Okay, I finally managed to unearth this video, recorded back in ye not-so-distant olden days where a hi-8 camera was actually about your best option. I happened to be driving home from a funeral with only a couple of hours to kill but felt some compelling need to swing through and film Comfest on this day. It kind of felt like providence and I couldn’t resist passing through.
Let me apologize in advance for the shaky camera work and manic zooms without warning, making this probably a document better listened to than viewed. Also, I would say the reason the footage is kind of distant and bad is because I was trying to find some sort of middle ground between getting good shots of the performers, without intruding upon the crowd. You were still very much considered some sort of weirdo at this point for walking around with a camera, and I didn’t want to creep anybody out. That’s just the climate of the time – and it’s interesting to note in retrospect that we are one week away from the iPhone’s debut, as of this Comfest date, an event which will change a great deal about these types of experiences.
A number of years ago, I dumped this down from tape to computer hard drive, yet haven’t been able to locate that footage for quite some time. Therefore recently repeated the process, during which time it’s obvious the tapes have degraded in some places. So there’s still hope of unearthing better copies in these patches which now have static lines.
Anyway, below are the performance clips I managed to capture, along with whatever limited commentary I can provide at the moment. I haven’t had a chance to match up who’s playing where on an events calendar, so your guess is as good as mine on most of this stuff. As always I hope to dig through my writings and then research a little bit and cobble together more information down the road.
This first group here is playing at that little stage near the corner of Goodale and Dennison. They’ve got a decent bar band boogie sound going, and it’s cool to hear that even the bass guitar came through fairly well on this camera. Plus the lead player is offering up some tasty licks:
If any of these performers ever stumble onto this site, they are surely going to despise my descriptions. But in my defense, I’m making due with limited information here. Anyway, this next act here, which performed on the central stage, kind of sounds in places like a Midwestern band going for an Oasis vibe – and this isn’t a bad thing! On the contrary, I think this is a pretty catchy song:
And this would be one of those fuzzy stretches of tape I alluded to, albeit fortunately one of the least essential patches. This car covered with trinkets is great, of course, but was here every year and might still be for all I know. In the background you can hear some reasonably compelling, female led (I think) rock band plying its wares:
Okay, at the tail end of this following clip, we have our first definitive evidence of a named musician: Megan Palmer is apparently the one lending an assist with vocals there on the far right. One thing that kind of drives me nuts at these festivals is that bands usually don’t name check themselves enough, or display any sort of banners or other promotional apparel. You can see the deleterious impact this wreaks, right here on these digital pages, although I expect to piece together who these musicians are eventually.
It’s kind of interesting that the background chatter happens to be louder on this cut. I was just thinking that, while compelling, this is singer-songwriter material better suited for chilling around the house. Therefore it’s probably not a coincidence the crowdspeak threatens to drown out the band. But I do really like the part – I think you might call it a bridge – in between the verse and the “who’s gonna love you?” section. Whoever this is, they’re playing at what is known as the gazebo stage:
This funky, Latin tinged jazz ensemble is probably my favorite act glimpsed on this glorious day. Even the footage is best at this point, capturing them at the corner of Park and Goodale, with the Greek Orthodox church an impressively picturesque backdrop. Near the end you spot the second person I’ve noticed so far with a cell phone, though still nobody else snapping pictures and certainly not sporting such a dorky appendage as a video camera:
Up next we have pretty much what the video description promises, a random, quiet stroll through the vendor section, then a quick dip out to High Street. Nothing of consequence happens here and you would certainly be forgiven for skipping it. Although I don’t even remember doing this and am now thinking some stills taken from here, particularly of the cap over 670, would make for nice pictures:
I feel as though I recognize this song, or at least the vocalist, but the footage is too murky to say for sure:
This forthcoming material is pretty much the exact opposite of that singer-songwriter clip from earlier – both in style and reception. Spoken word pieces I would almost never listen to just hanging out around the house, but find them really moving and powerful in person. This one is held at the back stage, and watching this makes me glad for a second reason beyond the performance itself. I’m reminded of seeing Jello Biafra rant on this very stage at a different Comfest, and it sure as hell seems like I caught that on video, too. So it’s possible that further treasures await, if I ever stumble upon the tape. For now, you should definitely dig this:
And here are another couple pieces of hers. Anyone know who this is? In the background you can hear some other band, too, presumably playing on the gazebo stage. There have to be other videos of this day out there, even in this predawn era of 2007, and it would be really fascinating to piece these all together somehow in Zapruder/JFK assassination fashion. For now I guess you’re subsisting on my cruddy footage.
As far as taking notes, about the only observation I’ve found thus far concerned the Cheater Slicks. About them, I had this to say, in my notebook:
Cheater Slicks are punkabilly for the most part – a trio – but the last song starts off as this slow rhythmic rumble then slowly speeds up while getting progressively more chaotic. Then some old guy meanders up and starts playing spoons into the microphone.
And then finally, to close out this piece in possibly gratuitous style, here’s this end footage selection of the drive away from the park. I’ve muted the unnecessary audio so historians can enjoy whatever limited scenery is available in this clip. It sure seems like by some miracle I was able to park right beside the, um, park, bringing the heavenly aura of this experience full circle.
