After being away from the city for six weeks, it felt really good to be back at The Tranzac for this special tribute night to the great Michael Hurley. I’ve really only heard his 2009 album Ida Con Snock and the odd tune here or there, but with a lineup that included long-time favourites like Bry Webb, Evening Hymns, and The Weather Station, as well as folks I’ve wanted to see play for a while such as Gabe Levine (singing Tia Marie in the video above) and Lisa Bozikovic, I made sure to mark the night down as a “can’t miss event” on my Google Calendar.

Matt ‘Doc’ Dunn did Armchair Boogie’s “Light Green Fellow.” I don’t know a lot about this man, except that I see him around town a lot. I enjoyed his contributions. That’s what’s so great about these tribute nights. You never know what you’re going to see!

The last few times I’ve seen The Weather Station play it’s been just Tamara Lindeman on her lonesome, and I must say it’s working quite well. Her new material is the definition of “stripped down” so she had no problem working with Michael Hurley’s material, which is also pretty bare bones. Her new album is coming out on my favourite record label (announcement forthcoming). I’m excited to hear it.

Long Journey’s “Polynesia” got the Sandro Perri treatment. I should mention that there are a few more videos from the night over on Morning Noon Night’s YouTube channel, including Sandro’s version of “I Paint a Design.”

Tradition did a really fantastic version of “Be Kind to Me,” also off of Armchair Boogie. I should mention the supporting players on this night, otherwise known as the Canada Goose Band, was made up of Jay Anderson and Mike Smith of Steamboat and Jesse Levine on the piano. Good stuff.

This beautiful rendition of “Eyes Eyes” come courtesy of Lisa Bozikovic. The original version appears on Hi Fi Snock Uptown. I’ve known Lisa for a few years now but I’m ashamed to say this was my first time seeing her play solo. She was wonderful!

Bry Webb dedicated Ida Con Snock’s  “I Stole the Right to Live” to his newborn son. From what I’ve been told, his post-Constantines project The Harbourcoats have a record in the can, though I’d reckon being a new father means it won’t see the light of day for a little while. Each time I see Bry play, this unreleased album climbs higher and higher on my “most anticipated albums” list. Yes, such a list really exists.

Evening Hymns have been covering Michael Hurley’s song “Wildegeeses” for a while now so seeing them on the show’s poster wasn’t much of a surprise. Still, it’s a really nice version of the song so I didn’t mind hearing it one more time. Sorry for the quick fadeout at the end there — that’s literally my camera running out of memory and shutting itself off. Perfect timing!

One of the first bands I saw this year at SappyFest was The Harbourcoats, the still-sorta-new-because-they’re-relatively-unknown band led by Bry Webb from the Constantines. It was a really nice way to kick off the festival and definitely had me humming the songs to myself all weekend. This wasn’t my first time seeing Bry playing away from his regular gig — I remember hearing at least one of these songs when he did a set at the Three Gut Records 5th anniversary party years and years ago at the Tranzac, and I’ve subsequently seen him play on a few other occasions leading up to last Friday. Joining him this time ’round was Mike Feuerstack (aka Snailhouse) and my old pal Jonas Bonnetta (aka Evening Hymns). The songs were subtle and majestic, showcasing Bry’s powerful voice in a whole new way. I’m super excited to hear their forthcoming record, too bad no one knows when it’s coming out. Maybe I should look into getting that Constantines acoustic EP they put out a few months back to hold me over. Which reminds me: if anyone from Arts & Crafts is reading this, can you please press it to 10″ vinyl and send me a copy? What’s with this digital-only foolishness?

Anyway, while watching the video, please try to ignore the crowd chatter and shaky camera work and just appreciate the song. Doesn’t it make you want to hold somebody?

I didn’t end up shooting much video while out east. In fact, I brought about eight tapes but only shot 60 minutes worth of footage. It’s kind of hard to party when you’re carrying around a bunch of gear, and my main intention at SappyFest was to have a good time (and I ended up having the time of my life) so it ain’t such a big deal that I only got a couple videos. Here’s $100, who I’ve seen more than any other band this year, playing with their newest recruit, my old homie from Oshawa, Jeff Peers. They’re running through a great tune written by Rick White, who is also sitting in with them for this number. I’m pretty stoked ’cause Ian is playing the electric guitar. It’s all my dreams coming true. Enjoy.

After his set at this year’s SappyFest, I said, “Jon-Rae, wanna go play a song for me in the marsh?” and he said, “Sure Colin.” Once we got there, he told me that the marsh was haunted by an old woman with a lantern. He decided upon “Ghostsong” from his album Knows What You Need, which seemed appropriate. What you can’t see in the video is there were a couple skater kids watching from down the boardwalk. Once we were done filming, we started walking back to town, and as we passed them they told Jon-Rae how beautiful his song was. Yeah, it is pretty beautiful.

On the last day of the festival in the middle of the afternoon we all packed into the Vogue Theater to watch Snowblink. It was about 300 degrees in there — people were literally sticking to the seats. Anyway, the band invited a bunch of their friends to come sit on stage and clap and ring bells, and once they all started playing it really didn’t matter how hot it was in there. Grab their newest album Long Live… because it’s gorgeous!!

Attack in Black closed out the festival for me with this amazing new song. Highlight of my summer.