My first thought on Canadian Music Week was that it’s not really a week. It’s actually four days, but – considering it runs about 18 hours a day – if you do it properly, you can pack in a good three weeks worth of partying!

Having recently moved to Toronto from Montreal, this was my first CMW, and I was very excited to see everything it had to offer. The Montreal equivalent of CMW is Pop Montreal, and for that festival there is a Montreal writer named Brendan Murphy who goes out of his way to see as many shows as possible – a feat I wanted to emulate. I think at the last Pop Brendan covered 36 bands, a total I wasn’t able to match – but I think he has an expense account – in case my editors were wondering! I did manage to see 24 bands in the four days, along with 5 conferences and the very disappointing Indie Awards. It was an action-packed week, filled with everything that makes Rock ’n’ Roll great, and I’m very happy to have the opportunity to share the experience with you.

Let’s start on Wednesday with the previously mentioned Indie Awards. This award show was actually what I was most looking forward to for CMW. I figured with the state of Indie music in Canada in the past year, a collection of the ‘best of the best’ would be, well, the best! Let’s take a look at the ways I was wrong…

1) Big-Names Missing-In-Action
First, a brief list of Canadian Indie talent: Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Metric, Stars, Feist, Death From Above 1979, Bedouin Soundclash, Matt Mays (with or without his Torpedo), The Sadies, Wolf Parade, Black Mountain, controller.controller, Tegan & Sara, The New Pornographers…

And who showed up for the Indies? None of ‘em! (Well, the Stars showed up, but it was for their “special performance,” that was technically after the Indies). Don’t get me wrong I don’t blame the bands. If you’re going to showcase the best in Canadian Indie, you should really make sure you have the best in Canadian Indie to showcase.

2) Weak Performances
Elliott Brood was great (more on them later), The Figurines (not Canadian) were acceptable, but the performance of the night belonged to Hall of Fame inductees, The Pursuit of Happiness. I know, I did not expect to be writing that either. The other HOFers, The Parachute Club, made the best of their slot. Cursed and their powerful hardcore was a little too much for the assembled Indie-kids. The Road Hammers show opening set was a dull omen of things to come. And if all that wasn’t enough, the evening took an evening more pitiful turn with the debut performance of Rosette. Who’s Rosette, you ask? You and me both fair reader. Rosette was first introduced to me at the press reception earlier in the evening, to which I replied, “Who the Hell is Rosette?” Imagine my surprise when she popped-up onstage with her “put-your-hands-in-the-air” encouraging MC. Yes, Rosette singing and dancing to background music is exactly what I think of when I think Canadian Indie.

As a side note: It turns out that her Indies debut was not the last of Rosette for CMW, not by a long-shot! Rosette had somehow secured a set at the Revival opening for Jeff Martin (formerly of The Tea Party) and 80s rockers Loverboy! If that’s not a moment-in-Canadian-music-history waiting to happen, I don’t know what is. I didn’t make the trip up for the show, but I think it needs to be mentioned. Oh to see Jeff’s reaction coming onstage after Rosette…

3) Shameful Host
Could host Jian Ghomeshi find a way to salvage this mess? Sadly, no. He came out of the gates like a wounded deer-in-the-headlights and never managed to find his stride. After the requisite ass-kissing, he bounced back and forth from overly Indie – in a rant about record executives – to accusing his audience of being “all Indie.” Welcome to the Indies, Jian! In his defense, his mic level was too low and his stage was too hidden, but the rest was simply bad hosting.

4) Smoke Machine
If you weren’t on the press balcony, you probably wouldn’t have noticed this, but The Docks had a very large smoke machine positioned directly under said balcony, about 100 feet from the stage. Why would you put a smoke machine 100 feet from the stage and 30 feet off the ground? As the smoke instantly rose, its only real purpose was to obscure the vision of all the reporters and camera people on the balcony. One of my favourite moments of the evening was watching a helpless CBC cameraman trying in vain to film The Road Hammers around a large cloud of smoke!

Aside from all of that, things were great! Some fine performers won some awards, but few were there to accept them. The Arcade Fire took home Favourite Album and Favourite Video. Bedouin Soundclash won for Favourite Single. City And Colour was the years Favourite Solo Artist. Death From Above 1979 was the Favourite Group and the biggest shock of the evening; James Ehnes took home the Favourite Classical Artist. I know I was pulling for the Tafelmusik Orchestra too. There’s always next year. Oh, and let’s not forget our friend Rosette, who beat out Andy Stochansky and Kathleen Edwards for Favourite Pop Act on the same night as her first performance…spectacular.

With the awards out of the way, the crowd actually began to grow in anticipation of Stars’ performance. I was very keen to see Stars in person as well, but it was the opening act, Magnet, who stole the show for me. One man, his lap-steel and a loop pedal were intriguing enough to pull the audience from their collective slumber. His voice soared beautifully alongside his guitar and the FX and beats he created live were fascinating to watch.

When the Stars finally took the stage for the last show of their North American tour, the crowd seemed ready to forgive all that had come before. The band ran perfectly through their biggest hits and didn’t miss a beat on the way to a rather spellbinding performance. I was most struck by the interplay of vocalists Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan. I’m a sucker for male/female harmonies, and these two do it better than anyone else today. 

All in all, a fine close to an otherwise disappointing evening. 

Trevor's other CMW nights:

 - Thursday

 - Friday

 - Saturday

Other CMW coverage

- Trevor Thomas

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