A warm Supercrawl warm-up

I spent my most recent Friday night in a motionless crowd, watching the sun set over a single stage. Last week, Pier 4 Park hosted a few big names for a small festival with Supercrawl’s name slapped on it. From 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., artists such as Jessy Lanza, Jamie XX, and Caribou played in Hamilton’s backyard.

Being so far north, I arrived later than I intended. By the time I got there, Lanza was finishing up her set – a set I missed, without feeling any dejection. Due to the strict schedule of the show, there wasn’t the usual anxiety about whether or not the last band would play before the last bus runs home. The choice of venue lent itself to an early closing,being a public, but also consequently, an early start on the various after-parties downtown.

After Lanza was Jamie XX, who spun a number of his older songs, crisscrossing them with various disco-esque records that made dancing a little too easy. Let me clarify that when I said that the crowd was motionless, I was excluding the few-and-far-between pockets of well-intentioned, arm-lifting, hip-swinging head-bobbers. The crowd was fairly spread apart, and only began the casual ebb and flow towards the stage when familiar songs dropped. Remixed versions of songs from Jamie XX’s most recent album, which dropped in May, made their way onto his set list, sending updated fans into the motion of the flow.

Following Jamie XX was Caribou. By the time they got onto the stage, it was dark outside, which lent itself to an enhanced light show and silhouettes. They made their way through old and new tracks, saving “Odessa” for last. Dan Snaith, Caribou front man, gave a solid kudos to his performance partners and stage-sharers, Supercrawl team, and audience, which inspired crowd members to cheer and mumble around me about the sincerity of Dan. Despite the venue not being necessarily intimate, with that cause and effect, I found myself appreciating a connection between performers and their audience that made that space a little warmer.

After Caribou’s encore, the park cleared out extremely quickly to make their way to the aforementioned after-parties. I went home to write this article.