Fucked Up at the Polaris Prize gala at Toronto’s Masonic Temple last night, photo by Timothy Neesam/CBC.
The unprintable becomes the unbeatable: The Polaris grand jury gave a joyous belch in the face of predictability and complacency last night, complete with celebratory food fight, awarding the $20,000 prize to Toronto hardcore (or, as Metric tweeted, pop-core) band Fucked Up, who performed at the gala with guests Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy, the first Polaris winner) and Lullaby Arkestra. Not exactly a consensus pick, but an important recognition of a group that’s risen through the ranks of a sometimes-too-uniform subculture to become a vital, unique voice. The band says they’ll use the money to put out a benefit record to raise awareness of the hundreds of missing aboriginal women in the west, this Christmas.
I couldn’t be happier, but it must be said that nearly every performance at last night’s gala made a powerful case for the worthiness of the nominees, K’naan’s absolutely superstar-quality set in particular, but the rest as well, even those whose records I don’t much care for personally. Word was that final voting was very close between Fucked Up, K’naan and Joel Plaskett. This year’s event was much more like a TV-awards-ceremony taping than ever before, with the live streaming going out on MuchMusic, and yet that was paradoxically liberating, so the rest of us got to feel a bit like we were having a private backstage party, and it really seemed to inspire all the bands to play for keeps. A special mention should go to Michael Barclay’s supremely elegant introduction for Chad Van Gaalen. (And for more of Barclay and his beguiling partner in crime Helen Spitzer, see their thorough morning-after dialogue.) Any flagging faith was utterly restored, and any kvetching can be put off, gratefully, till next year. Thanks to Steve Jordan and a hundred other people for making it happen.
It was a super fun time
I’m pleasantly surprised by the outcome, and agree about K’naan’s performance.