A final report from Ottawa CityFolk Festival with Milky Chance, Half Moon Run, Jamie Fine, and Alana Sterling

[Ross MacDonald was out there again. Everyone say, “Thank you, Ross!” – AC]

The first artist of the evening was Ottawa’s own Alanna Sterling (who local alt-rock radio station LiVE 885 often compares musically to Amy Winehouse). Alanna opened with their set by reading a poem about struggles and healing, things that almost everyone can relate to.

Alanna is fresh off a residency in Paris, France where they spent four weeks performing for the athletes at the Olympics and Paralympics. Their set was upbeat, but the lyrics contain deep messages.

Alanna opened with ‘Alien’ that starts off rather whimsically about flying in a UFO, but then includes the lyrics “I lie awake and I can’t shake these thoughts that creep into my mind.”

It is refreshing, and sobering, to see an artist performing their craft with such emotion. It was a relatively intimate setting on the side stage, just Alanna and her electronic piano.

Alanna closed with her big hit song that gets a lot of local airplay ‘Monsters Under My Bed’. Alanna invited a young girl up on stage. The girl borrowed a bubble gun and added to the vibe by blowing bubbles throughout the song.

The first artist to perform on the main stage was another Ottawa native, up-and-coming hip-hop sensation Jamie Fine. As the sun was setting, the crowd was building, and Jamie came out on stage with her guitarist Matt and drummer Darius.

Jamie’s music has an upbeat funk, perhaps she listened to a lot of Red Hot Chili Peppers growing up. And apparently Jamie Fine’s concerts require a fair bit of audience participation. On the second song she had the audience “move to the right… now move to the left”. Back and forth everyone moved, following along to Jamie.

And between songs, as Jamie was chatting with some audience members, she found out it was a fan’s birthday. So everyone joined along as Jamie sang happy birthday to Eloise. As Jamie introduced the next song, she mentioned that it is currently #9 on top 40 and then started into this new hit song ‘you’re like’: “you’re like a breath of fresh air on a summer night.”

Jamie mentioned that most artists offer platitudes about how happy they are to play in [insert current city here]. But Jamie was genuinely thrilled to be back home, making mention of numerous friends and local haunts. Jamie’s last song ‘For You’, and she said “I wrote this song for my girlfriend, but tonight I am dedicating it to my brother and his fiancée who are here”. And fittingly it had the lyrics “This whole time I was waiting for you.”

The crowd continued to build and was at full strength as the sun set and Montreal-based band Half Moon Run came out on stage.

It was fitting that the sun was down because Half Moon Run had a beautiful stage setup with smoke and interesting lighting effects. They also had three violinists and a cello player for several songs.

The last time Half Moon Run played at the CityFolk festival was in 2001 and it was pouring rain. But not this year, the skies were clear and unseasonably warm. The band has no bass, so the mic on the kick drum was turned up, as well as some keyboard effects from Dylan.

Conner kept the guitar tech busy with all the guitar changes, even mid-song. And he wasn’t standing still for long. At one point he performed a small solo with Jazzmaster, then over to the keyboards to carry on with some new tones.

Lead singer Devon is from Ottawa and he mentioned that his nephew Roland was up front singing along with the crowd. And Devon added “Thank you so much for singing so beautifully. It’s great to be home!”

Fittingly the moon rose just as the band started playing, and as it rose higher in the sky it was visible to all and Devon made note. It was not quite a “half-moon”, it was almost full, but fitting nonetheless. And behind the band was a video backdrop of moon phases.

The band’s final song involved a crowd sing-along to the chorus of their 2012 breakthrough hit ‘Full Circle’. The reception from the crowd, and all the Half Moon Run merch indicated that the audience was there just as much for HMR as the headliner.

With headliner Milky Chance the Saturday festival lineup was on the lighter, more upbeat side of alt-rock. But absolutely nobody in the crowd was complaining, all the day’s artists fit together perfectly (kudos to the festival organizers).

Milky Chance started off with ‘Synchronise’, an upbeat and positive love song. With this fast start, the band had the crowd on their side immediately. The band was moving about, particularly Clemens and guitarist/keyboardist Antonio. All the while the video screen backlighting the band flashed psychedelic imagery.

Clemens described ‘Living In A Haze’ as: “This song is about letting go and just dancing”, obviously something the band loves to do. Clemens is like a squirrel on Red Bull, he can’t stand still. Even when singing behind his mic he is swaying back and forth. At the end Clemens added: “You guys are incredible, I love your energy!“

A little later Clemens introduced the song ‘Loveland’. “We dedicate this song to you because without you we wouldn’t be able to do this, do what we love for the past ten years. Thank you!” The song included a harmonica solo by Antonio.

A couple of songs later Clemens talked about their newest hit ‘Naked And Alive’: “This next song is our latest single. It is about self-love and self-acceptance.”

Afterwards Clemens addressed the crowd again: “We came all the way from Berlin. There are a lot of dance clubs. It is a very vibrant multicultural place. There is a place for everyone.” Then Milky Chance broke into a cover of ‘Tainted Love’. But unlike most of their set, this cover was very deep, with a slower and deliberate tempo. It had low thumping bass and drums; the rhythm section took over in the song.

The next song included a changeup of instruments. Clemens went up on the drum riser alongside Sebastian, Philipp moved over to the keyboards, and Antonio took his place on bass. The song was ‘Fado’, which is the word for traditional Portuguese folk music. Yes, Milky Chance is a very multicultural band.

The band then covered another 1980s new-wave classic ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me’. Then the set finished up with a few more fast-movers, culminating in their breakthrough hit single ‘Stolen Dance’, which has a more moderate beat, but still bouncy. There is a good reason that the song was number one across Europe, people want to “boogie all night long”.

After a brief break the band came back for an encore starting with 2021’s big hit ‘Colorado’. A question one could easily ponder after such an upbeat concert: could Milky Chance be gen-z’s version of New Order?

Half Moon Run
Devon Portielje – lead vocals, guitar, percussion, ukulele
Conner Molander – guitars, backing vocals, keyboards, percussion
Dylan Phillips – drums, backing vocals, percussion, keyboards

Milky Chance
Clemens Rehbein – lead vocals, guitar, percussion
Philipp Dausch – bass, vocals, keyboards
Antonio Greger – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals, bass, harmonica
Sebastian Schmidt – drums, percussion