Hillside 2012 Highlights - Sunday

My start to the Sunday and final day of Hillside, was the Sunday gospel session. This time around it included Birds of Chicago, Elephant Revival and The Be Good Tanyas. The three groups worked together to play some old gospel songs, and also threw in some of their own material. The bands all complimented each other perfectly; each having a slightly different sound yet they still blended together beautifully. This performance was probably the most popular show that morning, drawing a large crowd and packing the tent for the 11am show. This workshop was definitely a great start to my day.

 After the gospel session that morning on the Island Stage was a workshop from both Imaginary Cities and Memoryhouse. Imaginary Cities received quite a bit of buzz at the festival, while Memoryhouse are a small local band with a fanbase to match. Both bands are quite talented and have equally talented music. The only disappointing aspect of this workshop was that it was not exactly a workshop, since one band played a couple songs and then the next band went on and did their own short set; neither played together at all. The two bands could have complimented each other quite well though. In the end, I actually ended up liking Memoryhouse's music slightly more and made sure to catch their full-length set later that day, which was fantastic.

Elephant Revival were probably one of the most talked about and popular acts of the festival. Before they arrived, virtually no one there knew of them but after their appearances in a couple workshops, including the Sunday morning Gospel session, their headlining set had the Island tent packed to the brim. If I had to say there was one show that stole the festival, it would have to be this one. Elephant Revival are an incredibly talented group of musicians from Colorado, with a beautiful folk sound. The band uses both string instruments and haunting harmonies to create their amazing melodies, along with an interesting foray of 'homemade' instruments, including the washboard and saw. This was definitely one of my favourite shows and bands of the weekend!

Badbadnotgood are a great band with a cool sound. They are essentially a trained jazz band, though their material consists of covers of different hip-hop and rap artists. This shows how eclectic the lineup of Hillside can be, with a folk band such as Elephant Revival playing back to back with jazz/hip-hop group Badbadnotgood.

Badbadnotgood have received lots of attention in the last while, getting their breakthrough from posting their covers on YouTube. Lots of people showed up for the set, and the band was able to create a really cool vibe. You wouldn't think that a jazz band would have a mosh pit! Also for a band with no vocals, they were still able to have a great command of the audience. My favourite part of their set was a new song, which they had performed for the first time the day before at Yonge & Dundas in Toronto.

Badbadnotgood's cover of TNGHT song BUGG'N which was my favourite song from their set at Hillside.