Concert Review: Arboretum Festival 2015 – Austra, Weights and Measures, Saxsyndrum

By: Laura Beaulne-Stuebing –

Austra. (Photo: Kate Young)

It seemed fitting that for the first performance during Arboretum Festival’s last day, when attendees were beginning to slowly filter into the small, industrial festival grounds between two abandoned warehouses on a tiny island in Ottawa, one audience member moved in front of the group performing and started to breakdance.

It seemed fitting because that’s the kind of thing that happens at Arboretum. The group performing was Ottawa’s Gamelan Semara Winangun, who play traditional, mostly percussive music originating from Indonesia. They were decked out in yellow, traditional-styled tunics and accompanied by dancers dressed in bright and colourful costumes. And then some dude from the audience wanted to join them.

Arboretum tends to defy expectations of what a music festival should be, looking for interesting and eclectic sounds, artists and musicians, many of them hailing from the Ottawa area, to share with a dedicated crowd. The final day of the festival’s fourth year included a dramatic, atmospheric set from Montreal’s Saxsyndrum, the simple charm of The Weather Station and singer Tamara Lindeman’s sweet but arresting vocals, and a much too-short set on the main stage from Hayden, who got the growing audience swaying and swooning as the sun began to set that Saturday evening.

That night also brought together Ottawa’s math-rock instrumentalists Weights and Measures, reuniting after some 11 years apart, for a free show in an alley across the river in Hull about a 15 minute walk from the main festival site. Plenty of festival attendees made the trek for the special performance and the trio — which includes Arcade Fire drummer Jeremy Gara — were clearly happy to be playing together again.
Back on the main stage, Austra led everyone into the night as the final band for the festival’s regular programming on Albert Island. The four bandmates, fronted by the operatic Katie Stelmanis, helped everyone coast and bob, beers in hand, to heavy base, sharp drums and syncopation and of course the synth. They played the songs fans will know well — “Lose It” and “Beat and the Pulse” from the Toronto band’s first LP Feel It Break, for example — along with a few new tunes, suggesting more new music’s to come. And when the band tore up their last song, and the bright stage lights softened, Ottawans headed inside to the smaller warehouse stage for a set from Phedre, a band from Toronto, and local DJs Matt Tamblyn and Zattar, to sweat off the beer, forget about their sore feet and dance.