Barnside Festival in Delta, a Smash Success with The Trews, The Glorious Sons, Sam Roberts Band and more
When my three favourite bands are all playing at the same festival on the same weekend, come hell or high water you know I’m going to find a way to get there! So when Barnside announced a lineup this year of The Trews and The Glorious Sons on Friday night, and Sam Roberts Band on Saturday night, (along with other greats like The Matinee, Odds, Doc Walker and much more), I found myself doing a road trip to Delta for the experience of a life time.
Getting to Clarence Taylor Park from where I was staying in Pitt Meadows was a breeze, and with ample parking on site, and a ton of volunteers directing patrons in, traffic jams and stress were non-existent. The festival itself is entirely on grass which was flattened down and groomed – a welcome aspect due to the torrential rain that poured from the skies all afternoon and evening on Friday!
The Trews were up just as the sun was setting (between clouds and showers) and they never disappoint. From the first song they set a good pace for dancing and singing, performing not just the recognizable hits, but a few of the deeper cuts and a few from the vault. With Colin MacDonald’s vocals spot on, brother John-Angus MacDonald tore up the stage with a few well placed guitar solos which got the crowd even more fired up. Jack Syperek on the bass was the epitome of cool, and Jeff Heisholt on keyboards, and new guy Theo McKibbon on drums, the band has always been, and still is, a tight group.
Mid-set, despite the massive rain, the band took a walk-about with acoustic instruments into the crowd to perform Ishmael and Maggie, and the crowd joined in at the top of our lungs, “Oh my love I can’t stand to drink alone, I’ve been drinking too much I better go home.” Cheers from the crowd and the band found their way back to the stage, all of them soaking wet like us! It was pretty damn cool to have a band willing to endure the elements like us – brought them closer to us. Highway of Heroes also made the setlist with Colin MacDonald asking us to take out phones, ‘or lighters if it’s too wet for phones’ to light up the crowd. The set closed out to massive cheers – no encore as the evening was scheduled to end by 10pm, but enough time to stop and wave to the crowd before exiting side stage.
A quick turnover of gear by volunteers and road crew, and ready for The Glorious Sons! By then it was dark, and a bit windy, and the deluge continued, so much so that it was a risk to even pull out a phone to take a few shots. The Glorious Sons came out to massive cheers and started with a bang, and never let up for the entire night. Anyone who’s seen frontman Brett Emmons knows what a wild man he is on stage! Barefoot, standing on a speaker in the front, wet hair whipping behind him in the wind, he rocked the speaker back and forth as he sang, looking like some Norse God of Thunder. It was mesmerizing and epic! At one point, there was so much water on stage, Emmons slipped, got up laughing and then ‘fought’ the stage hand for the long handled squeegee brandishing it like some golden sceptre or medieval lance!
Along with Emmons (Jr’s) antics, brother Jay Emmons on guitar, Steve Kirstein on lead guitar, Josh Hewson on keys, Peter Van Helvoort on bass and Adam Paquette on drums kept the beat going and the show on track 🙂 Fan singalongs to songs like Mama, Everything is Alright, Amigo, Gordie were absolutely spontaneous which you could tell pleased the band to no end! Near the end of the show, Brett Emmons introduced the band one at a time, convincing them to come up to his mic and ‘yell’ like a rockstar. Hewson on keyboards was shy you could tell, but he held the note so incredibly long that the crowd cheered like crazy for him. When it was Peter Van Helvoort‘s turn, he leaned into the mic slowly, and “Happy birthday to you…..” and the crowd took off like a shot, “……happy birthday dear Brett.” to which Emmons Jr turned bright red, smiled in embarrassment and tried to take back the show! Priceless. The Glorious Sons brought The Trews (our pals) back on stage for a stirring rendition of SOS, with five guys all huddled around one mic stand while Brett and Colin MacDonald shared another, Brett nearly pulling Colin over in a massive arm around the neck hug. The show closed out with Brett doing an acoustic, Cellular, which he introduced as a song about his mom and dad, then the band came back for the crescendo. Nearly two hours of music from TGS and it was fantastic.
Back to the car to head home, soaked down to my ‘everything’ haha. I’ve only been that drenched twice in my life – once with Sam Roberts Band in Banff, and once with Sam Roberts Band at Wild Mountain Music Fest. Ironically, day two of Barnside Fest and Sam Roberts, saw the sun shining and higher temperatures! Wonderful warm breeze from the ocean (we’re right close to the Tsawwassen Ferry and close to the Richmond Airport).
Sam and band came on a bit later than expected but we were primed and ready. I can honestly say I danced from the first song to the last (a marathon test of endurance!), and the songs were a mix of old favourites, radio hits, a sprinkling from the band’s newest album, Adventures of Ben Blank. They played some of my all time favourites including Metal Skin (such a joy filled song!), Uprising Down Under (my heart), Hard Road (still my #1 song), and Them Kids – and guitarist Dave Nugent’s young niece and her friends were hiding side stage watching. The crowd up front could see them through the curtain, and Roberts saw them, went over whispered to Nugent and between the band, and the crowd, we coaxed them out into the stage where they danced with Nugent during the chorus. Solid effort and the crowd cheered them until they shyly handed back the tambourine and maracas to keyboardist Eric Fares before exiting the stage. Roberts took a moment to mention seeing so many young kids in the crowd, thanking the parents for carrying on the rock and roll tradition.
A recognizable opening drum beat by Josh Trager, and Brother Down hit the set, with Roberts ditching the guitar to dance, and while the band played, he jumped down to the front rail, slapping and shaking hands all the way along, turning at the end to do the same all the way to the other end, even standing on the rail at one point to lean into rows 2, 3, and 4 to connect with fans. Back on stage, a few more songs and then the encore with an incredibly moving and spontaneous rendition of Mind Flood and that beautiful driving bass line from James Hall. Roberts has told me in the past that the better the crowd was, the more it allows the entire band to ‘noodle’ during Mind Flood…. we had an epic 12-15 minutes of sheer musicianship and jamming from the band. Loved every minute of it.
All in all, the weekend was not only a smash success for Barnside Festival, but an experience of a lifetime for myself (and I’m sure many others). Beautiful venue, super organized and clean, reasonable pricing for entry and eats, and top notch bands. Family friendly, the folks at Barnside are like seasoned pros despite it being only their second year! We Will Be Back!
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photos courtesy of Barnside Festival and Sam Roberts Band