Jon and Roy

Main Stage, Guelph ON, July 27

Photo: Atsuko Kobasigawa

BY Matthew RitchiePublished Jul 28, 2014

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Blame it on the stage's previous performer Kim Churchill's monstrous musicianship and bone-rattling beats, but Victoria folk trio Jon and Roy fell a little flat while performing a mid-day set on Hillside's main stage.

Stepping onto the stage amidst subtle sunlight and a few straggling families resting on the festival grounds, the band obviously tried their damnedest to keep the crowd interested, but with an entire catalogue made up of melancholy acoustic music — not to mention the visual chasm between each performer on such a large stage — the band looked a little lost at sea as they tried to peddle their soft folk-pop.

That's not to say the band didn't perform well. Melancholy bummer ballads like "Every Night" sounded great with powerful amplifiers boosting the band's bass, as did "Mountain Town," with its coffeehouse drum progression pushing Jon Middleton's lackadaisical strums along. But when the band decided to finish their set with "Let It Go," a track Middleton ironically described as being a "slow jam" (Note: they all sound like slow jams) despite the track being one of their more upbeat ones, their ending felt like more of a whimper than a bang, which was only compounded by the crowd's calm demeanour.

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