Shooting Our Mouths Off

CityFolk Festival is an annual folk music celebration held at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, Ontario. The band last performed in Canada’s capital in 2019, when they were part of the Ottawa Bluesfest lineup.

The band arrived in the afternoon and were able to take in the festival in all of its glory, before the crowds piled in. With it being the first festival set of the tour, the stage was obviously much bigger than those the band have played on over the last couple of weeks – the main advantage of this being that they were able to display the eye-catching visuals on a screen behind them.

Taking the stage for the penultimate set, the band delivered a crowd-pleasing performance packed with fan favourites, along with a few select tracks from Yummy. The set opened with ‘Five-O‘, a slow-burning introduction that set a haunting, atmospheric tone, before the mood deepened with ‘Way Over Your Head‘ – the first track of the night from the band’s chart-topping album Yummy. The other offering from the album was ‘Shadow of a Giant’, making a welcome return after having been dropped for the first time on this tour during their Brooklyn show on Wednesday.

Even within the time constraints of a festival slot, James proved once again that they thrive on defying expectations. The first surprise came early, as ‘Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)‘ – one of their most iconic and emotionally charged anthems – appeared just three songs into the set, giving Tim the freedom to weave through the crowd and claim a spot where he could dance freely. The kind of track usually reserved for the latter stages of a performance, its early inclusion certainly set the tone for what was to come.

The other surprise came when they delved deeper into their catalogue with ‘Heads‘, a lesser-known but fiercely loved track from 2018’s Living in Extraordinary Times. Dark, punchy, and politically charged, it’s not the sort of song you’d expect to hear in a festival setting, where bands often lean on their safest or most anthemic material. But James aren’t interested in playing it safe. 

Wherever they appear on a lineup, James never fail to impress – and this festival set was no different. The crowd were treated to a run of classics, including ‘Tomorrow‘, ‘Sometimes’, and euphoric closing track, ‘Laid‘. The latter two are currently standouts on the band’s tour, where they’ve been performing the Laid album in full each night. Even within a shorter festival slot, James managed to channel the same energy and connection from those shows, sending the crowd off on an undeniable high.