Of Roots and True Love

The day leading up to Jon Anderson’s performance was long, airy and hot as hell. Vancouver roots group The Breakman was an afternoon highlight over the on the Grassy Knoll stage.

Their sound has been characterized as “Americana”, owing a debt to the music of The Band & the Grateful Dead, and the comparison isn’t entirely hyperbole. Their music feels authentic in a way that many artists in this genre can’t manage. If they put a little more crunch in the sound, comparisons to the Drive-By Truckers wouldn’t be out of the question. The Breakman are actively promoting their new album Heartwood.

Over on the Grierson Community Stage a performance of The Word had the audience shaking their deeply sunburnt moneymakers. Friday headliners Arrested Development shared the stage with festival performers The Recipe, e.s.l. & Janet Rogers. There were a number of similar performances throughout the day, with various artists taking the stage together to see what results.

In the case of The Word what resulted was a kind of celebratory jam session with some soul classics and a Beastie Boys cover (“Girls”) being just a few things on the menu. Janet Rogers, a writer and freestyle artist, performed a freestyle piece about touch, underscored by a haunting beat from e.s.l.

It was after this performance that I fell in love with the Misting Tent. Supplied by Jet FM, it consisted of a canopy strung with misting jets that blew a fine spray of cool water onto the AstroTurf beneath.

Mere words fail to describe the majesty of the Misting Tent on a hot day. When I say I was in love I mean it – real love. The hard stuff. The “I’ll wait for you until you get out of prison” kind of connection previously only known to Irish dissidents and mafioso.

Tearing myself away from the Misting Tent and walking into the heat of the day, I think I knew a little of what it was to be Lucifer, banished forever from the refreshing spray of God’s grace.