Honestly, I’d love to say I stayed through the night for
both the New Groovement and Truth Soundsystem’s ‘For Dancers Only’ set, but it
was Friday night, the last of a long work week and I was exhausted. Having seen
the New Groovement three times since the Victoria Ska Festival, I can confirm
their high levels of both awesomeness and fun, but sadly, after about 25
minutes of their set, I was forced to go home and get my rest. I can only
imagine Truth Soundsystem was as much fun as the last time I saw them, a short
month ago.
Wandering into Lucky Bar the next night (Saturday, September
28) was kind of like walking back into time for me. It’s a place I used to go
all the time for music and haven’t been in years – this was a sort of
homecoming. I walked in to the awesome tribal beats of Masala, a gigantic drum
collective who was in a semi-circle at the front of the dance floor. (I doubt
they could have all fit on the small stage.) Let me tell you friends, Masala
was awesome. Tremendously communal vibes and deep pulsing rhythms had my rump
shaking like crazy.
The rest of the night at Lucky continued down the same path and
turned out to be something really special. Victoria soul masters the Chantrelles took
the stage for their final performance. I knew going in that this would be the
group’s (tragically) last show and was interested to see if such an
announcement would be made on stage. It went from “They’re going to be taking a
little hiatus after this,” to, “We’re going to be gone a long time.” And while
some members of the band seemed to be waiting for the set to be done, the group
sounded fantastic and had the crowd in Lucky jumping and bouncing to what has
to be some of the best soul music to ever step out of Victoria.
Vancouver’s
afro-beat kings Miami Device came out after to close the show. I had a great
time watching them, but I know very little about the genre apart from the
obligatory Fela Kuti knowledge, so I won’t comment on their abilities, except
to say that I had a great time watching them and danced with what one might
call reckless abandon.
The moment that crystallized everything for me was seeing
Ambrose and Sussman introduce Miami Device. The joy that was radiating from the
stage was more than palpable and it was entirely clear that this whole event
was nothing more than a couple of friends with a shared love of music creating
a place to watch that music together. It fills the festival up with a sense of
love and really, it highlights the reason I love music so much. It’s a sense of
community, of friendship and respect, a connection to something more than
ourselves. Music, in its purest form, represents the best parts of us as people
and - like its close ally and one of my absolute favourites, the Victoria Ska
Fest - Garden City Grooves, even in its inaugural year, is completely representative
of those qualities and I can only hope that they got enough traction to make it
happen again next year.
Keep on funkin’ in the free world.
Love and respect.
