Some tent in the festival campground, staying up all night and missing the music the next day; some come exclusively to hear their favourite artist sing that one song they just can't get enough of. There are a few ways to enjoy Winnipeg Folk Fest, so long as you keep hydrated (alcohol does not, in fact, count) and keep to the shade when you can.
Even so, Ottawa-raised, Winnipeg-based songwriter Leith Ross's set was packed despite the lack of trees around the stage and the crushing sun beaming overhead. Song titles like "I Just Don't Think That You Like Me That Much Anymore," "We'll Never Have Sex," "Too Much Time In My House Alone" and "Everything Ends," to name a few, are mere glimpses into the debilitating melancholy found in Ross's songwriting.
Many people (including myself) were excited about this set and eagerly awaited Ross' heartfelt tunes. With a full band behind them you would hope Ross would use the surrounding talent to bring a bit of liveliness to the songs, but sadly, the tracks sounded exactly as you'd expect.
Now, not everything needs to be revolutionary. There is great comfort in getting exactly what you've heard before. Still, if the energy of every song is played the same, built with similar chord progressions and written with lyrics too vague to be intimately confessional and too secretly timid to be universal, something starts to feel empty. Their set was stalled due to a sudden and surprising lightning warning, and it was hard to blame the audience members who didn't stick around for the show to restart.