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Concert reviews Music

6ix things you missed at Field Trip

FIELD TRIP at Fort York Garrison Common, Saturday and Sunday, June 4 and 5. 


Soulful covers

Aussie pop-soul belter Meg Mac’s tunes have a lot of sheen, but she got gritty as hell for a knockout take on Bill Withers’s Grandma’s Hands. Meanwhile, on Sunday Charles Bradley delivered the fest’s best moment with his lengthy, blistering version of Black Sabbath’s Changes, complete with sermon: “It’s time to bring love back, to make this lovin’ planet a lovely place to live.” Preach.

Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning and Justin Peroff play for the kids

The Broken Social Scenesters played a set for kids, singing about “bum bums,” bananas and parents too cheap to buy ponies. But the set highlight was Amanda The Panda, set to the same chords as Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door and mixing the political with the absurd. “Panda take this gun off of me, I don’t need it anymore,” Drew laughed. Canning interrupted at one point to say, “We need more arts funding.”

July Talk’s Peter Dreimanis’s love of the National

After a few blues rock wailers – and frontwoman Leah Fay’s wade-out into the crowd with the warning, “Don’t you dare touch my fucking tits” – July Talk frontman Peter Dreimanis told a story about how, after moving to Toronto almost a decade ago, he’d tried to see Saturday headliners the National with a fake I.D. When security laughed in his face, he grabbed the band and convinced them to give him passes to the show. Not a bad start to a new city.

The National gives Fort York some courage

Before the moody Ohio rockers capped off Saturday night, the main stage blasted out the Tragically Hip’s Courage (For Hugh MacLennan), and the audience burst into a singalong. Also memorable: the National brought up Hayden to guest on I Need My Girl, with singer Matt Berninger saying that the local folkie’s music helped him make it through a difficult breakup in India.

Biblical downpour puts a damper on things

Around midday Sunday, a storm prompted the evacuation of the grounds, an extreme reaction owing in part to the lightning strikes that caused 71 injuries at a German festival a few days prior. Those of us in the “laugh barracks” were treated to impromptu tunes from Kevin Drew and Dear Rouge. Once things were back on, Charles Bradley’s righteous soul seemed to pull the sun out all by itself, and Basia Bulat brought plenty of her own sunshine with her sparkling, new, pop-leaning tunes.

Robyn raves

The Swedish pop megastar pulled off Field Trip’s impressive finale clad in an outfit that was half glittering tights, half fuzzy animal mascot, and all on point for her extended dance jams. Pulsing, lose-yourself remixes made up most of the set, plus some tunes from her side project La Bagatelle Magique. There were no straight-ahead hits, save for a version of 2010’s Dancing On My Own that got everyone extra-excited, but Robyn still gave the crowd its money’s worth: her set blazed 20 minutes past the 10:30 curfew.

music@nowtoronto.com | @mattgeewilliams

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