[Hugh23]

Here is a link to some photos of performers at Thursday's Edmonton Folk Music Festival. Scroll through the pictures to find Gord (from The Edmonton Sun):

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.edmontonsun.com/entertainment/bvj_folkfest/photos/2010/08/05/14938006.html">http://www.edmontonsun.com/entertainmen ... 38006.html</a><!-- m -->

Where are the Hipbasers with a show review and set list? :thumb:

[Tthip]

Where are the Hipbasers with a show review and set list?

Well, here is what the Twitter universe had to say:

-Gord Downie done his set at #EFMF. Good show but can't wait for Ben Harper!
-Ben harper better be better than gord downie. Gord's band needed a rehersal. #efmf
-Night 2 on the hill. Gord Downie just rocked the park! #efmf -I love this event! <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://yfrog.com/jumhprj">http://yfrog.com/jumhprj</a><!-- m -->
-Gord Downie is in need of some better tunes..Not a very good show.
-'if you do anything in your stupid life, get yourself rooted in a woman's heart'-gord downie #efmf #truestory
-What is up with Gord downie's twisty cynical new stuuuuffffff???
-The sun sets on day 2 @ #efmf Gord Downie is... Meh. I had higher expectations. Agreeing w/ @wadekelly
-Heading back to tarp. Very disappointed with gord downie and line ups at #efmf
-'I see a poor saber tooth tiger up to it's tits in eternity'-Gord Downie #efmf
-I am really enjoying Gord Downie. Does this mean I should be listening to some Tragically Hip later? #efmf #folkfest #yeg
-Gord Downie at #edmontonfolkfestival. Um....well somewhat self indulgent set. This is definitely not the Tragically Hip. Watching Gord Downie at #efmf. Last time I saw him was with the Hip, Another Roadside Attraction '97. Let's just say I liked that a lot more
-Gord Downie needs to use just a few less inside jokes. Just me? Oh and this sounds terrible. #efmf
-Still feel like shit. I just shot Gord Downie at #yegfolkfest. His new band sounds pretty great.
-Gord Downie more of the same? #efmf I hope not.
-Gord Downie will always be Gord Downie. #FYI #efmf
-Oh Gord Downie, how I love your crazy ramblings... It's been too long! #efmf
-Gord Downie is everything I had hoped for. So much fun! #efmf
-Gord Downie.. Naat quite my cup of tea. Can appreciate though.. EFMF
-"Make some time for the uncapturable. Like this summer. It's passing by." -Gord Downie

[headstoner]

i was there. i had a horrible time at the festival, it was my first time attending the folk festival and safe to say it was also the last. Gord was fine, the crowd was not there to see him and well gord is gord, i dont have to explain that here. julie was in a cast due to a fractured ankle and played the whole show sitting down. chris walla from death cab played guitar on the last 3 or 4 songs. i'm sorry i dont have a setlist.

[direwolf74]

Yikes. Some pretty nasty reviews there. I've heard nothing but great things about Gord and his band up until this show. Perhaps they just had an off night?

[daylight]

Yikes. Some pretty nasty reviews there. I've heard nothing but great things about Gord and his band up until this show. Perhaps they just had an off night?

The target market for folk festivals is unwashed hippies. The target market for the Hip (and by extension Gord) is drunken rednecks. I can see how there wouldn't be a lot of overlap.

[direwolf74]

The target market for folk festivals is unwashed hippies. The target market for the Hip (and by extension Gord) is drunken rednecks.

Drunken rednecks? That sounds a lot more like Nickelback's target market. I think a more accurate description of the stereotypical Hip audience would be baseball cap-wearing, beer-loving Toronto Maple Leaf fans who grew up on a steady diet of early Muchmusic and 90s Canadian alt-rock.

[Tthip]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://soundandnoise.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/pointcounterpoint-gord-downie-at-the-edmonton-folk-fest/">http://soundandnoise.wordpress.com/2010 ... folk-fest/</a><!-- m -->

Point/Counterpoint: Gord Downie at the Edmonton Folk Fest

Point: Gord Downie provides a welcome break from muted folk festival.

“I can see the line of your brassiere. I can contemplate it from here,” Gordon Downie shouted as he walked onto the main stage for his Thursday evening performance. While the unconventional opening may have been too jarring for the folk festival crowd — perhaps a simple ‘hello’ would have sufficed — it set the tone perfectly for Downie’s performance at the Edmonton Folk Fest.

The Tragically Hip frontman’s set was didn’t quite match the Ghallagher Park’s mood that evening, but Downie, who writes songs about middle aged drug dealers, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Following the dissonant introduction, Downie and his backing band ‘The Country of Miracles’ rocked their way through “Moon Over Glenora”, “Canada Geese”, “Trick Rider”, and an impromptu sing along with the audience “I’m here, cause you’re here, without you, I’m going to.” He joked later in that his band might be too offensive and the festivals artistic director “Terry Wickham will have to rob a bank.”

Throughout the set Downie was his usual manic, brazen self that Tragically Hip fans have come to love. Wrapped in tight white t-shirt, and sporting trendy glasses he twitched, jittered, shook, and moved his feet. He sang while lying on the ground, stole the crutches of his broken legged bandmate Julie Dorion, and surfed on the speakers. Spouting off rants in the place of usual stage banter on topics as varied as growing children, Nazi’s , the G20 “party” in Toronto, and then proudly declared that “everyday is like Christmas Day in Toronto,” A risky move for someone playing a festival in Alberta? Perhaps. But that was without question, the point.

Downie’s wild behaviour wasn’t perfect for the Gallagher park setting. Several people expressed feelings that they were missing something about the performance. This makes perfect sense — Tragically Hip fans know and expect Downie’s zany stage antics, But for an audience uninitiated in the ways of The Hip was clearly left scratching their heads.

But his songs. Much credit has to be given to his backing band Country of Miracles. The band has been with Downie throughout his solo career only recently taking on the new moniker The band consisting of Julie Dorion and several members of The Dinner is Ruined, put haunting touches on some of the older solo songs like “Vancouver Divorce” with the addition of brass instrumentation.

A surprise came late in the set when Chris Walla, the lead guitarist of Death Cab for Cutie, jumped on stage introduced only as “our producer from Portland.” It could have been a moment for heavy promotion to the young kids in attendance. But his day job wasn’t even mentioned. Then again, not once did they mention Gord Downie was from The Tragically Hip. It seemed better that way.

As the band tore into one of the last numbers “The Drowning Machine” Downie crooned “It doesn’t take much to ruin a moment like this.” Despite the criticisms from some, the appearance was a welcome addition to the Folk Fests first night and injected the hill with some electricity .

The electricity will return to Edmonton when Gord Downie and The Country Miracles return to a gig at the Myer Horowitz Theater on September 28.

— David Falk

Counterpoint: Tragically Hip frontman doesn’t strike a chord with his audience.

Looking at the Thursday line-up for this year’s Edmonton Folk Music Festival, the first thing that came to my mind when I spotted Gord Downie’s name upon the list was Canadian rock. Basically, anything but folk music.

Don’t get me wrong, Gord Downie is an Canadian icon, but the approach he brought to Gallagher Park conflicted with the general characteristics of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. There was no unity of the band playing on stage and the audience, it was merely Downie’s ego up on stage expecting everyone in the crowd to jump up and praise him simply for being the man that he is..

From the start, Gord Downie and the Country of Miracles were not making anyone stand up in applause. The music did not scream folk in any way, just plain rock. Performers at a folk fest usually bring with them a quality that gives the listener a sense that this is more than just a rock concert and more than just seeing a particular band live. It is about coming to a place where not only a love for music is celebrated, but also culture and an “escape” from every day life in the city. All in all, a different approach is brought forth by a band when performing at the Edmonton folk festival rather than a rock concert at a venue such as Rexall Place, and Gord Downie showed no evidence of a folk sentimentality whatsoever.

To put it bluntly,Downie received one of the worst responses from a crowd that I have ever seen. Not only was the applause at a minimum, but when he asked the crowd to sing along with one of his songs, pointing the microphone away from him signaling the audience to sing, there was almost no response. At one point the band was telling jokes about Toronto and G20, barely any laughter erupting from the audience, and they even resorted to talking about Canadian politics, hoping to signal a response — I heard crickets.

I was also given the chance to see Downie and his band at the Winnipeg Folk Festival this year, and was surprised to find almost the same response towards the Canadian legend. The music itself felt out of tune with the atmosphere that a folk fest exudes. Downie is a big name,what held him back from a successful show at these festivals is the fact that a folk music festival is about finding something new, not about going to see a bunch of famous musicians. It draws crowds because people want to see something unique and modest, a performer who is there to share their love of music, not relying on their stardom to connect with the crowd.

The best news of the night was Downie announcing the band’s last song. He rocks in the Hip, but should probably just stay there.

— Adrienne Toye

[direwolf74]

Haha, wow. That counterpoint argument is weak. She makes it sound like '65 all over again when Dylan broke out the electric guitars at Newport and pissed off all the folkies. Heaven forbid someone gets up on stage and actually "rocks" at a folk festival. I love it. Atta boy, Gord! Whether solo or with the Hip, Downie has written some of the best folk/roots/blues songs I've ever heard. He belongs at a folk fest just as much as anybody in my opinion.

:thumb:

[Tthip]

Canada Live:
Thursday, August 26, 2010
concert 2: Gord Downie and the Country of Miracles
recorded at the 2010 Edmonton Folk Music Festival
and
CBC Radio 1 broadcast, Fridays at 2:05 PM
Friday, August 27, 2010 on CBC Radio 1
concert 2: Gord Downie and the Country of Miracles
recorded at the 2010 Edmonton Folk Music Festival