Toronto Streetfest Yonge + Eglinton Toronto, Ontario July 7+8, 2001 Every summer, the main downtown chunk of the world's longest roadway, Yonge Street, is blocked off from traffic and turned into a gigantic outdoor festival. A family-oriented affair, it offers a range of activities and exhibitions, from gymnastics demonstrations to mini-car races to stilt-walkers to the standard overpriced, undercooked street-side vendor food. And at each major intersection, a stage is set up to feature a different style of music. Jazz, blues, dance in the evenings, you name it. But where would you find your own Andy Scheffler over the last two days of the festival but stapled firmly to the Indie Rock Showcase stage at the intersection to Yonge and Eglinton. Though I missed the first day's events due to other obligations, Day 2 proved to be a diverse and exciting spectacle that drew a lot of onlookers despite the drizzly weather. This was my third day in Toronto, and I had not yet ventured that far from my little Kensington Market hostel at this point. I navigated the subway system and stepped out of the terminal to find myself centered right bang-splat in the middle of the festival site. The stage was literally right there, much larger than I had expected, and currently occupied by a fellow I soon learned was Greg Wyard and his band. As instructed, I quickly got my clearance from the stage managers and commenced photographing. I was surprised to see that I was the only one photographing the event. Greg Wyard played a decent, if not moving, set. There wasn't much activity on the stage, nothing incredibly hooky about the music. It was a very non-offensive brand of music that might appeal to certain easy-going members of pretty well any demographic. Wyard is undoubtedly a solid musician, playing bass and singing confidently, but he lacks a certain charisma that would really pull his set together and really make it a show. I was a bit dismayed at the lengthy set changes for this event, but it did give me time to grab a bite to eat at one of the many nearby restaurants before the next band took the stage. And what a band that was!! Sean Stephens and the Chaos System was like nothing I have ever seen before. "Wow" about sums it up. A youthful-looking, floppy-haired, slight guy, Stephens possesses an absolutely unparalleled stage presence. The music, performed live, is upbeat, emotional and energetic. It is slightly reminiscent of the Dave Matthews Band, but with more edge. Stephens plays an acoustic guitar. And when I say plays, I mean he works that baby for all it's worth. His guitars must hate him for all the abuse he puts them through. Indeed, Stephens is the chaos in Chaos System far more than his bandmates are. While the songs wouldn't be the same without the other band members playing along, visually, they pale almost embarrassingly in comparison to their singer. He caresses the microphone with his voice and then maniacally leaps backwards and flings himself with frightening velocity around the stage, his hair flying about his face like a fan. And he plucks that damn guitar in a way that makes you wonder why all the strings aren't broken thirty seconds into any given song. It's described in his bio as an "aggressive popping and slapping technique" which is pretty on the ball, but somewhat understating what he's doing. I've seen poppers and slappers before; this was just unreal. I never knew you could coax such sounds out of an acoustic guitar. The band has a ton of talent, Stephens heralding most of that. I spoke with him briefly afterwards, and he seemed pleased that someone was taking photos. He passed along a copy of the band's CD, Crazy Ride, for me to take home. While the CD possesses that same guitar technique and Stephens' emotional vocals, it lacks that delicious rawness that makes the live show so appealing. It sounds overly polished and clean, and frankly, a bit weak. This is a band that should seriously considering doing up some live recordings. Soon enough, the changeover began for the next band, Plasticine. A collective that's been around for a few years now, they've enjoyed some airplay on national television and radio. Today, they were enlisting the rhythmic help of drummer Craig Lapsley, and bassist Shelley Woods, who previously had a successful run in Hamilton, Ontario band the Killjoys. He's a musician I've known personally longer than any other, who I met a good year before my major involvement in the music scene. Needless to say, I was fairly excited about meeting up with him again, and seeing him play with this band. While waiting for the set to begin, the raininess of the day escalated to the point where little waterfalls were pouring their way through the overlaps in the backstage tarps and making a general mess of everything. That's about the time the lightning started. Would it even be safe to hit the stage, knowing the severity of Ontario electrical storms? Luckily, this was a short one, and even the rain eased up a bit as Plasticine scooted onto the stage to start up a fairly long and peppy set. The crowds out front had thinned considerably at this dismal point in the day, but nonetheless, out front was a fairly healthy-sized group of onlookers huddled beneath a sea of brightly-colored umbrellas. Plasticine roared through a long set that included most of the tunes from their debut self-titled release, as well as some new material from the forthcoming disc. Bottom line, this band is a ton of fun. While Woods maintained a fairly low-key stance near the back of the enormous stage, the dynamic duo up front responsible for both guitar and vocals (I mean, both of them do both duties!) project almost more energy than the stage can even handle. In particular, Steve Strongman is a wildly emotional guy up there, jumping about, slamming his feet to the ground, constantly making twisted faces at the crowd. His stagefront mate, Rob Szabo, became suddenly amused to the point of disbelief at a Streetfest performer on some sort of odd spring-like stilts who was bouncing maniacally through the crowd to Plasticine's music. The crowd didn't really seem to care. By the end of the set, the weather had turned from slate-gray and wet to smoky white and merely damp, and it would almost seem that the upbeat tunes provided by the band had been responsible. It was really a highlight of the day, and the audience members seemed as well cheered by the event. That was it for me for day one. Though the festivities continued into the evening, six hours burned me out for the time being, and I went back to my hostel to relax and prepare for the next day's activities. Day 3: Unlike the prior day, July 8th was as sunny and hot as they come. Well, actually, they can get much hotter in Toronto, but this was plenty toasty considering I was to spend all day out in the open. When I arrived, Starchild was on their way to the stage. A group of five very young-looking guys (do my eyes deceive me, or is that a Moffatt over there on the left??), playing very sappy, very bland music. I took a few shots of them because I was there, but….wow. Words fail me. They weren't horrible at playing their respective instruments, but they lacked anything that would grab one's attention for very long. The vocalist didn't have a particularly appealing voice, nor anything provocative to say. The music was neither loud and aggressive nor chillingly soft, and was so ridiculously unoriginal. They weren't witty banterers, nor were they bring-the-gals-to-their knees attractive. What they do have though, is their youth, and as with many young bands, they may well come into their own in a few more years. Between that dismal set and the much-anticipated By Divine Right show, our attention was diverted to the tall glass Bank of Montreal tower to the right of the stage. A group of people stood at the top presently, and swung themselves over the edge as a barely-audible string of classical music poured over speakers somewhere above us. The five people in brightly-colored jumpsuits performed a well-choreographed aerial ballet while hanging tens of stories up in the air by a single wire. They leapt outwards from the building's face and landed back on the metal dividers between the panes of glass. They ran back and forth across the windows and dangled upside-down. It was really quite thrilling. I continued to wait in the baking sun for another short while before By Divine Right finally hit the stage. This I had been waiting for. Since my brief encounter with the band at EDGEfest barely a week earlier, I had been looking forward to finally snapping a few shots of them as well as being able to languidly take in their entire set on a larger stage than the deli tray on milk crates they played on in Barrie. Before they even strike their first note, one can see what a striking band they are. They possess a basketball-tall drummer, a wacky, perpetually-smiling bassist, an exotic and passionate vocalist, and a fiery, also scary-tall female guitarist/keyboardist. The four of them combine to create pure, delicious indie rock that will get you grooving in no time. Not only are they fabulous musicians, but they are also incredibly comical and good-natured. They played songs from their full history of music, concentrating on new material from their recently-released album Good Morning Beautiful. While I never learned the significance of the little wild-haired doll tied to vocalist Jose's microphone stand, it was interesting to note simply that it was there and almost seemed to echo his own flying locks. Colleen had set herself up a little promotional kiosk by hanging some of her homemade backless shirts (vintage fabrics!) from her stage monitor. It was just an eclectic and comfortable good time. Even the heckling by an intoxicated nutbar at the side of the stage didn't put the band off much. The guy rolled up in a wheelchair, muttering and cursing to the air around his face, then bolted up out of the chair and stood at the side of the stage screaming "Who let the dogs out!" Amid the exasperated groans from the crowd at this intrusion, Jose found the turn of events rather amusing and brought his microphone over to the side of the stage to let the guy yell out the Baha Men hit for a while. Still laughing, he brought the microphone back to center stage and began the spiel for the next song. The fellow, obviously overjoyed at his moment of spotlight, and figuring more of the same would gather him continued attention, remained by the stage barking and repeating that one irritating line about runaway canines. "I'm starting to wonder that myself…" was Jose's response to this now. The show continued without further incidence, and after that was finished, we were treated to another aerial performance by the fearless group propelling themselves off the side of the Bank of Montreal towers. I hung out in the crowd for a bit, where I was approached by By Divine Right's bassist, Dylan, and shortly joined by Colleen, who was wandering around through the crowd selling some of her cute little creations. So not only is the band talented musically, original, and possessing a clever and amusing stage presence, but they are also personable, friendly individuals who seem to genuinely appreciate the attention that they get from the media. Refreshing, to say the least. After spending the next hour running around Yonge Street, taking in some of the other activities and a little bit of lunch, I headed back to the Indie stage to check out what Staggered Crossing was up to. StagX burst fairly suddenly onto the Canadian music scene in early 2001 with a festive-looking carnival-ride video and rock single. Their popularity grew quickly and they seem to have been touring non-stop ever since. They were also part of EDGEfest the prior week, on the second stage as opposed to the third 'emerging talent' stage where BDR appeared. They seemed a little more at home on the smaller EDGEfest stage than they did on this expansive Streetfest one. One thing about them is that they never really seem to be having a great time on stage. They all stand around like playing music is a big chore for them. They do play well, but lack a solid dose of emotion that would really tie their live show up a bit. I was only able to stay for a few songs of their set before other duties called me away from Yonge Street and the Toronto Street Festival for the year. I boarded the subway back to the hostel feeling quite pleased with the range of music I had seen over the two days, and with the great people I had met. My first week in Toronto had been quite a success. The town has a mountain of talent coursing through it, waiting to burst out. I'm looking forward already to next summer's festival.

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