In which our heroine and her supervillain spend their first full day in Harrison on beach exploration, music played and music watched, and lake wading! And in which De Temps Antan rocks the afternoon with sunglasses and a bouzouki that can goddamn roar!
Today was relaxed and groovy over all, and showed us what Harrison’s like once the festival here is in full swing. There were a whole lot of craft booths set up all along the stretch of beach, which made it look a lot like the Street Fair Dara and I go to every year in the University District. There were the expected hand-crafted pottery and jewelry and things on sale, as well as soaps and bath products and knitted things and other types of clothing. And art prints as well.
It wasn’t hard at all to find the place where De Temps Antan would be playing–because there was pretty much the one beach-side tent. And once we pegged where that place was going to be, we ambled further off down the beach to pick a place where we could hang out and just play for a while. Which was great fun. So was seeing the lake and all the surrounding peaks in bright sunlight, which made them look considerably different than they had in the evening–in no small part because I hadn’t realized that some of the surrounding peaks did in fact have snow on them!
Lunch was nommed (note: the bistro we went to had excellent and I do mean excellent strawberry, pecan, and asparagus salad), and by then we were both a bit loopy from sunshine, so we went back to the room to drop off the larger instruments. And when we came back out again to join the audience gathering for the band, we found Dejah! Who was in fact talking to Éric and Pierre-Luc of the band, and, amusingly, Dejah tried to introduce us. Dara and I got to say “actually, we found them last night!”
But at any rate, as the boys headed up to the stage to get their sound checks going, Dara and Dejah and I claimed seats on the grass up front, in the shade. Also amusingly, I briefly glimpsed a couple who included the lady I’d met at the Le Vent du Nord show in Victoria: Ginny! (If you’re reading this, Ginny, bonjour!)
It must also be noted that yes, indeed, Jean-Claude was on hand to enjoy the show! Although SOMEBODY decided to photobomb my effort to take a pic of myself and the mammoth.
Overall the show was really, really short. Which wasn’t surprising given that this was a set at a festival. But the boys were all lively and in excellent voice, and from our vantage point near the stage, we got a lovely view of all their sets. Dara sat up FAST as soon as Éric started sound-checking his bouzouki; I heard her breathe beside me, “What is THAT and where can I get one?”
(Because yeah. Dara’s Kohaku can roar, but that zouk Éric’s got? DAYEM. Yeah, sure, he’s got a pickup in it, but even given that, that thing outroars Kohaku. And Dara is NOT a timid player!)
Most of the songs were familiar as well from the first two DTA albums–I certainly recognized “Dominic à Marcel”, and I perked RIGHT up when André broke out “La Fée des Dents”. (And yeah well he DID tell the audience to sing along, which was kind of lollerskates given that this was an instrumental, but as I am in fact capable of following directions I happily whistled and sung my way through the tune with them. Including the bit of a harmony part I made up for the last couple of revs through. \0/)
Also highly entertaining: “Grand Amuseur de Filles”, which is a BIG big favorite of mine. As soon as Éric started belting that one out, your humble concert reporter might well possibly have squealed.
There was one set I did not recognize, which the boys introduced as being due to come out on their next album–which will be dropping in September, hurray! They made jokes about this one being the “diaper” set, given that they’re all fathers now. Only André called it the “dipper” set, and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t actually talking about the character from Gravity Falls. (Though thanks to that getting watched a lot in our house, I was totally over there thinking, “This is a FOUR DIPPER SET!”) It was, I believe, during that set where the boys invited us all to stand up and dance around.
So up we got and lo, La Danse, c’était verticale! I step-danced a bit, once I actually got into the rhythm of the set. And I swear part of it sounded a lot like “Sheepskin and Beeswax”, at least in terms of rhythm, but not quite. I’ll definitely have to listen for this one once the album drops.
They closed with “Pétipétan”, which I was really hoping for and so I was delighted when they started in on that one. Because it meant I could sing along. :D Lols as well for Pierre-Luc translating the title of that one to mean, in English, “Petipetan”.
I got quite a few pics of them via my phone, so here’s a sampling! The rest are over on my Flickr page right over here.
After that, my day’s agenda was pretty much done and dealt with. Dejah, Dara, and I all amused ourselves wading in the lake a bit (and HOLY HOPPING GODS the outer portion of the lake was COLD), but after that Dejah wandered off to hang out with the band (since she like, knows them and stuff), so Dara and I took our leave. The rest of the evening was spent on a bit more exploration, upon dinner at the German restaurant on the beach, and upon round two of hanging out playing music!
I’m a little chagrined that we’re apparently the only people who’ve shown up with instruments at all–but we have already been asked several times if we’re part of the festival. To which I’ve been telling people nah, we just brought our instruments so we could practice! And Dara and I did run into a gentleman who’s a guitar teacher and bass player, a guy from Alberta, and he and Dara geeked out a bit about studio equipment. Dara gave him his card. It was awesome. And HE told us there was a jam session tomorrow night at one of the nearby bars, so yay! Sunday evening agenda confirmed!
Stand by tomorrow though for Round 2 of De Temps Antan–in which, hopefully, they will unleash “La turlutte du rotoculteur”!
EDITING TO ADD 9/15/2020: I’ve moved all the pics from Harrison Hot Springs off of Flickr to be hosted on the same server as this blog now, so you can find the full set of the pics here!
Beautiful lake and mountains – certainly the right spot, and the right weather for a festival.
Yeah, very much so! The whole place is gorgeous. So many lovely surrounding hills and endless blue water. I got eight million lake shots but I feel every last one was worth it!