The heat wave is over and pumpkin spice lattes are flowing, so you know for music fans in the city, it can only mean one thing: CityFolk.
As usual, we’ll have you covered throughout the festival with daily previews to get you geared up for that day’s lineup at Lansdowne, and then a slew of pictures the next day to help you relive the experience—or give you a bad case of FOMO. Fair warning.
Day 1: Wednesday, September 13
Kicking off the five-day festival, Wednesday’s lineup may be small with only three artists, but makes up for it (and then some) with intensity, as electro-soul collective Busty and the Bass will bat leadoff, with punk’s past and future taking up the two stages to close out the evening with a bang (or more aptly, a Pop).
Unlike previous editions, this year’s CityFolk will feature two outdoor stages rather than make use of the Aberdeen Pavilion. Instead, the ‘Courtside’ stage sits just east of the pavilion (towards the canal), so fans can expect the secondary stage to be less cramped, but more weather dependent.
TD Stage:
7:30pm: Busty and the Bass
9:00pm: Iggy Pop
In a somewhat odd twist, festival organizers decided to put Montreal’s Busty and the Bass as the opener rather than put both punk bands on the same stage. Then again, it may be more prudent to ease fans back into festivalgoing, by experiencing the eclectic mix of soul, jazz and funk of the multi-instrument, multi-vocalist group. With a repertoire that includes chill, swing, and everything in between, they should help the crowd shake off the rust a bit more gently.
That rust better be gone by the time headliner Iggy Pop takes the stage. The mere fact the Godfather of Punk is still with us, let alone touring at 76, defies logic given how intense his shows (and life) were in the early part of his career. Over the 55 years he has been performing—first as part of The Stooges, and then solo—the groundbreaking rocker helped create the punk sound, and saw the rise, fall, rebirth, and splintering of the genre into the myriad of sub-genres that exist today. And even now, he continues to release albums of new material, and collaborate with the new generations of artists he’s helped inspire, such as Måneskin.
While the legend will harken back across his entire discography, from seminal proto-punk hits “I Wanna Be Your Dog” and “Search and Destroy” from The Stooges, to his ’70s Bowie era hits “Lust for Life” and “Passenger”, or his later hits, such as “Real Wild Child” and “Candy”, whatever Iggy Pop performs, he’ll bring all the attitude fans expect, and then some. Iggy Pop continues to embody the stark candidness of his Raw Power years, still just as raw, and still just as powerful.
Courtside Stage:
8:00pm: NOBRO
While the Godfather of Punk performs on the TD Stage, NOBRO will be representing the new generation of punks on the Courtside Stage. Having already played inside TD Place opening for Billy Talent and Rise Against, and then playing their own headline show at Club SAW, the all-girl quartet from Montreal have been winning over fans with each show thanks to their high energy set of catchy punk songs, such as their latest single, “Let’s Do Drugs”, which they wrote and debuted at that Club SAW show. Reminiscent of a slower tempo Ramones’ “Sniff Some Glue” with the same irreverent sneer over punk riffs and catchy hooks, the follow-up to their incredibly fun 2022 EP Live Your Truth Shred Some Gnar is hopefully a harbinger of a new album to come soon.
Keep checking apt613.ca and our social media feeds for more previews and photos throughout the festival!
.gif)
