Straight's PemFest Review

The Pemberton Festival has come and gone and I never left Vancouver. Had I travelled north, I probably would have gone just for Saturday's incredible lineup of acts. The Tragically Hip alone was tempting, and then I found out that also performing on Saturday were Sam Roberts, Buck 65, and Tom Petty. Those four plus a bunch of other acts all in one day - tell me again why I didn't go? Damn. Festival organizers: Next year, give me the all of the same acts on the same day, throw in Los Campesinos! and Clumsy Lovers, and I'll pay double whatever you were charging this year. I promise.

In the issue of Georgia Straight issue the Thursday following the festival, three writers each reviewed, extensively, a different day. My favorite part:

Buck 65 could be heard on the Lillooet Stage, meanwhile, prefacing "The Centaur" by accusing either Sam Roberts or Gord Downie of taking a huge and hideous shit in the backstage area.

When Downie himself mounted the Mount Currie Stage for the Tragically Hip's occasionally stiff and unwieldy set, he seemed even more hell-bent than usual on deconstructing his own music, whether it meant turning "Grace, Too" into a red-faced catharsis, or generally playing out an incomprehensible—although incredibly entertaining—private pantomime. Only Gord Downie will ever really know why he spent most of "Courage (For Hugh MacLennan)" spinning around on his ass with a hanky covering his face.