The golden sun warmed concertgoers clinging to beer and coolers at Lansdowne Park for Alex Warren’s headlining opening night of CityFolk Festival on Wednesday.
Earlier in the night, the other performers used folk, R&B and rap to twist pop in their own style.
A modest crowd welcomed local artist Mia Kelly at the Faksen Stage as she began her opener, “Lone Dog.” With a raspy undertone, crisp guitar strums and drawn out folky vocals, she transformed the stage into a low-lit tavern, her voice almost fictitiously haunting.
“Are there any grumpy old men in the crowd?” Kelly asked to resounding cheers.
“Yay, that’s amazing,” Kelly continued. “That’s my target demographic.”
Dedicating the next song to those “grumpy old men,” snare drums led into her vocals on “Bonefish Boys.” Her folky, rich voice melted on ears like chocolate on warm tongues.
Kelly taught her audience her love song, “Remedy River,” by urging the crowd to drag out the chorus’s syllables to the melodic strum of her acoustic guitar.
Kelly ended nearly every song with a joyful laugh and squinty smile.
Performance joy spilled over to the TD Stage, where LA-based singer Paul Russell was in constant movement across a pink, purple and red glowing stage, trying to ignite energy with an uncooperative audience.
Russell confidently opened with “Say Cheese,” the lack of crowd response never dampening his own energy.
With faux shyness and a shoulder shrug, he asked, “Is it cool if we party?” before bursting into “Carat Cake” amid sirens and other sound effects.
As darkness settled in, Fasken Stage felt far too small for Tyler Shaw. The crowd extended far past the canopy roof and onto the brick path outside the main stage area before his scheduled start time.
The crowd was packed as couples clutched onto another in a sway. They grew closer during songs dedicated to Shaw’s wife, including “To The Man Who Let Her Go.”
Shaw performed “Wicked” accompanied by plucky guitar notes and dancey percussion, as his expressive hands and face shifted with every line.
“Tonight, it’s just what happens, nothing else matters,” Shaw said before the chorus. “Feel the music and the emotions of it all.”
Shaw finished his set with “Unto You,” featuring wide guitar strums and belting, bellied lyrics.
Many audience members slipped out between Shaw’s songs to join the mass awaiting Alex Warren at TD Stage.
Heads tightly packed for the headliner, caps speckled throughout the crowd were lit orangey-yellow in the glow of the stage crew assembling the long awaited set.
At exactly 8:50 p.m., Warren opened with “Burning Down” to the barricaders’ cheers of “Alex! Alex! Alex!”
Warren quickly swapped to a sunflower-painted acoustic guitar that stood out against his casual hoodie and cargos. He broke into the second song, “Before You Leave Me,” that had the audience clapping along to the snappy verse, inciting a dancey mood.
Warren laced witty and innuendo-filled humour between tracks.
“Is it okay if I get deep and intimate with you?” he joked.
This, partnered with his genuine conversations of losing both his parents, invited closeness and sweetness.
The heartfelt messaging bled into “You’ll Be Alright Kid,” a soft, keyboard-led song with lyrics about loss and confusion.
“Raise your hand if you ever lost someone,” Warren said. “Look around.”
The singer pointed at a sea of palms raised.
“This is a room where everyone understands that feeling.”
“Save You a Seat” opened with crunchy, country-inspired guitar strums, leading into lyrics with similar themes of losing a parent. Warren brought a powerful voice backdropped by booming guitar and bass.
Cell phone flashlights and the audience softly singing along helped shape the duality of togetherness alongside the loneliness of loss and grief.
The crowd belted the summer hit “Ordinary” as Warren’s red full moon graphic hung on the stage’s background.
The communal passion across singing and smiling faces, with Warren’s heartfelt anecdotes and performance, made for an emotional end to night one of CityFolk.
Featured image by Kyla Silva/the Charlatan
