Vancouver Island played host to the 4th annual Rifflandia Festival on September 23rd to 25th in the city core of Victoria, BC. A big event for music lovers across the water, Rifflandia brings big name acts to a Canadian city that is often overlooked on the tour circuit. This time islanders were afforded the comforts of home, saving them much in travel time and also the extravagant ferry cost. So instead, it was SCENE IN THE DARK who boarded the boat to document the festivities over yonder.
The first day of the festival was the Friday, and unable to attend, we were regretful to miss the likes of Ra Ra Riot, Mother Mother, Broken Social Scene and Jakarta. However, we arrived (after missing a ferry, and almost two) to the outdoor venue of the Royal Athletic Park in time for the 4 o’clock Saturday afternoon set of AWOLNATION on the main stage. We found teems of festival go’ers sporting AWOLNATION merchandise; it seemed that they would be the definite fan favourite today if going strictly on retail popularity. Despite all the fanfare, I am not sure if their live performance lived up to the extreme hype surrounding the band. I found myself slightly annoyed that they gave away the best lyrics of their radio hit “SAIL” (which was the definite highlight song) to the shouting crowd every time. That being said, the majority of the crowd seemed well pleased and the somewhat unorthodox stage presence of the white clad lead Aaron Bruno was well received by his fans. He set the tone for the day with his awesome leap of faith into the flailing arms of the people. AWOLNATION had been one of my “must sees” of the festival line up, and although not wowed by them, I was certainly glad to have caught the show nonetheless.
The intimate size and forgiving schedule of Rifflandia Festival was absolutely awesome as it allowed us to move easily from one act to another, never much overlapping with the side stage. We were thankful for this as we were so wonderfully surprised by the talent and energy that came off the small stage over the next two days! Hollerado, a pop rock group from Eastern Canada, came out donning what we can only assume to be the robes from their hotel room, and candidly professed to the crowd amidst cheers that they were not usually quite this drunk in the afternoon. Rocking out in identical white terry cloth, the foursome engaged in a hilarious exhibition of gusto and guts as they leapt off various stage points and paused occasionally to made some adventurous political statements. The boys were finishing up their Meet The Mayor Tour that had seen them crossing Canada and liaising with the mayors of various cities, including Mayor Dean Fortin of Victoria.
Back to the main stage, Cold War Kids put on a musical performance worthy of the big stage and captivated their audience whether they listened from the expansive beer gardens or packed tight at the front. I caught them on the fly in May at Sasquatch Festival in Washington State, and had only time for a two song or so sample. With an entire set to enjoy at Rifflandia, I quickly regretted not getting the full meal deal of the Californian indie rock quartet the first time and was grateful for the chance to make it up here! “Hang Me Up To Dry” is now regularly circulating on my play list at home, not gonna lie.
Easily winner for the best surprise and arguably the best live show of the entire festival, USS (aka Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker) blew our minds with their low, rough vocals and extreme DJ skills exhibition. The duo occasionally projects Nirvana with their grunge rock sound, but it is packaged together with a bit of funky flare and electronica. In the rare instance that you aren’t sold by songs like , “Laces Out” and “Anti Venom”, that’s okay. The showmanship does not end with the audio as they command the stage at all times, predominantly with the explosive exhibition upside down and sideways turntable scratching skills by Jason “Human Kebab” Parsons. They had SCENE IN THE DARK sold when they took to the stage with Tyler, The Creator’s “Yonkers” as their introduction, but there is no doubt that by the end of the set, they had the entire audience thrilled to the max. Recently they have enjoyed radio play in Canada with a 2011 single, “Yo Hello Hooray” on their newest album APPROVED. Although the made for radio single is softer and more commercial than previous ones, the USS stamp is still firm.
To end the festival day, multiple Juno award winning City & Colour, fronted by bespectacled Dallas Green formerly of Alexisonfire, delivered a humbling, yet profound performance and reaffirmed for fans why they were chosen as a headliner for the event this year. As the sun set around us, the strange tranquility of their gentle, but somewhat dark rock melodies proved there was no more perfect a way to close out the Royal Athletic Park before party go’ers turned to the warmth of the indoor club and pub scene for the remainder of the evening. Although we decided to spend our only evening in Victoria visiting with some old friends, we could hear music unmistakably coming from the downtown core as we conversed on the backyard patio, reminding us that we were missing out on more great entertainment and we do hope to check out that scene next time!
I have to admit, we were more than a little worried about the festival for Sunday. We woke up to a dark and low grey sky and a torrential downpour. I had begun to think that our festival weather luck had finally run out for 2011, when to our amazement as sunshine spliced through sometime around 12-noon and eventually the clouds moved on to give us a slightly muddy, yet clear skied afternoon to rock out. We started the SCENE IN THE DARK day at the small side stage, waiting for Lance Herbstrong. I had been eye-balling a ****ing sweet T-shirt at the merch table since yesterday and was hopeful that they would put on a strong show so I could buy it immediately afterwards and wear it without any reservation of what I was advertising on my bust. Thankfully, I was not to be disappointed; just as the T-shirt and their name advertises, they broke out with some wicked reggae remixes of “Budy Bye” and “Zunguzu” from their Tokelahoma album, before picking up the adrenaline (and the crowd) further with rock and roll remixes “Stroke Me” and “Cocaine”. Unexpectedly, we had a chance to chat with Bill from Lance Herbstrong during the following set of The Knocks which they are fans of themselves. This was their first time outside of the USA on tour (they hail from Austin, Texas) and we really hope they will be back soon to Vancouver to spread their special brand of good times to the North. One of my personal favourites of the weekend!
My love for hip hop was finally rewarded by Rifflandia with Blackalicious on the main stage on the 4 o’clock slot. Opening with one of my personal favourites, the tongue twisting and tempo building “Alphabet Aerobics” revved the crowd to raucous applause as the hulking but baby faced rap vet Gift of Gab (aka Timothy Parker) spit syllables nearly too fast for our minds to compute. He and Blackalicious bro, DJ Chief Xcel (aka Xavier Mosley) took us more than satisfyingly through classics “Deception” and “Make You Feel That Way” and suddenly I was back at the Commodore Ballroom where I first saw them a bout a decade ago and I fell in love! The dance party for The Knocks steadily grew in size around the modest side stage as the people rebounded back upon the ending of Blackalicious. It’s really difficult not to love life when listening to the sunny electro pop music engineered by Ben “B-Roc” Ruttner and James “JPatt” Patterson. Dancing to the sexy track “Black Out” definitely gets honourable mention as one of the happiest festival moments for me!
I was pretty curious about Daniel Wesley; it seems he is very popular among many of my friends in recent times and yet despite of that I hadn’t much formed any sort of concrete image, let alone an opinion. The two songs I had heard over and over again “Ooh Ohh” and “Drunk and Stoned” had led me to believe they would be all about the laid back surf tunes, oft channelling the essence of Sublime’s stoner magic. However, I was quick to realize as the set rolled on, that he brought much more to his game than I first imagined. Although always with a signature sound, he had a healthy variety to his music and songs like “Head Out of Water” brought us more of an alternative edge and it was a nice surprise for me as it gave them unexpected versatility and I like it. Born and raised in White Rock, BC, the Wesley now calls the city of Vancouver home and he announced his plans to fly back there the moment he finished the last song for Rifflandia; apparently he had a date with a seat in Rogers Arena for Pearl Jam that evening!
We closed the side stage down with Felix Cartal pumping out the electronica for a final outdoor dance party on the weekend. Although most of the crowds were still rocking out with Daniel Wesley, the excited fans that were waiting for the DJ chanted his name and gathered quickly to the stage front as he came out to greet us and start the party up. There is now a new running joke that when you are to describe what Felix Cartal looks like, you simply say, “He looks like a Felix.” Take from that what you may, in no uncertain terms did he have the crowd pounding out the muddy festival lawn and keeping us warm in the slight chill of a September evening. When the rest of the festival seemingly arrived on his doorstep to join the party, he entertained us fearlessly and took us to a finish in great spirits (and sore calves) as he sent us to the beginning of our long awaited headliner De La Soul. The funky trio from Long Island have kept a strong presence in the hip hop scene since the very early 90′s and therefore have no shortage of material. I was satisfyingly indulged with my own personal favourite, 2000′s “Ooh” which had been a constant on my graduation play list way back when, and comes with many fond white suburban pseudo-gangster memories when we thought we were all pretty cool. Notorious for being an energetic and crowd pleasing live hip hop show, they upheld the standing as the sea of arms waving in the air did not relent and Posdnuos, Dave and Maseo brought the house down to end a fantastic weekend of music. We can thank De La Soul and all the artists who came out to play at Rifflandia for helping to guarantee that growing success will continue for the festival and our neighbours on Vancouver Island.
Review by: Lauren Dallas / Photos by: Michael Caswell
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