It is, of course, impossible to encapsulate the entire Hillside appearance in a short column. The people, the incredible volunteers, the food, the camping, the children's events, the readings, the non-musical workshops are all worthy of articles themselves. But for brevity's sake, this is about the music. This year's festival was lower-key than usual, with the absence of any really big "stars" being both the best and worst aspects of the weekend. You didn't feel an urge to rush to every stage for fear of missing the moment that everyone would be talking about later; last year, the two camps of people who witnessed Alpha Yaya Diallo and Gwen Swick's concurrent performances were each convinced they'd seen the weekend's shining moment. So here are ten smaller pleasures that added up to the much greater whole:
1) Aaron Riches' Nuclear Family Band (Sunday, 9PM). Incredible band, rich sound, a packed and captive audience, great new songs, and the charismatic stage presence of the boy himself closes the festival with its best performance. Truly transcendent.
2) Jane Siberry - (Saturday, 11PM). Siberry can be alternately thrilling and infuriating, but tonight she was bang-on. With a phenomenal band behind her, she more than makes up for her notorious collaboration with the Rheostatics at the '93 festival (which was equally embarassing for both artists). "Temple" closes the set and was nothing short of sublime.
3) Big Rude Jake & His Gentleman Players with Zamboni Jiver (Sunday, 5PM). Local revisionist favourites hold their own very well beside seasoned Toronto "swingpunks," and quickly become Jake's favourite new band. This was also one of the few true workshops, with both bands fully interacting for the entire performance. Zamboni Jiver makes a lot of new fans this weekend, and the Gentleman Players' mainstage show is also thoroughly entertaining.
4) Flashlight (Friday, 10PM; Saturday, 5PM). Frightened folkies run fleeing from these sardonic skapunks (except Willie P. Bennett, who gives them due props during his mainstage set).
5) Bass is Base, Ellen McIlwaine, Harri Palm, Drew McIvor (Friday, 7PM). Another truly interactive workshop showed that these musicians could not only play extremely well, but they could play extremely well together. In some cases, these artists shone brighter here than they did in their mainstage shows.
7) Corduroy Leda (Sunday, 1PM). Finally placed on a stage big enough to accomodate all the bandmembers (ten on this occasion), this young Guelph band makes a lot of new fans outside of MacDonell Street. Luka Symons and Jen Cutts also deserve individual mention for their solo turns at the a capella workshop.
8) Jerry Alfred & the Medicine Beat. Sadly, their mainstage performance conflicted with Aaron Riches' set, but Alfred and his band of fellow Yukonites graced many workshops with his haunting voice and mesmerizing rhythms.
9) Showdowns: Pussy Chute vs. the gargantuan main stage, the Dissemblers vs. the mud children, Jane Siberry vs. the house music tent, Flashlight vs. their own equipment.
10) The Kings and Queens of Ubiquity: Most of the performers were kept quite busy for the whole weekend in various workshops, but the winners for most unavoidable artist go to Vancouver's Celtic sensation Mad Pudding (ten appearances); Crow's Feet (nine appearances); Willie P. Bennett (six appearances).
