Highlights from Saskatoon’s MoSo Festival

Words and photos by Jane Caulfield

It’s not like Saskatoon’s MoSo Festival is doing something brand new in the Canadian music scene. Festivals like this have been happening in some of the country’s largest urban centres for years. But for this prairie city with a reputation for being boring, MoSo Fest is out to show the country Saskatoon ain’t no bumpkin town.

The festival (which is paired with a two day conference on MO-bile technology and SO-cial media…get it? MoSo?) runs over three days and features more than 70 bands playing in seven venues found in the Broadway Avenue area – the city’s unofficial hipster neighbourhood.

Add a few secret parties, surprise guest appearances, and about 50 cm of rain and you’ve got a good ol’ prairie musical adventure.

Here are four highlights from MoSo, in chronological order.

Ben Caplan

When Ben Caplan finished his first song, he looked out at the crowd at Amigos Cantina through his thick rimmed glasses and joked about how that was the first song he’s ever played in Saskatoon. The crowd laughed and cheered and moved a little closer to the stage.

Mixing his unique rip-roaring piano tunes with a few of his Tom Waits-esque guitar songs he managed to grab the attention of what could be a fairly discerning crowd. The aptly timed jokes about Calgary and Regina playing on all the western competition stereotypes, didn’t hurt either.

What impressed me most was that Caplan got the audience to participate in his songs three times in his half hour set.

Close Talker

These Saskatoon local kids haven’t been playing together for a year, but damn son, their performance was so tight you’d never know they are fairly new to the scene.

Playing songs from their debut album, Timbers, they knew how to create a set list that would get people moving from the moment the first chord was struck. Starting off the set with their tune “Bonfire” they got the folks on the floor getting their shuffle on and when they played the upbeat tune “The West Was Won” everything became a full-blown dance party

If you haven’t checked Close Talker out, I strongly suggest you do. You won’t be disappointed. I promise.

Rosie and the Riveters

The three gals of Rosie and the Riveters channel an old Louisiana bluegrass sound – and with retro hairdos and outfits, their set was a really uplifting way to start off a night of venue hopping. But what really blew my mind was that the majority of their set was done a cappella.

Weaving together intricate harmonies, this trio of ladies knew how to tell a story through song adding only the right amount of emotion to each note and word. But knowing that a performance is a package deal they also showed the audience that they have fun with what they do by adding a little bit of theatrics (just enough, actually. Anymore would have been mildly awkward) into the set helping to shape the story being told through their songs. They even turned a plug for their merch into a 1950s sounding TV commercial.

John K. Samson

John K Samson has been in many bands and has been playing music for a long, long time. And with every musical incarnation he has lived through, he has performed at least once in Saskatoon. Needless to say, he’s acquired some diehard fans here on the prairies. And most of those diehards were out. Singing along to every tune.

The interesting thing about Samson’s performance is that while he is on tour promoting his latest solo album Provincial, he didn’t shy away from mixing in some songs from The Weakerthans discography.

Things I learned at this show:

• “Heart of the Continent” from his solo album is a sequel to Weakerthans track “One Great City.”
• Samson is married to Christine Fellows and besties with Shotgun Jimmie. Both performed with him.
• Samson likes to honour the life of his favourite now deceased goalie “Gump” Worsley with a toast (Factoid: Samson had no beer of his own so he borrowed Aaron Karpinka’s, one half of the local band the Karpinka Brothers, who are the nicest guys on the Canadian music scene. Ever. Seriously. You can look it up on the Internet.)