The Tall Pines music festival has continued its tradition of bringing big name Canadian bands to the little town of Gravenhurst, ON.
This year’s festival was held July 18 and 19 at Gull Lake Park in Gravenhurst, ON. It was the fourth year of the festival, which has been a big hit since its start in 2022. Tall Pines actually evolved from a free livestreaming festival called The Summer House Party which began during the Covid-19 lockdowns, bringing live performances from popular Canadian bands into people’s homes via the internet, for the first two years of the pandemic. The second Summer House Party festival was filmed in Algonquin Park, and the organizers loved the atmosphere so much, that when things opened back up and they were able to host an in-person event, they decided Muskoka was the perfect place for it.
I was able to score tickets for this year’s festival back in October of 2024, when it was announced that a concert would be held in neighbouring Bracebridge, ON, and anyone who bought a ticket for that show would get a free weekend pass to Tall Pines. We didn’t know which bands would be performing at the festival at that time, but it was a bit of a no-brainer to buy a $30 ticket to the small Bracebridge concert, to save the door price of $199 for a weekend full of music, regardless of who would be performing! Past years have brought a number of fun acts to the area, including Tokyo Police Club, K-OS, Bedouin Soundclash, I Mother Earth, and many, many more.
When this year’s lineup was announced, I was looking forward to seeing headliners Strumbellas, Choclair, and Moist, as well as Loviet, and Georgia Harmer. There were two stages setup this year – well three, if you include the Kids Zone, which offered periodic performances for youngsters to sing, dance and interact. The main stage was setup in the outfield of the park’s ball diamond, and another stage, dubbed the “Unplugged North” stage was a big stage over the water that the Town of Gravenhurst has been using for decades to host weekly “Music on the Barge” nights in the summer – which just made sense to make use of for this event.
I arrived Friday, just in time to catch Loviet’s set on the main stage, which I was looking forward to especially because I had missed her at Büddies Fest the weekend before. To be honest, I was expecting her sound to be a bit more punk rock than it was, given the festival she’d performed at the weekend before, but I wouldn’t really say she fit that genre specifically. Still, she delivered a high-energy performance, and is definitely a talented singer and performer, so lots of fun to watch, and great to see a girl taking charge of the stage the way she does.
After Loviet I caught Nixon Boyd of indie-rock band Hollerado performing on the Unplugged North stage (though he was, in fact, plugged in; it was a solo set played on an acoustic guitar). It was cool to catch a performer from a pretty successful band on the Gravenhurst barge, where I remember seeing, I think it was Eric Nagler, or some other famous children’s performer when I was a small child, and where my parents also used to catch shows, I believe, back in the ‘70’s. I’m pretty sure there are pictures of my sister and I, and our family friends, with balloons painted on our faces, and the barge stage in the background, from the time Nagler played, down in my dad’s basement.
I didn’t have plans to attend this festival with anyone per se, but knew that, being a local event, I would see people I knew there – as I had every year in the past. I had chatted about it beforehand with some friends, however, who fortunately agreed to let me crash their hang-outs throughout the weekend, which just made things even more fun. I mean, I would have been fine enough on my own, but good company always makes good times even better.
One of the friends (who I hadn’t mentioned I was going to) invited me to join them back at his place for some dinner before catching the Strumbellas, and I happily obliged. He lives within walking distance of the festival, and had already cooked a bunch of food, which he was so kind to share with me, so I got a great dinner and didn’t have to spend extra money at the festival. (I ended up buying a unique tye-dyed pair of black jean overalls, with roses on the pockets instead, because they were really cute, and I just couldn’t help myself. And with the money I’d saved on entry and now dinner, I didn’t feel too too guilty about it!)
I had been looking forward to catching Georgia Harmer, who I’d previously seen open for Dan Mangan at the Algonquin Theatre in Huntsville, ON, back in 2022. Harmer actually also opened the first ever Tall Pines festival in 2022 as well, so she was one of a few returning artists to perform at the event, also including Saturday night headliners Sloan. Harmer has a very sweet, soothing voice, and music to match, which just runs through the ears and into the brain like melted butter, and was a perfect fit for festival goers to take in at the barge stage overlooking Gull Lake. I ended up missing it, however, because of being at my friend’s for dinner, but I know those that caught her got a real treat that night.
After dinner we rushed back to catch most of the Strumbellas set. They’re a really fun group, but I have to say, I think violinist Isabel Ritchie kinda stole the show, as I’ve never seen a violin player perform like such a rock star before (even though I have seen the Strumbellas in concert before)! To be fair though, the whole band put on a great, lively set. They were a pleasure to watch, and definitely dialed in as a band. They of course played their hit Spirits, but also did a fantastic cover of the Paul McCartney and Wings’ classic, Band on the Run, with keyboardist David Ritter nailing the distinctive synthesizer bit in the intro, and the whole song coming together so well – it was just a captivating pleasure to witness.
After the Strumbellas, my friends and I hung around at the back/near the bar while the last band closed out the night. Little side story, but stay with me here; interestingly enough, one of the friend’s I was hanging out with and I have both met I Mother Earth bassist, Bruce Gordon, in different capacities. For me, it was a phone interview for a story I was writing, while my friend actually met him in person while biking in Toronto. Fast forward to Friday night, and that same friend tells me he had run into IME drummer, Christian Tanna, when I had separated from them to get closer to the stage during the Strumbellas set. I was a little bummed to have missed out, but was ready to move on with my life when that same friend and I both had to go to the washroom. On the way there, standing right in our path, was none other than Tanna himself, with his unmistakable long red dreads, taking in the show. Happy to have not missed the opportunity, I went over and said hello, and told him I was a fan. He was so polite, and introduced me to his wife and son, and even gave me a hug. I have to say both he and Gordon have been some of the nicest musicians I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.
After the show we headed back to my friend’s for a bit of a fire and some more socializing before heading home to catch some sleep and prepare for day two.
I arrived Saturday just before five, and caught Natasha Fisher performing on the main stage as I parked and walked past on my way to my friend’s. (I parked near the festival so I could leave things in my car and retrieve them if needed, rather than walk the couple blocks back to my friend’s). She sounded really fun, and was a great vocalist, with a very strong voice. I will definitely be checking out more of her stuff.
Back at my friend’s we had masterfully mixed margaritas, and some snacks before heading back to the festival to catch Choclair. There seemed to have been a bit of confusion with the set times, and when we heard Choclair’s set starting from my friend’s place, we hauled ass to get back in time to catch most of it at the stage. He performed Northern Touch just before we reached the gate, so a couple of us were dancing and singing along on the (closed) street, to the entertainment of a few people leaving the festival, before reaching the gate. We were able to catch a good portion of his set, which was very uplifting and fun, with the crowd demanding an encore despite there being more acts to come.
Following Choclair’s set we headed over to the barge to catch Jordan MacDonald of the band Texas King. I had never heard of him or his band before, but let me tell you, this man’s voice was so captivating I was immediately a fan, and couldn’t turn away. Although he wasn’t one of the performers I’d been looking forward to, I would say his performance was probably the highlight of the event for me. I’ve listened to Texas King since, and while they are good, there was something really special about this near-solo set (he was accompanied by another guitarist and back-up vocalist) that I won’t soon forget.
Next up was Sloan on the main stage, and with them came a little bit of rain. To be honest, I’m not the biggest Sloan fan, but I do know some of their songs, and I found myself singing, and even dancing along to some of their set. I’d bought a couple disposable ponchos (I know, bad for the environment, but I had them already from a previous event, and my actual rain jacket was locked in my office at work) that I could fit in my purse, and busted them out for myself and one of my friends who had come unprepared, and when it started raining we just embraced it and started dancing around in our ponchos while Sloan played. We caught the attention of one of the festival videographers who asked to capture a couple takes of us being dancing fools for his footage. We agreed and pretended to dance like no-one was watching while being filmed. It was an interesting reverse of roles for me, but I didn’t mind – I was having a great time. (My friend and I also decided to start a band, and even came up with a band and album name inspired by the night’s events.)
There was a slight gap between Sloan’s set and the final headliner, Moist, and the chips I’d had earlier weren’t quite cutting it for me, so I went and got some food from one of the food trucks on the ball diamond. I met a man in line who had come from the states to take it in and we had a nice conversation about how he and his friends were enjoying themselves, but left their chairs at the festival overnight, only to find they had been collected/claimed by someone else while they were gone. He was easy-going about it though. We also talked about music, of course, and he recommended I get my newly formed band on an NPR show in Detroit that features indie artists. I don’t know if they will still exist under Trump’s rule, unfortunately, but once we have some tunes together, I just might try.
Finally, headliners Moist came on, bringing their hits from the ‘90’s that everyone remembers, including Push and Silver. I always liked Moist, but my sister, more than myself, was a huge fan back in the day, so I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry she wasn’t there for the event. I do believe Moist’s biggest fan ever was in the crowd that night though, standing right beside us for a time, singing along to every word, and doing his best to get the crowd as pumped as he was to watch them perform. His enthusiasm was definitely contagious, and I was happy for him to be having the time of his life.
Mother Nature, however, decided it would be punny to bring on the worst of the rain while Moist performed. While a few people packed it in, the majority of the crowd stuck around despite the near torrential downpour. Lead singer David Usher, who said it had been the first time the band had performed after a three-year break, kept reassuring the crowd that as long as the fans were sticking it out, they would perform. They remained true to their word, though they had to pause for a moment to get the keyboards working again, and move things back to be better protected by the roof of the stage. Ultimately they kept going for most of their allotted time, only being cut-off by the sound guy in the midst of what became their final song due to lightning in the sky. There was only about ten minutes left in their set time anyway, so I don’t think any of the fans really felt robbed of the experience, but it was a quick end and exit to get everyone out of the park as quickly as possible once the lightning started.
And just like that, Tall Pines was done for another year, as was my run of back-to-back summer weekend music festivals. It’s always fun to take this one in so close to home, and you can bet I’ll be looking forward to who they bring to the area next year.
Lisa goes to shows 