All that's well ends well.

The Murdered City Music Festival ended its fourth year with a day full of relaxation, music & river songs. It all began in the afternoon as the fair number of people walked down to the river and sat around to hear a local act called The Dead Love Triangles and Jenny Omnichord (Jenny from The Barmitzvah Brothers). She sung songs about birthdays while her feet were soaked in the river and a crest saying "Jenny Omnichord" was across her chest.

When the sun began to set and the lampposts became alit, Ohbijou began their set to a fairly older crowd. Opening with a comforting song, the band roused up with a lovely collective of beautiful harmonies which the locals swaying. Almost (if not all) of the songs played will be on Ohbijou's upcoming record. The band are having a cd release party at The Drake Underground with The Acorn & The Phonemes on Sept. 1st.

Jon-Rae Fletcher came down with Paul Mortimer to perform as a small version of The River. Because of this, Jon-Rae put together a set-list with some old songs and mostly new songs. He opened the set with 'Fourteen Years' and ended off with 'Home Land' and 'Two Hands'. Folks gathered around and clapped along to everything, especially for 'Two Hands'. Many would agree that seeing the entire River play along would have been ideal, but hearing old favourites and enjoying new (soon-to-be favourites) with Jon-Rae powering past the Ford Plant faithful with his vocals is enough to keep anyone smiling.
Jon-Rae & The River's new record, 'Knows What You Need' is now out on LP. The CD version comes out in the Fall on Baudelaire Records.

Photos:
here (day)
here (night)

Andre Ethier played a fairly short but simple set with a slightly larger-than-normal Ukulele (or mini-guitar). Performing songs from his own song pile, Ethier sung with his mouth attached to mic whilst plucking through this mini-guitar. Keeping his head tilted toward the ground for practically all of the set, Ethier kept things simple with songs about New York City and such. His material, coming from 'Secondathallam', is out on Paper Bag Records now.

The major act of the festival (open for debate, so hold onto your suspenders) was The Sadies. Packed with gear-galore and so much talent that their van and hitch couldn't even contain them, The Sadies played a fantastic set full of great foot-stompin' tunes. Going back to the fairly-older crowd, the lot of them were dancing in circles, clapping hands and moving about for the bluesy rock. The band could have played all night, especially since the dance party in the back wasn't going to stop any time soon. The Sadies are releasing a live record entitled 'The Saides In Concert' where they performed with an endless sleuth of fantastic Country/Blues/Roots/Folk performers at LEEs Palace. It comes out tomorrow.

Overall, Murdered City was a great success. A great selection of bands 'n performers, a great bunch of people (from close and afar), and a never-ending love for music gave the festival the live it will need to come back again next year for a 5th time.

For anyone who's wondering: Hidden Cameras' front man Joel Gibb asked a question to the audience after a song. He said, "So what's this 'murdered city' all about? What is it?" The locals pointed to what was behind him and said, "Look out the window." When he turned around briefly, he saw a bunch of old Brantford buildings on one of the towns oldest streets, closed and covered up - most of them with "For Lease" signs in the windows. To the locals, it looks like the city has been murdered and left for dead. However, at the corner of King and Colborne streets, there's a lot of life and love in a small room that can hold so much of everything wonderful.