Bon Iver
A much-anticipated set from Wisconsin’s Bon Iver ended the 2012 Ottawa Folk Festival not with a bang, but a falsetto croon.
Clusters of excited fans waited for hours at the front of the stage for the indie-folk band led by Justin Vernon, and the results were spectacular. The band was versatile, enthusiastic, and profound all at once.
Vernon and company kicked off the set with “Perth,” which quickly segued into “Minnesota, WI.” Both songs showed Vernon’s meandering style, which defied pop structures without becoming too formless. This also meant the band could crank out incredible jams on a whim.
Even more incredible was the fact that Bon Iver could switch styles so easily without seeming out of place. The band went from a raucous rock rendition of “Blood Bank” down to a gentle thrum and then full on guitar attack in “Calgary.”
Each player seemed perfectly in tune with the songs. On “Creature Fear,” a horn section added solemnity to the verses. “Skinny Love,” meanwhile, instantly became one of the best songs of the night, largely because of the band’s layered harmonies on the song’s “my my my” refrain. There was a lot of hype going into the show, and Bon Iver proved it was justified.
Hey Rosetta!
Even St. John’s native Tim Baker of Hey Rosetta! seemed excited to be playing before Bon Iver. For his part, Baker’s vocals were on par with Vernon. He took no half-measures in his singing, holding notes longer when he could have stopped, and carrying quieter parts beautifully on songs like “Welcome.” His raspy, yet appealing voice was also great at building tension.
In fact, the entire band was all about attack and release. Guitarist Adam Hogan could be a dominant presence on stage, but he also knew when to step back and let the rhythm section come to the fore, as on “Yer Spring.” The band was in great control of their dynamics, starting quietly and then coming to flailing climaxes.
In fact, they may have done this too often. The only songs in the set that didn’t eventually build to joyous riffing were “A Thousand Suns,” which stuck to a similar melody throughout, and “Bandages,” which Baker mainly carried on an acoustic guitar. While the band know how to write songs that pay off, it became a tiny bit grating to see the trick repeated so often.
Anaïs Mitchell
Folk-singer Anaïs Mitchell’s set suffered from the opposite problem. Her and her Young Man Band started with overly subdued versions of “Ships” and “You Are Forgiven.” This slowed the set down, and more momentum was lost when the band took long breaks to tune their instruments. Mitchell managed to turn it around halfway through, delivering a sharp version of “Wilderland” and “Young Man in America.”
“Coming Down,” an already beautifully unadorned song, benefitted from the use of a banjo, and a brief a capella performance provided a nice lead-in for the nimble guitar work on “Dyin Day.” By the time she’d finished her set with “Why We Build the Wall,” Mitchell showed a promise that the other two acts would fulfill for the rest of the night.
