Musical festivals have been one positive result of this digital age in which musicians find themselves making most of their money playing live.  As a result of this phenomenon and the creative and organizational skills of the music-minded, musical festivals and house concerts have sprung up everywhere.  To wit, SappyFest held its sixth annual festival this past weekend in Sackville, New Brunswick.  SappyFest was begun in 2006 by Sappy Records, Julie Doiron, Jon Claytor and Paul Henderson.  Add another music festival to our bucket list.

This year turned out to be particularly momentous when Arcade Fire showed up (in the advertised guise of “Shark Attack!“) to surprise with a strong set for the smallish, fortunate crowd.  Other great artists such as John K. Samson (Weakerthans), Owen Pallett, The Sadies (who will appear at the Mercury Lounge in Goleta with Jesse Sykes on August 13th) and Charles Bradley (who will appear at Soho on August 26th) plied their prodigious wares at SappyFest.

You can read a well-wrought piece by Sean Michaels (of Said the Gramophone) regarding SappyFest HERE.  Make sure you read the three embedded links therein to his evocative “Sappy Times.”  That boy can write!

Check out Arcade Fire’s (Shark Attack!’s) performance of Neighborhood #3, below and then a little Charles Bradley.