Andy Nichols
Sled Island 2014 – Spiritualized
The intent today was to get things going fast and early. Well sort of early. After missing Soupcans at Tubby Dog (damn it) we caught Crosss who took the stage immediately after. A solid Halifax outfit with heavy grinding riff and a good start to the day.
Things slowed down after that. There was a long break in the schedule between things we wanted to see so we headed to the artist’s lounge at the top of the Calgary Tower. It was a weird atmosphere with a lot of Jehova’s Witnesses (seriously they had name tags identifying them) mingling about on the main level and playing on the glass floor and a bunch of smelly Sled Islanders drinking beer to music on the upper level. It’s always worth checking out the city view for those of us who don’t work in towers.
From there we hit The Palomino to catch stôrc who were a bit of a disappointment. There was promise there in the punishing sounds and heavy vocals but it didn’t really come together and the band seemed disjointed.
Abandoning the land of smoke and meat we headed for Bamboo to catch the Moas . This was good music but the kind that didn’t suit my mood. I would listen to the cd but skip the live performance next time. That could very likely be Sled fatigue talking.
Salvation was found back at The Palomino with Gaytheist . I mean they had me at Gaytheist. Loud fast and hard while remaining interesting. Go see Gaytheist if you have a chance. I wish they had been playing Bamboo that would have a been a great venue for them.
We then ventured across the street to the Legion. First up was Roman Polanski’s Baby who put on my favourite show of the night. Hectic angry and fun all wrapped up into one. Donwstairs Screaming Females lived up to their moniker with wailing guitar and non-stop energy.
The oddest performance goes to Mindtroll who took the stage upstairs at the Legion. You know that feeling where you’re not sure if someone’s playing a joke on you? That’s how it feels to watch them. They were fun silly and oddly engaging but I couldn’t help but feel like someone was looking down and shitting their pants with laughter. I’m still not sure how I feel about it.
And then Sled was over unless you’re one of those insane people that still has enough energy for the pig roast tomorrow at Republik which should be a great show.
— DREW ANDERSON
Hey guys. My ears hurt and I’m tired. That’s all I have to say. See you next year!
Ugh okay fine I’ll recap everything I did. We tried to stay home as long as possible so as to avoid the crippling wall of exhaustion that hit on Friday night. That saw us arriving at the mainstage just in time to catch White Lung perform an early-evening painfully bright outdoor show at Olympic Plaza. While they certainly held their own ripping through their fast faster and fastest songs it was a little weird to watch them outside of the 1 a.m. bar or house show context. Plus as tends to happen outside the volume fluttered away into the ether.
From there we made our way to Local 510 to catch our new roommates B-Lines one last time followed by a performance from Vancouver’s The Greater Wall . The group which features members of The WPP and Edmonton champs The Buzzing Bees among others were remarkably loud and crunchy powering through a quick set of bullshit-free punk anthems.
On the way back to Olympic Plaza we popped into the National Music Centre where woolworm were blasting through their melodic indie-pop/hardcore hybrid. Though the show was criminally underattended they held their own onstage.
From there we made our way to Spiritualized . Maybe it’s because I’ve never really gotten into them or maybe it’s because of the aforementioned quietness of outdoor shows but Spiritualized didn’t have the profound life-affirming connection with me that so many fans all-but promised it would. There was nothing wrong with the set but it kinda just went over my head. My review of Spiritualized at Sled Island is best summed up with a
After that we tried our hand at the Strange Attractor/Spits show at Golden Age Club. Turns out however you needed to RSVP beforehand through Vice and Topman if you wanted front-of-line priority so only a handful of my friends could get in.
Instead in a hilarious contrast we ditched the goon punk of The Spits and headed over to The Ironwood to soak up the meditative chamber pop of Julianna Barwick . It was a breakneck change of pace but it hit the spot.
Deciding to push the limits of what we could accomplish we sped over to The Republik to catch a handful of songs from punk legend Bob Mould . Joined by a two-piece rhythm section (including the one and only Jon Wurster) Mould blasted through anthem after anthem to a jaw-dropped audience.
Then back to the Golden Age Club where we arrived just in time to catch The Spits ‘ last song. There was a mess of shredded Topman promotional materials on the ground while the company’s 10-foot-high logo was omnipresent on a side wall. Onstage the band were as cretinous as they should be and the venue was humid to the point were you could see the sweat vaporizing into the air and being sucked into the crowd’s lungs. We had missed the fireworks (literally the usual suspects were shooting off fireworks during the set I’ve heard) but we managed to soak the whole room in via one song.
Now it’s time to take 300 naps play some Mario Kart and drink so much water. While Sled Island is basically over (with some encore performances at Republik today) there’s a ton of great events coming up in Calgary over the summer. So let’s rest up and try to use our inside voices for a bit.
— JOSIAH HUGHES
