Sled Island Day Two: Jacques Greene, Cashmere Cat, Chelsea Wolfe, and More

Chelsea Wolfe

Year of Glad, Sled Island Music & Arts Festival 2014, Sled Island Music & Arts Festival 2014: Days 1 & 2 June 18 & 19th, 2014, Cashmere Cat, Chelsea Wolfe, Jacques Greene, Shivas

Sled Island Day Two: Jacques Greene, Cashmere Cat, Chelsea Wolfe, and More, June 19th, 2014

Jun 24, 2014 Year of Glad By Laura Studarus Photography by Laura Studarus

Day two of Sled Island coincided with the Polaris Prize long list announcement. The two events highlighted an interesting (and obvious) fact: Canada has a lot of music. Some of the names on the list were expected (Arcade Fire, Drake), welcome (Owen Pallett, Austra), and even a nice surprise (DIANA, YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN). But for every entry that Under the Radar covers regularly, there were a handful more that seem to have yet to slip over the U.S. border. Hey Tanya Tagaq, Philippe B, and Rae Spoon, let’s be friends.

The evening’s music started with DJ sets by the river from Jacques Greene and Cashmere Cat. Generally, I have a hard time going to see DJs. Visually, it’s like staring at my iPhone display. But both Jacque Greene and Cashmere Cat spun playful sets that encouraged the patchouli-scented crowds to dance. Among those getting down—a Spiderman costumed little boy and a woman juggling multiple hula-hoops. Entertainment, sorted.

Shivas performed over at Golden Age, an aptly named senior citizens’ club. I wasn’t exactly taken with their sound—there’s a wealth of garage bands who are doing the same thing more dynamically. But I LOVED the experience. Few things in life match the novelty factor of drinking beer and watching a band amidst shuffleboard courts and Bingo Lights.

Over at The Commonwealth Bar, mysterious/otherworldly was the running theme. With only a drummer and guitarist, Year of Glad carved out a huge sound. The band claims that they make “sprawling worship songs about murderous dads and the occult,” but that was hard to determine over the ethereal cacophony.

I’ll be honest—the first time I saw Chelsea Wolfe (at UCLA’s Royce Hall) her performance felt disappointingly overwrought. (It was a bit like she was about to pull a Meredith Gray and assure us that she really is “dark and twisty.”) But nestled between candles and creepy curios of Commonwealth, she did her 2013 album Pain is Beauty justice. It’s not that Wolfe is Goth (let’s agree to banish the word from our collective vocabularies), she just understands that sometimes the darkest emotions in life are meant to be delivered in a whisper rather than a shout. (Side note: Cheers to Wolfe for cooing a rebuke at talking audience members. Seriously guys, take your conversations elsewhere.)

(www.sledisland.com)

(www.facebook.com/JacquesGreene)

(www.facebook.com/cashmerecatofficial)

(www.facebook.com/yogtown)

(www.facebook.com/cchelseawwolfe)