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Thanks to the generosity of a friend who showed up in our backyard one sunny afternoon bearing an early wedding present in the form of a pair of passes to the annual CityFolk festival, m’lady and I found ourselves cycling to the very-nearby Lansdowne Park for an evening of greasy snacks, plastic beer cups, and some high-quality neo-folk-I-guess music.
All were acts I had seen before, but I didn’t know that walking in. The first act of the evening was Saul Williams performing on the main stage. I had seen him once before (at least), performing a solo set on acoustic guitar opening for Spearhead at a nightclub in town years before. Obviously his profile (and pay scale) had changed somewhat since then but I was still quite taken aback by how different his sound was from what I was expecting. I was expecting a bit of soulful acoustic singer-songwriter-y stuff but no, Saul had graduated (descended?) into the world of iMusic and was instead using an Apple laptop to help guide his way through a set of ranting electronica. Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t as great as I was hoping it would be. At least the concert pitch was nice and spacious, and the beer lines were virtually nonexistent.
Leon Bridges wasn’t nearly as surprising, as I had seen him for the first time just a summer or two before – also on the main stage but that time at Montreal’s Osheaga Festival (where I remember him being dressed impressively sharp) – so he hadn’t had a half a generation since my last viewing to develop his sound like Saul Williams had. As a matter of fact, Leon sounded a lot like how I was expecting Saul to sound: soulful and song-y with a relaxed groove. Regardless, I ended up enjoying a fair chunk of his set before my fidgety nature took me for a walk into the adjoining cattle castle where LeE HARVeY OsMOND* was playing on the smaller indoor stage.
I had long heard the name but had no idea who or what LeE HARVeY OsMOND was about, but from the look of the crowd that was literally pressed up against the doors trying to get a glimpse of the band playing in a clearly-beyond-capacity room it seemed that a whole lot of other people did! Not willing to be in the dark any longer I pressed my own self into one of the doorways and stood on tiptoes to get a glimpse of the stage. And talk about surprised…
How could I not have known that LeE HARVeY OsMOND was fronted by Tom Wilson?!??! I had been following the guy’s career since his old Junkhouse days but I guess I petered out after Blackie & the Rodeo Kings. Yet here he was, storming what turned out to be a kicking band through a raucous set of genuine, honest-to-gawd rock and roll…man, it was so good! It didn’t hurt that just as I stuck my head in the door Wilson started into a beautiful cover of a The Tragically Hip song…was it Fiddler’s Green? It’s funny that I’m a little fuzzy on what song it was because I remember it leaving me breathless.
Yeah…I’m pretty sure it was Fiddler’s Green. Either way, Wilson did a great job of it, paying loving tribute to his late friend and Canada’s newest hero while giving the song his own unique twist. The bursting crowd was as enthralled as I and remained utterly silent throughout.
Unfortunately I only caught the tail end of their set, but on the upside I now know enough to buy a ticket for LeE HARVeY OsMOND the next time I get the chance.
And really, isn’t knowing half the battle?
*I tell you, as the former manager of a band who insisted that their name began with a lower-case letter I can assure you that it was a constant major headache trying to ensure that bars and media spelled the band’s name properly incorrectly. I can’t imagine how much of a pain it is to get people to write LeE HARVeY OsMOND. Sheesh!
Todd Man Out 