The Vertigo Music Festival was an electric showcase of local musical talent, highlighting the importance of community in these dire days of political division.
Sunlight streamed through the windows of Isaac’s Bar & Grill as I walked into “Niagara’s dizziest music festival” on Saturday, March 15. The mid-day light seemed strange considering I’d come for the main stage punk rock show, but with 13 bands promised to populate the festival, it made sense.
Vendor tables lined the perimeter of the familiar setting, with the same stage I’ve sung karaoke on kitted out with a drum set, guitars and other technical gear. Isaac’s was in no way transformed, but that’s just a staple of how versatile it is as a venue (something I hope continues to be true after the incoming renovations).
As expected, the pub was fairly sparse at the beginning of the day, but a decent crowd gathered for the opening act, Maggot Pizza, whose contagiously silly energy inspired patrons to dance and flail to the aliens’ “wacky grooves.” The arrival of the green and fishy alien Zorb on the drums was the set’s most memorable moment.
Former Brock student Lydia Stephen launched into her lyrical, acoustic set in the Skybar the moment Maggot Pizza finished, setting up the rapid pace of the Vertigo Festival, in which a band was always playing, whether on the main stage or the side stage. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a ticket to the side stage, but Stephen’s music floated throughout the entire venue, letting me vibe along.
This transition introduced a problem, though: the rapid pace meant the next main stage band, JULES IS DEAD, had to test their instruments during Stephen’s set. These tests were loud, and while I’m not sure if Stephen or any other side- stage performer could hear them, her ability to keep playing unaffected was certainly commendable.
JULES IS DEAD followed Stephen with a main stage performance chock-full of catchy instrumentals, pop-influenced riffs and shredding vocals. Jules was an incredibly honest lead performer, even admitting to the crowd that they hadn’t played live in some time and was nervous. But JULES IS DEAD lit up the venue, getting the crowd to participate and mosh to released and unreleased songs like “Jason Hate Club,” “Eternally (undeath)” and “Blood Back.”
At only 18 years old with only singles released for streaming, JULES IS DEAD is certainly a band to watch, having the potential to go a long way in coming years.
Soft Animals was next on the side stage, combining gentle rock and almost psychedelic sounds to grace the ears of all in attendance.
By 5 p.m., when the beach-bum-esque Sun Junkies took the stage, I expected a bigger crowd to have formed. This was not the case; however, the four-piece band infused the room with their intoxicating, contagious energy, stringing the crowd along by alternating between punk rock, fun-infused tunes and slow, melancholic ballads. The Sun Junkies’ set felt like a breath of fresh air, and when they ended, I was left eager for more.
Velvet Beach was one of the side-stage bands I really wish I could have seen up close. Like Soft Animals, their sound incorporated some psychedelic riffs and ambience, but Velvet Beach kept a steady, upbeat tempo that made me want to move even from the main floor of Isaac’s.
Unfortunately, I needed to eat dinner partway through the festival, and as such missed the second half of Sunshine Express’ (S.EX) set. They were certainly the most visually striking band of the night, bringing their own colourful lights to make S.EX as much an optical experience as an aural one. The music wasn’t my personal favourite, but with samples from “The Imperial March,” auto-tuned vocals and other ambient sounds, Sunshine Express was certainly one of the most unique bands of the night.
I similarly missed the first half of local pop-rock-alternative-jazz artist Sophi’s set, but the country-pop blend of her voice and sound made me think of Shania Twain or Carrie Underwood, and the songs had everyone’s heads bouncing.
Next up was DEAR-GOD, an industrial and hardcore punk rapper whose music I was more acquainted with before the show. Unfortunately, lead performer Robert Ortiz didn’t seem particularly enthusiastic about the smaller, seemingly uncertain crowd, repeatedly telling us to get moving and start dancing. I have never been a fan of this method of trying to rile up a crowd, and frankly, it was a little awkward. Still, Ortiz soldiered through, jumping around the stage with unabashed confidence to make a commendable performance that (mostly) won over the crowd when all was said and done.
Lauren Dillen was the first performance of the night to go longer than 30 minutes, shifting the tone from hardcore punk to mellow folk music. It somewhat dropped the mood in Isaac’s, where more people had trickled in for The Dirty Nil, but it certainly made for a dizzying experience, as promised.
Much to my surprise, the crowd was still relatively scant by the time the penultimate main stage performer Cam Kahin fired up his set, blending raucous punk riffs and sombre lyrical tunes much like the Sun Junkies had done. In fact, making the similarity even more striking was when one of Kahin’s guitar strings snapped mid-song, and the Sun Junkies’ lead performer had to run upstairs to grab his guitar. The debacle paused the set for a moment, but Kahin came back with the same force as before, thrashing around the stage and even jumping into the mosh pit during one of his more aggressive songs.
Minuscule was the final side-stage performer of the night, and for good reason. Bringing a whole host of genres to the table, with alternative, country, jazz and rock influences framing their set, the prog-folk/femme-pop collective kept the energy in the venue high while introducing us to a new type of music.
As Minuscule played and the clock ticked down to the arrival of The Dirty Nil, I expectantly looked to the entrance for the flood of people coming for the headliners. But there was none. Despite having a capacity of 600 people, I would say by the end of the night, only 200 people (at most) were present.
And that’s a mighty shame because The Dirty Nil came ready to rock.
Or maybe that’s not quite the right way to describe it. When the three-piece band took the stage and played their first few songs, it was obvious these guys were who the crowd had been waiting for. People thrashed and sang their lungs out, and the smaller gathering made for an intensely intimate experience.
But lead performer Luke Bentham and bassist Sam Tomlinson were frank with us: they’d just come off a three-month, 37-show, cross-country tour in the United States, and they were tired. Bentham was visibly ill, coughing like a dying man between songs as his bandmates laughed, and admitting that he had an ungodly amount of cold medicine flowing through his veins.
In other circumstances, this might have taken away from the performance, but The Dirty Nil, originally from Dundas, Ontario, kept telling us how good it was to be back in Canada, back home, especially given the political climate in the States. The tone of the performance was community and care as they told us to look out for one another and help each other in times of need. Perhaps this is just my nationalism speaking, but despite the smaller crowd and Bentham’s illness, The Dirty Nil seemed re-animated by their Canadian fans at the Vertigo Music Festival, and as such, their performance was electric and unforgettable.
The band’s recent announcement that Tomlinson is stepping back from the band to pursue other projects, meaning the Vertigo Festival was his last show, makes the moment even more poignant in retrospect.
Playing songs mostly from their last three albums, The Dirty Nil expertly guided the audience between high-energy thrashing and slow swaying as we sang the lyrics back to them. The band played a few new songs as well, including “I Hate the Internet” and the unreleased “Spider Dream.”
The Dirty Nil are the crowning jewels of Canada’s contemporary punk rock scene, and it was a thrill and an honour to see them in such an intimate setting.
Indeed, intimacy seemed to be a theme throughout the night. It was truly something special to see JULES IS DEAD standing in front of the stage for Cam Kahin’s set, their body swaying to the hardest of beats. The Sun Junkies moshed in the pit with the rest of us during The Dirty Nil’s set, and Maggot Pizza stuck around for the whole day, making regular appearances around the venue.
I even shook hands with The Dirty Nil drummer Kyle Fisher after the show was over.
The Vertigo Music Festival may not have been the most crowded event, and maybe the festival aspects like the vendors would have been better utilized by an outdoor concert, but it was a glowing reminder of humanity and community. Even rock stars are just people; people who can love a country and mosh with the rest of us.