LIVE REVIEW: Winter in Summer a perfect little folk fest
It was the perfect day for a festival – the intense summer heat dulled by a cool breeze, the city spread out across the horizon in the near distance. Last as the opening evening of the Winter in Summer festival sponsored by Steamwhistle at the Edmonton Ski Club (more or less the site of the Edmonton Folk Festival if they were having one this year). The stage was stationed at the bottom of a large hill, creating a natural raked floor effect.
Opening was the Dylan Farrell Band, whose star of the whole night was keyboardist Eric Doucet. The audience (many apparently there for the headliners Kane Incognito, and identifiable by their merch that they must have purchased from past show) socialized through the band’s first song or two, but it did not take long before they were paying attention. Doucet was shredding on the keys, filling all the right spaces and hitting all the right notes in his solos. Their music exists at the intersection of Christian rock (due to the lyrics’ occasional religious undertones), blues, and folk-rock and makes you want to get up and move. It was hard to imagine them playing any other venue.
“This is cool, this is really cool. Live music, folks,” Farrell said. The energy was good. When the music died down it became obvious how much fun the children were having – making new friends and dancing, rolling down the hill, eating fair food from the food truck village on the festival grounds. Just like they would’ve at the folk fest.
After what was a reasonably long set for a festival, nearly two hours, Kane Incognito took the stage. The show was a combination of originals, covers, singalongs, and anecdotes. The audience was entertained and attentive. It felt as though the whole show was leading up to one moment when the sunset lit the city orange and golden, the audience well watered with Steamwhistle brews, while Kane Cherrington told a story of all the new friends he danced with on his trip to Nicaragua. The song that followed built and swelled and got the audience on their feet; mother’s danced with sons, lovers joined hands and swayed, strangers allowed the space between them to lessen. If there is a better way to spend a night, bring me there.
The Winter in Summer Festival returns with another round Sept. 17-18, featuring Scenic Route To Alaska and many others. The folk fest proper should resume next summer.
READ MORE: WHO NAMED THE BAND: Scenic Route To Alaska
