West Fest

Gentrification of Dundas St. W also brings along big events like the annual street festival Dundas West Fest. I skipped out on most of it but Saturday night I arrived later for the free outdoor concert across from The Garrison.

It turns out they were running almost an hour behind schedule. I came just as Ronley Teper's Lipliner was starting their set. Their singer was the kind of woman of a certain age who just doesn't care about people's opinions anymore. So their songs were quirky, verbose, sometimes political, and spanned several genres.

Casper Skulls was at the other end of the age spectrum. Their music was harder hitting: a bit of punk, indie, and rock. I was surprised at their equally dense verbiage and even more taken back by their content. Though there were the usual love songs, there were also plenty of political and social observations on issues affecting their young lives.

Diana brought the full band tonight including back-up singers Ivy Mairie and Gary Beals. But between the late start, their complex set-up (the techs probably had to mic up close to 30 sources), and the city curfew, it was an abbreviated set than was no more than 20 minutes. So they ran mostly through a few songs from their latest album, concentrating on the synth-y dance vibes and extended vocal pyrotechnics, especially between Beals and lead singer Carmen Elle.