“What Do You Mean You Missed It?” (July 11-17, 2011)

– by Ashley Tanasiychuk

Hello, happy beginning to your week, hope you enjoyed yourself last week. We sure did!

In addition to donating our summer wardrobe to those citizens experiencing that thing called “summer” in the rest of the country, and placing our sunglasses in the Vancouver Museum (tour guide noting to the kids, “once upon a time there was a big bright light in the sky, so bright you needed to put these tinted lenses over your eyes – don’t laugh it was true!”), we took our first trips in the Snipe Ark, a new high-tech floatation device that the city hopes to use to replace cars, buses, and yes, even those pesky cyclists!

The Snipe Ark inflates in less than 5 minutes (with a Canadian Tire car pump, not included), and can carry 1 photographer, 1 camera, 1 reviewer, 1 pen and 1 pad of paper (waterproof suggested).

With this device at our disposal, we sent out two contributors to each of the days of the Vancouver Folk Fest. The reviews and photos are fantastic, though we have yet to hear from Sunday’s crew – we fear they might have been washed out to sea.

Oh well, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad! Let’s take a look at what our intrepid picture takers captured…

Gillian Welch @ Vancouver Folk Fest, photographed by Christopher Edmonstone

Gillian Welch and musical partner David Rawlings played like pros and impressed our reviewer.

Joel Plaskett and The Emergency @ Vancouver Folk Fest, photographed by Christopher Edmonstone

Joel Plaskett rounded out the evening by giving everyone a reason to move as he rocked out the closing set of the folk fest on Friday evening.

Imaginary Cities @ Vancouver Folk Fest, photographed by Dasha Lushnikova

The Winnipeg band is Pixies-approved (they’ve opened for the seminal alt-rock group once this year already, and will again on a fall tour). Plus their song “Hummingbird” is one of the year’s best.

The Burning Hell @ Vancouver Folk Fest, photographed by Dasha Lushnikova

Saturday was the rainiest of the day of the Folk Fest… actually that’s an understatement. It was a freakin’ downpour. Yet the captain of the ship, Shawn Conner, set an example and toughed it out to review the day. Our photographer Dasha grabbed great images when she strategically surfaced in her submarine during those brief breaks from the rain.

The Burning Hell, with their humour and audience interaction, were the highlight of the day.

Elliott Brood @ Vancouver Folk Fest, photographed by Dasha Lushnikova

Elliott Brood, strapped into a banjo (the “it” instrument of 2011) and gave a rocking set.

Nomadic Caravan @ Vancouver Folk Fest, photographed by Dasha Lushnikova

And hey, you can’t help but feel the warmth in this photo of Nomadic Caravan. They have the sun contained in their costumes and smiles.

CR Avery @ Vancouver Folk Fest, photographed by Christopher Edmonstone

Vancouver’s own CR Avery brought along three back-up vocalists for his performance.

La-33 @ Vancouver Folk Fest, photographed by Christopher Edmonstone

They’re from Colombia!

Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band @ Vancouver Folk Fest, photographed by Christopher Edmonstone

Not just a singer/songwriter, and kneeling guitar-player, Ritter has also just published his first novel.

Beats Antique @ Vancouver Folk Fest, photographed by Christopher Edmonstone

They’re calling for more of the same this week, my soaked little bunnies: clouds, rain, and highs of 18.

So what do you do? You stay the heck inside and catch some of the fantastic shows coming to town that aren’t outdoor festivals!

All week long, Shawn will be reporting from the world’s biggest comic convention – the San Diego Comic-Con!

And here in Vancouver, we’re covering at least one show every night this week, and highly recommend you check them out: Memory Tapes @ Electric Owl, Katy Perry @ Rogers, Fucked Up @ Fortune, TV On The Radio @ Commodore, a HUGE Thursday (Cold Cave & Polaris Prize-nominated Austra @ Biltmore, Cults @ Venue, Thurston Moore & Kurt Vile @ Rickshaw), Les Savy Fav & Handsome Furs @ Commodore, Battles @ Rickshaw, Herbaliser @ Fortune on Sunday.

See you there, where it’s dry.