For its third anniversary, a.k.a. Wavelength 150 (Feb. 13-16), Wavelength gets its Winter Festival formula right: a kickass lineup combined with an intriguing mix of venues over one long weekend. Do Make Say Think headlines a stacked bill on Lee’s Palace on opening night, then things move to a recently renovated El Mocambo for a gleefully destructive set by DMST splinter group Lullabye Arkestra. On the Saturday night, Wavelength begins a long relationship with the Music Gallery, presenting their first show in the long-running experimental space’s then-new-ish digs in beautiful St. George the Martyr Church — including MG founding group CCMC alongside Toronto electronic icons Solvent vs. Lowfish — before landing back home at Sneaky Dee’s to close out the weekend with sweaty alt-country rockers Cuff the Duke. Plus an indie label fair on Sunday afternoon. Phew!
With changes behind the scenes within the WL crew, the ‘zine takes a summer hiatus before returning with full-colour covers and a brand-new logo designed by artist Tyler Clark Burke of Three Gut Records and Feist fame. And what a summer it was to be young and free in the city: 2003 marked the summer of “Torontopia” — the beginning of Toronto’s cultural renaissance, a new movement of civically-minded arts initiatives in which Wavelength gets swept up in alongside Vazaleen, Spacing, Trampoline Hall, and others. Toronto discovers itself the night of that August’s blackout and then had a cause for optimism with that fall’s election of a progressive new mayor, David Miller. Meanwhile, in the wider music world, the Internet rockets homegrown heroes Broken Social Scene, the Constantines, and the Hidden Cameras to international indie stardom.
Memorable shows:
- Electro jammers Holy Fuck play their first-ever show, opening for themselves as “Hot Carl” (WL 148, Jan. 26 @ SD)
- Owen Pallett’s band Les Mouches introduces many to their manic freak-folk (WL 174, Aug 3 @ SD)
- Hardcore/metal bands Cursed and Gesundheit show there’s a space for heavy music at Wavelength (WL 176, Aug 17 @ SD)
- Can vocalist Damo Suzuki performs two free-form sets backed up by different bands of Wavelength all-stars (WL 180, Sept. 14 @ SD)
- The ‘zine is relaunched with an epic dance-punk blowout featuring Anagram, the Sick Lipstick, controller.controller and more (Special Event, Nov 29 @ SD)
- Hidden Cameras breakaway faction the Barcelona Pavilion teach Toronto indie crowd to dance, alongside Portland, Oregon visitor the Blow (WL 194, Dec. 21 @SD)