Dog Day Afternoon

The weather was appropriately scorching as hundreds of festival-goers packed into historic Fort York for the first annual Dog Day Afternoon. The cloudless day kicked off with strong performances by Montreal three-piece Land of Talk and Halifax’s Wintersleep, who took advantage by stretching out their bright trad-rock material into expansive stoner jams. Next, Toronto blip-hoppers Holy Fuck took the stage, waking up sunbathers with a ridiculously ass-shaking instrumental set of electro-pop. Boasting an infectious sound that is as primitive as it is prescient, Holy Fuck hit the stage with the explosive "Casio Bossa Nova” before settling back into a slow burn of roiling keyboards and head-bobbing funk that was one of the highlights of the day. It proved to be a tough act to follow for Electric Six, who just couldn’t connect with the crowd. The veteran Detroit five-some pounded out an unvarying set of juvenile, guitar solo-laden "let’s party” frat music before finally capitulating to crowd demands and spitting out minor hit "Gay Bar” — which, it turns out, really isn’t that good a song if you can tell the band hates playing it. Next up were NYC’s Secret Machines, who graciously took things down a step with a hypnotic set of breathy piano rock off their new album, Ten Silver Drops, letting the crowd retire to a cool patch of grass and conserve their energy for the Fiery Furnaces. For someone who always had the prolific brother-sister duo pegged as annoyingly experimental and inconsistent, the Fiery Furnaces put on an incredible rock’n’roll show, translating the oddball time changes and quirky poetry of Blueberry Boat and Rehearsing My Choir into an shockingly fun Zappa-esque rock set that was the evening’s most pleasant surprise. Not to be outdone, Metric took the stage to a jet-engine cacophony of preteen screams that didn’t let up until their final note faded out just before midnight. This was their party all the way and singer Emily Haines worked the crowd into a frenzy with her herky-jerky stage presence and sweet yet caustic vocals. Drawing material from all three albums but focusing mostly on 2001’s Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, Metric took the festival home with an outstanding set featuring the hopelessly catchy disco-pop of "Succexy” and Live It Out’s "Poster of a Girl” that left the sunburnt throngs worn out and satisfied by a full day of rock as they shuffled off to catch the streetcar.