Day 1 of the 2015 of TURF, The Toronto Urban Roots Festival, was fantastic. The weather was great, the crowd, as always, was fantastic and, of course, the music was sublime.
Prior to the big festival at Fort York, the TURF team put on a Club Bonus Series the coincided with the main festival, as well as a Preview Series. I didn't make it out to all those extra shows, but for the ones that I did, my posts are linked below.
If you missed my individual posts, here's all of day one in one place, plus links to my Club Bonus Series and Preview Series posts.
While TURF got started for me with the Club Bonus Series, as the name implies, it is a bonus. The festival proper got started on Friday, September 18 on the three outdoor stages at Fort York in downtown Toronto. The first band that I saw was the first band to play on the South Stage, Catl.
The South Stage was a new addition for TURF 2014. It's in an interesting spot that turns out to be a perfect spot for a smaller stage. It's right under our elevated and sometimes crumbling highway, the Gardiner Expressway, and at the bottom of a hill that forms a natural amphitheatre-like setting. One unique thing about this site is that the hill is home to dozens of gophers and their hole-homes. To make sure no one twists and ankle or breaks a leg in one of these holes, they're all carefully marked with signs by festival organizers.
The music kicked into gear for Catl's set with their unique brand of foot-stomping good time rock and blues. I saw them for the first time at The Horseshoe and at that time, I vowed that I would see them again. Although the early set time is a challenge as you're trying to motivate the first few folks to arrive at the festival, Catl did an awesome job and got the day started right. Latecomers to TURF missed out on a fantastic performance.
Before we get to the music, I've got one corny question; At any point during TURF, did anyone sing "Under the Gardiner" to the tune of "Under the Boardwalk" while at the South Stage?
So we got the TURF festival line-up for Fort York. We got the Club Preview Series with Northcote (check out my pics from that show) and upcoming shows from Birds of Bellwoods August 13 at Lee's Palace and Union Duke August 21 at The Horseshoe. We get the Club Bonus Series, where you get to go from a fantastic day of the sights, sounds and tastes of TURF at Fort York, to the cozy confines of The Horseshoe or Lee's Palace to take in more great music. The announcement of The Horseshoe shows came about a week ago. Now we get the Club Bonus Series details for Lee's Palace, with one more show announcement to come on July 21. I think that TURF may turn out to be the music event of the year here in Toronto!
The Club Bonus Series at Lee's Palace runs from September 16-21 and features acts including Royal Canoe, Murder by Death, Desaparecidos, St. Paul & The Broken Bones and Will Butler. Fantastic bands like CATL, Restorations, Highs, Hop Along and Julian Taylor Band are opening. Off the top, I think that Desaparecidos, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, CATL and Restorations are not to be missed. I'm just getting acquainted with some of the other artists.
You can get in by buying a VIP Plus ticket for access to all TURF shows or individual tickets to the club shows. Tickets go on sale this Thursday, July 16 at noon.
The dates / shows are:
September 16 Royal Canoe w/ Highs
September 17 Murder By Death w/ Restorations & CATL
September 19 Desaparecidos w/ Hop Along
September 20 St. Paul & The Broken Bones w/ Julian Taylor Band
September 21 Will Butler
I posted about Catl a little while back and jumped at the chance to see them in action on stage. They played The Horseshoe Tavern on January 31; the first concert of 2015 for me. Catl are a self-described, "stripped down, juke-joint blues band that will make you drink n' sweat til you can't drink n' sweat no more." They deliver a high energy, heart and soul, leave it all on stage performance of their rootsy, passionate tunes. Definitely a recommended live music experience.
Catl (a.k.a. Jamie Fleming) plays guitar and sings, Sarah Kirkpatrick plays drums and sings, and on this night, the duo were made a trio by the addition of a harmonica player. They were tight and energetic, infecting the crowd and getting everyone moving. And, man, is this a photogenic duo. It was hard to narrow down the pictures for this post. I'll have to find a place for the rest. They're too good not to share.
Check out a few standout tunes from their setlist:
Another band whose name has been floating around on my lists is CATL. They play a soulful rootsy blues that just sounds cool. I've got to check them out live.
