LOLA Festival Day One

Victoria Park Bandshell

London, ON

on Sep 19 2008

Zack Vitiello (CHARTattack)

09/22/2008 11:36am

With just two previous years under its infant-sized belt, the much-lauded LOLA Festival is maturing at a supernatural rate. London, Ont.'s premier offering of independent music and visual art is taking on all the traits of an angst-filled teenager. Fuelled by the dedication of all those involved in its upbringing and the energy provided by a growth-spurt set on hyper-drive, LOLA seems set to burst at the seams of its once immature self, proving that it's a festival of truly adult proportions.

I awoke on Friday morning still feeling the effects of the LOLA pre-party, where Thunderheist got the ball rolling at breakneck speed with their sexy club-inspired electro-rap creations. After some self-reflexive consideration of frontwoman Isis' remark that night that London is home to some serious drinkers, I made my way into the beautiful afternoon sun for a day and night of music.

Starting off at Victoria Park's bandshell was London's Olenka & The Autumn Lovers. With the first signs of fall showing in the leaves overhead, I laid down in the grass and let Olenka and her smooth acoustic folk tunes convince me that autumn isn't so bad after all.

I must have fallen asleep for a few minutes, because when I awoke something quite unlike Olenka was resonating in my ears. Tin had taken the stage and were quickly asserting the electro-instrumental vibe that would mark the rest of the day. With laptops and keyboards positioned on opposite ends of the stage, the Guelph, Ont. quintet faced one another instead of the crowd and had difficulty rousing the leisurely afternoon audience.

While Tin failed to make their mark, Bocce stirred things up with dancey techno beats and punchy, erratic lyrics that brought to mind !!! combined with a pocketful of powerful uppers. Frontman Tony Salomone traversed the entirety of the enormous stage, took up temporary residence on its wings and periodically smacked himself in the head with his microphone (which resulted in some interesting body percussion). Bocce would have made a perfect opening act for either of the festival headliners, but instead much of their theatrics and infectious energy was lost on a relatively sparse daytime crowd.

The bar was set pretty high as LOLA's one and only international band took the stage. Unfortunately, San Francisco's The Drift lived up to their band name and, as the sun set on the park, I found myself struggling to keep from drifting off to sleep. The elongated instrumentals and whimsical, undulating ambience produced by the quartet rarely resulted in the peaks that were continually promised but never presented, leaving me longing for a band that knew how to deliver the goods after a drawn-out build-up.

It was a good thing Do Make Say Think were up next. With eight members crammed in amongst towers of speakers and equipment, Do Make exploded into their near-symphonic post-rock instrumentals and played material that spanned their entire career (their encore was "1978," a 14-year-old track that they hadn't played in seven years). From the throbbing heaviness of "The Universe!" to the sprawling epicness of "Auberge Le Mouton Noir," you could either watch in slack-jawed amazement or follow the band's lead and close your eyes, letting the raw emotion coursing through the amps take hold.

I chose the latter option and, when I reopened my eyes, the faces of the thousands of people around me told the same story: Do Make Say Think are a musical tour-de-force with the power to evoke sentiments spanning an emotional spectrum from love-at-first-sight to bitter heartbreak in one eight-minute song.