word or two between songs.

“Scrappy Bitches & Co.” – workshop with Oh Susanna, Kinnie Starr, and Vicki Fraser
Island Stage, 3 p.m.

Before there was a Lilith Fair, there was the ‘Scrappy Bitch Tour’-or so West Coast gals Oh Susanna, Kinnie Starr, and Veda Hille dubbed the cross-country trek they did together in the late ’90s. The Vancouver trio have all carved out their own distinctive niches in the Canadian indie scene over the years, but maintained their close-knit friendship and support of each other. So the news that the trio are resurrecting the tour for a multi-city trek this fall came as no surprise, and how clever of the Hillside programmers to offer up a preview of sorts.

While it was a shame that Hille wasn’t present (having already played the festival last year), veteran Guelph songstress Vicki Fraser filled in quite nicely with her resonant voice, sense of humour, and warm folky tunes. Watching the funky Starr clamber down from the platform stage to rap (in three languages, no less) while standing amidst the crowd seated on the grass as tanned tank-topped girls gazed up raptly at her, one couldn’t help but think that she probably taught a thing or two about performing to those she shared her time with while touring with Cirque du Soleil.

If Starr is the showgrrl, Oh Susanna is the magician, drawing people in quietly yet skillfully. When she closed the set with her trademark “Alabaster”, she asked Starr and Fraser to sing along, but the two were so clearly wrapped up in the mournful beauty of the dark ballad that they only got around to harmonizing on the last few choruses. Scrappy bitches? More like a mutual admiration society. What was missing from this workshop, though, was the loose improvisational vibe and spirit of collaboration that is the hallmark of both Hillside and the old Scrappy Bitch tour-when the three voices finally blended in song, soft and sweet, it only served as a reminder of what should have been.

“Supersonic-phonic” workshop with the Unicorns and the Arcade Fire
Island Stage, 4 p.m.

The workshops are often the best thing about Hillside, where either like-minded groups or totally disparate acts are matched up and thrown together on stage in the hope that musical magic will result. The much-anticipated pairing of fellow Montreal art-punkers Arcade Fire and the Unicorns could have been a mess, but ended up being inspired insanity.
Two of three Unicorns showed up well into the set and Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler exhorted audience suggestions for supposedly improvised songs (he admitted one crazy tune was a set-up after a supposedly random person pulled onstage from the crowd turned out to be Jenny Mitchell of Guelph indie stalwarts the Barmitzvah Brothers). But it was Jill-of-all-trades Regine Chassagne who stole the show by busting out three full levels of the Super Mario theme music on her keyboard, eliciting delighted grins from one end of the packed tent to the other. Yeah, we’re a generation of nerds.

Kinnie Starr – Main stage, 5 p.m.

It’s no surprise that Starr’s a Hillside veteran-her blend of deep grooves and political smarts mirrors the mandate and spirit of the festival in many ways. Very few artists could pull off a gutsy move like performing completely solo with nothing more than a sampler and some backing tracks on the massive main stage, but from the moment she opened with a tune sampling the voice of a Native protester in Oka, she had the crowd-old fans and complete newcomers both-enthralled with her rapid-fire rapping and cerebral, dexterous wordplay.

A true Hillside moment emerged when she invited any beatboxers in the audience to jump up onstage to kick a beat with her. Egged on by his pals and reeking of bravado, a muscled dude in a hat and huge grin jumped on the mic and laid it down like an old pro. Starr bounced along to the beat, letting her words ebb and flow in perfect simpatico with the rhythm as if the two had performed together for years. It was hard to say who was more pleased with the unexpected outcome: the audience, the beatboxer, or Kinnie herself.

SUNDAY, July 25

Oh Susanna – Main stage, 4 p.m.

Suzie Ungerleider’s blend of country, folk, and rock is always a good fit for any summer festival, and listening to her play against a backdrop of tall pines and a warm breeze was a treat indeed. Suzie’s on top of her game these days, with new hubby Cam Giroux keeping the beat on drums and veteran players rounding out the rest of the band. Her cuts-like-a-knife voice was well suited to the open-air venue, resonating right across the island on bittersweet love song “Alabaster.” Set closer “Cain is Rising” may have come as a surprise to some, riding a Stevie Wonder-style groove-but in putting the party back into the political, it was a truly ‘Hillside’ moment.

Jessy Bell-Smith – Island Stage, 6 p.m.

The vocalist and trumpeter for Guelph atmospheric sextet Beautiful Senseless has long done her rootsy-jazzy solo thing around town, but with a new CD under her belt, a high-profile Hillside slot was clearly a big deal for this hometown heroine. Sporting a short summer ‘do and a sundress, Bell-Smith set an intimate tone by taking the stage all by her lonesome armed with nothing more than a chair and a guitar. Hampered by an electric guitar that refused to play in tune, a slight case of the nerves and a half-empty tent, it took her a few songs to get warmed up.

Once she settled for an acoustic and really got going, the tent quickly filled up and the appreciation level rose accordingly. Unleashing a set of terrific pipes that recalled Sarah Harmer and Etta James, Bell-Smith charmed the crowd packed with friends and family by calling up her younger sister to sing backup and joking about being so disorganized that she’d only burned a few copies of her CD to sell at Hillside. While her material started to feel same-y over the course of a full set, she’s got the songs and the chops to break out of the self-sustaining Guelph scene if she so chooses.

Jorane – Main stage, 7 p.m.

At Hillside, the music runs all day, from 11 am to 11 pm (with the exception of the opening Friday, when things get under way at 6 p.m.). Now, I may be a die-hard live music junkie, but I have to admit that I have never made it through to the bitter end of Sunday night at Hillside, usually wimping out and heading back to T.O. just before sunset. Nevertheless, wrapping up our festival experience with the unique sounds of Quebecoise cellist Jorane was a great way to go out.

A performer that must be seen live to properly experience her music, the impish chanteuse is like a chamber-folk Bjork, singing in French, English, and sometimes even her own wordless language of intonations. In the four years since her last Hillside appearance, the artist otherwise known as Joanne Pelletier has gotten more comfortable with singing and speaking in English, evidenced by her charming between-song banter and ease with the crowd. Her cheery demeanor translated through to the songs-less frenetic and intense than her older material, though played with equal passion. Instead of being weighed down by her huge, stately instrument, Jorane uses it to her advantage, whether bowing slowly on deep, dark epics or plucking its strings like a guitar on lighter, jazzy numbers.

Her too-brief set ended the same way that Metric had started it all-by coaxing the crowd to get up and dance. As the sun filtered through the tall pines framing the stage, there was no need for the request-all were more than happy to comply.