TURF Day 4

The Sadies

One could write a thousand words about The Sadies, and none would come close to describing what this video shows.

Was that good for you, too? The Sadies, as you can see are a country band, with a lot of surf and punk in their hearts. Dallas Good, Travis Good, Mike Belitsky, and Sean Dean always put on an incredible show.

Dallas and Travis Good have this schtick where they get close to one another and swap fretboards. Kurt Vile, who joined The Sadies on stage for a song, was watching from the side of the stage, at this point, he pointed at the two Good brothers and dropped his jaw in astonishment. I guess he had never seen their stage show.

Neko Case

We were already soaked from a giant downpour during Cat Empire1. I was smart, and decided to leave the festival grounds for a couple hours. I went to a pub, ordered some reasonably priced beer2, ate some salad, and enjoyed the company of friends. It was nice. We watched the rain start pouring, but it quickly let up.

On our walk back to the festival grounds, the rain started falling. We were soaked by the time we got under cover of the Gardiner Expressway, but we still waited there in the hopes that the rain would let up. It didn’t. Eventually we made our way back to the VIP tent where we found more friends, and less rain.

Then came one of the true highlights of the weekend… Neko Case. As usual, Case was in top form. Her voice was stunning, her songs were beautiful, and her band was tight. Kelly Hogan was on hand for backing vocals and backing wit. The rain let up long enough for the three song photo pit, allowing us photo nerds to get some shots.

As soon as the photographers were gone, the rain started coming down with a vengeance, but no one cared as Case played a set mostly consisting of “hits.” We were treated to songs like “People Got A Lotta Nerve,” “That Teenage Feeling,” “Middle Cyclone,” “This Tornado Loves You,” “The Tigers Have Spoken,” and she even played one of my all-time favourites, the Sook-Yin Lee penned “Knock Loud” off the brilliant EP Canadian Amp. Neko Case will always be our favourite honorary Canadian.

Belle & Sebastian

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Oh, hi Stuart Murdoch!

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Belle & Sebastian started off the show with the terribly titled instrumental track “Judy Is A Dick Slap.” They have this strange tendency to name their instrumental songs rudely. Belle & Sebastian were a six-piece that night. Murdoch, Stevie Jackson, Sarah Martin, Chris Geddes, Richard Colburn, and Bobby Kildea. As usual, they brought along a string quartet and an extra hand to cover trumpet, whistling, and other such fun additions. They also had some gentleman named Dave playing bass and guitar in place of their trumpet player Mick Cooke.

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The rain scares Stuart.

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The band played what could only be called a best of set. With the exception of Sarah Martin’s “I Didn’t See It Coming” and Stevie Jackson’s “To Be Myself Completely” they played exclusively Murdoch’s songs. Something I’m sure no one minded. As good as Martin’s and Jackson’s songs can be, they must know that Murdoch is the frontman for a reason.

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Murdoch brought a backer from his God Help The Girl Indie Go Go project onto the stage to play scrabble with him while the band performed “The Model.” When Murdoch took his seat at the keyboard, Martin stepped up to play against the fan. After she went back to her violin, Geddes came out from behind his keyboards to join in on the game.

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Murdoch also, of course, climbed into the audience to allow a fan to apply mascara to his eyes while singing “Lord Anthony” and brought audience members onto stage to dance to “The Boy With The Arab Strap.”

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They played many fan favourites including “I’m A Cuckoo,” “Judy And The Dream of Horses,” “Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying,” “Another Sunny Day,” “Legal Man,” “The Loneliness of a Middle Distance Runner” and many many more.

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1. or maybe it’s Cat Power? [↩]
2. Canadian tallboys were selling for $9 on Fort York grounds! [↩]