Going Live: Arts & Crafts Field Trip (Part Two)

Because of artists such as Arcade Fire, Grimes, Fucked Up and Metric, “Canadian indie” is a living, breathing creature. It has constructed stereotypes such as “large rock armies with too many members to name in 60 seconds” but with help from Arts & Crafts, it’s produced a few iconic records – Let It Die, Set Yourself On Fire and Nice, Nice, Very Nice – that still sit on our shelves. FIELD TRIP became the ultimate display of “Canadian indie” this past weekend as even the “Started From The Bottom” sign at Toronto’s Fort York signified the history and development of a scene.

Following some pretty unbelievable sets by STARS, RA RA RIOT and FEIST, BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE took us back to the forgotten days. Plowing through 2002’s You Forgot It In People front-to-back, they reminded us of a time when the Polaris Prize wasn’t a big deal, and when “Anthems For A Seventeen-Year Old Girl” was the original “YOLO” to latch onto because Toronto’s hip hop empire didn’t exist. As it’s Kevin Drew, the newly reunited group also managed to resurrect familiar faces like Leslie Feist, Amy Millan and founder James Shaw, which steered into oldies like “Lover’s Spit” and “I’m Still Your Fag”. The moral of the festival: there’s really nothing better than “family”.


ZEUS at GARRISON COMMON STAGE



RA RA RIOT at FORT YORK STAGE



DAN MANGAN at FORT YORK STAGE



STARS at GARRISON COMMON STAGE



FEIST at GARRISON COMMON STAGE



BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE at GARRISON COMMON STAGE


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