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| LOLAfest, Victoria Park | Photo By: Brittknee Withikaye |
Maybe its’ the feeling you got when you finally pieced together the verses of The Kink’s 1970 song by the same name, combined with a 2000 and something LULU Lemon advertising campaign. Maybe its the two-syllable thing.
If you had the pleasure of re-discovering London, Ontario’s Victoria Park September 18th-22nd, LOLA moved you in ways a butt-clinching rock song and tight leggings never could.
London Ontario Live Arts opened with Wild Domestic who crushed the first of four afternoon sets. The local band altered songs and speed changes to keep regular fans guessing and newcomers assuming, “If this is the first band of the event, we’re in for a good time”. I’m thinking about one of those RV’s for next September. Was the RV open to all media? Wild Domestic added some serious synth to their guitar humm’in - look out for the band when they appear on London Calling Season IV.
Flashback to the night before: for a scheduled 5:45PM interview with Zeus. Zeus (aka Jason Collett's touring band courtesy of Arts & Crafts) are into ninjas, Phil Collin’s covers, sleek moustaches, and are highly competitive red ass players. BDM plans to post the entire interview, raw, unedited, and in yo face real soon. In the meantime, click here for a sneak audio visual peak:
Zeus, who is currently touring with Jamie Lidell, opened the first of three LOLA ‘after party’ nights. The band eased through crowd sing alongs like How does it feel, Marching through your head, and Kindergarten. Band mates swapped the mic for keys and strings while their drummer batted beats out at the London Music Club.
Just when you were running out of beer money, the night was taken to new spiritual heights, when Lidell laid down soulful track into beat box and back round again. For the goods on Lidell.
Before Born Ruffians could steal your future-girlfriend's heart, LOLA organizers built the momentum with the dual-stage-approach (not official festival lingo). As one band was finishing on the main stage, another was plugging in and preparing to continue the flow of music never played on commercial radio. The stage consideration was a positive step for LOLA in terms of keeping crowds moving and augmenting sounds in the park. The ‘conflict resolution’ theme and media installations were thought provoking.
The performance by Tony Conrad on the Transmedia Stage was a mental marathon, but the guy had a 20+ foot slide guitar and a violin that he stole from the Tin Man (Not true). Big props to BDM crew Pat and Brit for sticking out the entire performance. This is what LOLA is about: challenging musical convention, form, and sweaters Bill Cosby would be proud of.
Big shout outs and London thank yous to Fond of Tigers, Caribou (interview content is coming!), London emcee and visual artist Thesis (aka James Kirkpatrick), Minotaurs who will also be featured on the TV show, and the band from Philadelphia who’s lead singer roamed with a wireless mic into on-lookers to lay with LOLA fans. If you didn’t see Born Ruffians, slap yourself. Take Vampire Weekend and toss out the shy college rock-boy, singing under trees on campus thang, add some maple bacon, raw back-up vocals and Born Ruffians are on your next playlist. Born Ruffians are the kind of Canadian band your kids will end up listening to thanks, in part, to festivals like LOLA. | AJS
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