Sled’s Secrets
How Sled Island benefits smaller bands
Nathan Ross
Staff Writer
Goose Hut was seeing sparse audiences on their tour until they hit the stage at Dicken's for Sled Island. Photo: Nathan Ross
One of the features Sled Island loves to advertise is the fact that over 200 bands play, and with good reason. This is Stampede for people who’d rather go to a show than a rodeo.
When Archers of Loaf, The Sadies, Shadowy Men on a Shadow Planet or Andrew W.K. play, people take note. Feist, The Hold Steady, Boris, and Thurston Moore are names that bring in an audience. Despite the rain, even local acts like The Dudes brought a crowd to Olympic Plaza during the festival.
People come to Calgary from all over, and while they may come for one of the aforementioned names, they end up sticking around for everyone in between.
Parlovr was one of the bands big enough to play the outdoor stage, and they were currently on tour with Hooded Fang (who were busy at that time playing Andrew W.K.’s giant party) and Goose Hut, a band currently getting their legs underneath them.
Alex Cooper, one of Parlovr’s founding members, was excited about how large of a crowd Goose Hut had got the night before Dicken’s.
He mentioned that while the three of them had been touring across North America, the crowds for Goose Hut had been ranging between sparse and minimal. However, they had the advantage that night of performing for a Sled crowd that didn’t want the live music to stop. As a result, the audience they got at Dicken’s had been the largest they’ve had all tour, and by a fair margin.
It took them a little bit to adjust to the screaming and the dancing, but both sides definitely came out of it for the better. It was apparent talking with Cooper that Parlovr felt that Sled Island gave Goose Hut the chance it deserved to play their hearts out, and the band took advantage of it.
For the past six years in which Sled Island has been around, it has helped smaller bands as a springboard from playing for their friends to playing to their fans.
Followers of BRAIDS will have noticed that this is the first time the band has not played the festival. Starting out still in high school as The Neighbourhood Council, the band is currently recording their second full-length album after a highly successful debut and tour last year, which included the previous Sled Island music festival.
Who knows who will be using Sled Island next as the step to make it big.
If you didn’t get to see the festival this year, make sure you don’t make the same mistake next year. You could be watching tomorrow’s biggest stars before anyone ever knew it.
