‘4in1’ Ottawa Park Acoustic Sessions
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| Fevers @ Dundonald Park |
What: Photogmusic Presents: ‘4in1’ Ottawa Park Acoustic Sessions
Where: Dundonald Park, Centretown
Who:
– Avid Napper
– Scary Bear Soundtrack
– Jenna Tenn-Yuk
– Del Bel + Lisa Bozikovic Jessica Ruano
– Fevers
– Eriksen
Ok, so this whole thing is new to me. I’ve decided to snub the man and take on this project because I love music and want to write about it. As I walked to Dundonald Park in Centretown I realize that I am actually doing this. It’s happening. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon on the May long weekend.
Needless to say, my mind was a little bit blown. All the performers had a unique story to tell and did a terrific job at doing so. Here’s how it went down.
Avid Napper, Gloria of Scary Bear Soundtrack’s side project, came up and played a couple Springsteen covers. This was a great start as I became slightly more familiar/comfortable with my surroundings, and because who honestly doesn’t like the Boss?
Scary Bear Soundtrack then came up and played a few politically/socially charged tunes that piqued my interest. I had seen the new ‘Asian Fetishist’ video a few days before and I was thoroughly impressed with their adaptation in a live acoustic setting. Gloria has a simple but engaging voice, and the harmonies were sick.
Jenna Tenn-Yuk came up and began with her ‘Jamasian’ poem. Let me just pause here and say that the only exposure I’d had to spoken work was a few Leonard Cohen pieces, so I’m no expert. I am a sucker for stories though, whether in song, movie, or as it turns out, poetry. She blended some poems with songs, covering Austra and playing originals. I was impressed how seamlessly the poetry and song blended together, something I can say I had never experienced before.
Jessica Ruano gave me a second, more forceful dose of spoken word. She was the designated ‘time killer’ since Del Bel and Lisa Bozikovic had to run for sound check. Wow. Jessica touched on themes I think we all experience at different points in our lives – particularly powerlessness, but also strength to recover from our our times of weakness. She kicked ass.
My most anticipated act came up, Fevers. This electronic/pop group formed last year has really been making a name for themselves. They impressed me by playing perfect acoustic versions of non-acoustic songs, Passion is Dead & Radiohead’s Idioteque. Previously, I was convinced that Idioteque was a non-coverable song as it is extremely experimental and unapologetically complex. I was dead wrong. Colin beautifully adapted Thom Yorke’s mutant vocal powers into a version that was very accessible to anyone listening. Something that stood out to me during their set was that I never felt as though one vocalist was more dominant than the other. Colin and Sarah are a highly effective duo, similar to the dynamic of the band ‘Of Monsters & Men’. I spoke to them briefly after the show and they were very down-to-earth and obviously enjoying every minute of their musical endeavours.
Eriksen rounded things off playing a set of originals. His songs provided a nice end to what was a perfect Sunday afternoon.
I look forward to seeing Fevers play @ Babylon this Friday the 25th, and hope to see the other performers around Ottawa in the future.
Check out photos of the event on Photogmusic’s blog:
Photos of 4in1 Acoustic Sessions in a Park #2 [May 20, 2012]
