Dog Day Afternoon Fest

Dog Day Afternoon is an annual "festival" that's more like a small musical gathering held on a farm near Guelph, Ont. every year. The event has previously hosted NQ Arbuckle, Ohbjiou, Constantines, Feist, Sarah Harmer, Hawksley Workman, By Divine Right, Elliott Brood and many other Canadian acts. This was its 10th anniversary. About 220 people attended this year, including band members, guests and volunteers, in addition to the audience.

I arrived about halfway through Jessy Bell Smith's set. She played her alt.country-tinged songs unaccompanied, using only her electric guitar. She threw in a Bruce Springsteen cover towards the end of her set and finished by playing a hilarious cover of Akon's "Smack That." She was a bit out of breath towards the end of the song, but remembered all the lyrics and managed to rap them out nearly flawlessly. I was pretty impressed.

Toronto's Now Yr Taken (real name Mikey Crichton) was next. He runs all his instruments through loop pedals and puts a lot of delay on them, which makes his one-man-band act sound dreamy and spacey. Many of his songs were instrumental, but a few had lyrics. Maybe it's just that I've seen a lot of one-person acts using loop pedals in the last few weeks, but I got tired of his set pretty quickly.

I was glad to see Gentleman Reg, who recently signed to Arts & Crafts and is finishing a new album called Jet Black for his new label. Reg has changed his look a bit; he's no longer clean-shaven and sports a beard. He and drummer Greg Millson ran through songs from 2004's Darby & Joan and played a few new ones from Jet Black. One of these was called "You Can't Get It Back." His new material seems to fit in well with his other songs, and I'm really looking forward to the release of the album.

The D'Urbervilles had to cancel a few shows earlier this summer because frontman John O'Regan was diagnosed with Crohn's disease and had to stay in the hospital for a while. He was well enough for Dog Day. While he and his band ran through songs from this year's We Are The Hunters, O'Regan jumped off the stage and started wandering around on the grass in front of the crowd. I was told this was apparently a Dog Day first, and that acts never get off the stage in the middle of their sets.

Halifax's Dog Day seemed a bit out of place, despite their name. Their lo-fi, '90s indie rock sound didn't really fit with the rest of the bill and, though I want to like their sound, I find them a bit lacklustre, particularly since they're not very animated on stage.

At the end of Dog Day the band's set, I decided to explore Dog Day the festival's food options. I was pretty impressed with what I ate. All the food was vegan. I'm a former vegan turned meat eater, but I still enjoy vegan food. For only $8, you could buy a full plate of food that consisted of tempeh kebabs covered in peanut sauce, lime-quinoa salad, a curried rice salad and half a corn on the cob. The food was delicious and I was stuffed by the end of the night.

Before The Sadies went on, The Shovels ran through a set of what I thought was pretty typical alt.country.The band includes Dodge Fiasco drummer Sean Dignan.

The Sadies took the stage just as the sun was going down. The space in front of the stage had been a yawning, open space earlier in the day, since people were more content to sit and relax and enjoy the music on whatever blankets or lawn chairs they'd brought with them. This space was quickly filled by people standing, sitting or dancing. A good chunk of the crowd was doing the latter and kept it up through the entire set. Although the sun had gone down, for the most part there weren't many mosquitoes present, which made everything that much more enjoyable.

Singing and guitar-playing brothers Dallas and Travis Good, bassist Sean Dean and drummer Mike Belitsky ran through a set that included "1000 Cities Falling (Part 1)" from 2004's Favourite Colours, "The 400" from the Tales Of The Rat Fink Original Soundtrack and several more from last year's No Seasons. After they finished to much applause, Dallas came back on stage to announce, "Sorry folks, we really can't play anymore… We've only got 10 more songs for you."

What followed was really more like a second set that included Dallas and Travis' infamous guitar fret-swapping action on "Tiger Tiger." They took requests for their final song, and one audience member jokingly shouted for Judas Priest, which had Dallas amused. The Sadies opted for Pink Floyd instead and played their cover of "Astronomy Domine" to close out what was a very impressive and well-run event. Hopefully Dog Day can run for another 10 years and beyond.