Something Else!
St. John the Evangelist Church
Hamilton, Ontario
June 20-23, 2019

I must confess that I spend very little time in churches, so I would not normally be inclined to spend the first weekend of summer in one. But sometimes exceptions must be made, and such an exception could only be made for a festival of creative music.

A church can be a dodgy proposition for presenting music. Ideally, the acoustics of the church are suited to the music and instrumentation. Where one is listening in the church makes a difference. The stage is another factor. Often, there is not enough rise to allow everyone in the audience to see well. And then of course, there is the discomfort factor of the hard, wooden pews. That said, some of the most memorable performances I have ever attended were held in churches, from Guelph to Montreal to Victoriaville.

Happily, St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church in West Hamilton, aka The Rock on Locke, was a congenial site for the sixth edition of Something Else! Festival, curated by Cem Zafir and presented by the rest of the team at Zula Presents. A festival of music that is beyond category but draws from many influences has a small audience worldwide, much less in a rock town, like Hamilton. So the festival, like the music itself, is done for love. There is nothing to be done about the pews, but the acoustics of the Rock are clean and the sightlines generally acceptable, depending on where one sits—or squirms. The festival schedule consisted of six four-hour sessions at the church and a Friday afternoon of outdoor performances in the garden of a downtown museum, the Whitehern House and Garden.

The featured performers at Something Else! were