Vance Joy, Basia Bulat, Marlon Williams, Julia Jacklin, New Pornographers at CityFolk – Day 3

Vancouver’s The New Pornographers opened their set on Saturday with an energetic performance of Bill Bruisers in the rain. The weather may have brought out less of a crowd but those who were in attendance were clearly enjoying every minute of it. The indie-rock group themselves also seemed to be enjoying the rain, performing an eclectic mix of songs from their various albums and concluding with The Bleeding Heart Show.

I can’t find the words to explain how happy I was to have stumbled upon Julia Jacklin’s performance. The Australian singer-songwriter started her show with just a guitar and her voice, bringing the crowd to a state of instant relaxation. Looking around I could see she had, quite literally sung a few individuals to sleep. Her angelic voice filled the indoor venue of the BMO stage, and her humble personality floated through the crowd. She later brought out some band members to help her perform the rest of her tracks with more of a put together folk performance. You couldn’t help but to close your eyes and enjoy the soothing sounds songs like Leadlight and Pool Party.

I’ve seen Basia Bulat play a handful of shows, and each time she always brings out a gracefulness in her performance. Saturday afternoon it was the subtlety in her request to ask the audience to dance in the rain with her. I always enjoy her performance of It Can’t Be You, her voice able to dance around the notes and reach higher than you thought possible. Seemingly feeling every note through her body, it was clear how much she enjoyed performing her indie-folk sounds.

New Zealand’s Marlon Williams hit the BMO stage in the afternoon, giving everyone a little break from the rain. From the first song, I took away so many interesting characteristics from his musical styling. Distorted folk elements in the strings mixed with his rich and timeless voice had me hanging on every word he sung. The performance had a wonderfully eerie quality to it, especially in the tracks Arahura and Strange Things. An overall amazing performance that left me excited to hear more from this artist.

Closing off a very rainy day three of the festival was the popular singer-songwriter, Vance Joy. The Australian artist brought out a crowd filled mostly, but not entirely with screaming girls (admittedly including myself). He opened the show with his single Mess is Mine and kept up a warm personality and a crisp sound throughout the set. He included a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain and a cool mash-up of Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Al with OMI’s Cheerleader. It was clear the singer-songwriter really knew how to play into the crowd’s energy, keeping everyone excited throughout the show. Before coming back for an encore performance, he left everyone singing along with his most popular track Riptide.