Latyrx (photo: Blake Morneau)
Nestled right in the heart of Victoria, BC, Rifflandia has grown into an epic beast of a festival, spanning three days and four nights during the second weekend of September, and attempting to cover seemingly every genre known to man. This genre-hopping is the modus operandi of many a festival these days, using catch-all approach to bring in the biggest audiences possible. It’s similar to Montgomery Burns’ patented Burns Omni-Net, pulling in everything around it and sweeping the audio sea clean. While these far-reaching sorts of lineups can be spotty at times, they can also produce spectacular moments of musical juxtaposition, with hip-hop, hard rock, folk, electronic and more standing beside each other in a celebration of music for music’s sake. Let me now walk you through some of the highlights of my own, slightly blurry Rifflandia celebration.
Airbourne (photo: Blake Morneau)
Airborne. These guys blew me away. I didn’t know anything about their stuff and I can’t say they’re a super original group. I mean, I feel like I’d heard all of their music before (I did actually know “Running Wild” from NHL ’09) and I’m pretty sure I had. Their sound was completely derivative of any number of late ‘70s hard rock bands (AC/DC being the most obvious influence), but it didn’t matter. The hard rocking Aussies had too much energy to be denied.
Le Butcherettes (photo: Blake Morneau)
At last year’s Rifflandia my mind was won over by Bosnian Rainbows’ frontperson and Rice and Bread favourite Teri Gender Bender and this year she stole my heart leading Le Butcherettes. At a moment when I was perhaps the only person in the photo pit not looking at her through a lens or screen, we locked eyes for 10 of the most intense seconds of my entire life. She stared into my soul, no doubt. Her eyes went big, her tongue came out and, just like that, she was back to slaying everyone in the crowd with her wholly unique and unbridled stage energy. I was rattled.
Latyrx (photo: Blake Morneau)
I thought that moment was going to haunt me both in waking life and in my dreams forever, but it was thankfully not to be, as I finally saw the mighty Latyrx and fulfilled a dream that’s endured for roughly 12 years. Lateef the Truth Speaker and Lyrics Born were downright dominant, running through new tracks and old, backed by a DJ and a drummer. Oddly enough, the newer tracks were the ones that hit me hardest, with “The Arrival” even bringing a few tears of joy to the old eye sockets. On a weekend that featured legends like Del the Funky Homosapien (great) and Kool Keith (solid), Latyrx more than held their own and delivered one of the most inspiring hip-hop sets I’ve seen in all my days.
Sims (photo: Blake Morneau)
Amongst these hip-hop titans were younger, less established acts like RatKing, a grimy hip-hop trio out of New York that demands attention. Get ready for these guys, they’re going to be around making hits a long time. And then there was Sims, from the mighty Doomtree collective out of Minnesota, delivered a blistering set of intelligent, classicist hip-hop that had everyone standing up to listen. Sims himself acknowledged as much, thanking the crowd for listening to someone they didn’t know anything about. He also delivered the quote of the weekend with the line “magic only happens all the time.” His set was a tremendous blast of positivity in a genre that seems to be sorely lacking it at times.
The final day was perhaps the most baffling as the festival organizers back-loaded the lineup with a near-full slate of EDM. Toronto’s Keys ‘N’ Krates delivered some of the most savage, listenable trap music I’ve heard in ages and were a pleasant surprise. Local heroes the Funk Hunters delivered their standard brand of mid-tempo, crowd-friendly EDM funk. It’s easily accessible stuff and perfect for large, unfamiliar audiences, much like Sunday’s headliner Girl Talk. It’s hard to go wrong closing your festival with Girl Talk’s ultra-pleasing parade of fan favourite tracks. It’s entry-level DJ music for those uninitiated in the vast world of electronic music and perfect for a crowd of thousands ready to end their weekend, even if many of them were too exhausted to dance.
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