Sled Island 2025 - Diary #1

Motherhood at the #1 Legion in Calgary on June 19th - photo by Sean Davis Newton

This year, Cups N Cakes sent five of our volunteers to Sled Island to shine a spotlight on the best Canadian bands at the fest. Chris Lammiman was one of them, and he starts off our post-festival coverage with a festival diary of his time at Sled island 2025.

My first Sled Island ever was 2013, which, if you remember, was a bit of a soggy time in Calgary. This year, as the festival approached, there were definitely a few moments where I was watching the forecast and watching the river and feeling maybe just a bit twitchy with some memories of that first inauspicious start to my Sled experiences. While in the end there were no flooded venues, there were definitely a couple of wet days for Sled 2025, which sort of made the logistics of attending fest a little trickier - biking was a little less appealing and I hunkered down in one spot much more than the regular venue hopping I’d normally do. And on top of the rain, I came into this year’s festival with my grumpy pants on. Work had been too busy leading up to things and I was tired and feeling a little down from personal losses, and my partner was out of town with our car and I had to cab back and forth from home to shows and back to let our dog out for walks, and as I added up my complaints, there was a part of me that felt like maybe this wasn’t going to be the year for me. Or worse, parts of me wondering if maybe Sled Island itself was no longer the fest for me. There were moments as I geared up to go out, or sat waiting in line trying to get into The Mummies, or watched from the side as friends connected with each other, or got my shoe puked on by an overenthusiastic mosher, where I did allow my mind to drift into the pessimistic. Have I gotten too old to do this? Is my body capable of the strain anymore? Most of my friends that I used to Sled with aren’t around for it or down for it anymore - do I really want to go stand alone for another set? But despite the rain and the fatigue and the social anxiety, damn it all, Sled captured my heart once again. With its singularly charged atmosphere, its wide-armed inclusiveness, and its relentless celebration of creativity, Sled Island served up a well-needed reminder that life truly is beautiful and these shared moments of cultural and human experience are worth opening myself to, despite any of the other stuff that might cloud my mind. Thank you Sled. My heart is full and my ears are happy and I feel at home again in my city.

All in all, I caught 41 different acts, which isn’t too shabby for 41 years on this planet and having a little less gas in the tank than I would have liked. I trended this year more on the rockier edge of things, with maybe a little less musical range than I’d normally catch - I didn’t see a single hiphop set all fest, which is rare for me - but what I did see knocked my socks off, so I have no regrets beyond the usual wistfulness that comes from not being able to do it all. 

While some of the bigger names were fun and absolutely worth seeing - The Mummies were a crude delight; guest curators Otoboke Beaver were a riot; Tropical Fuck Storm provided probably the best pure musical performance I’ve seen in a hot minute - my heart was truly captured by acts maybe a little less in the spotlight. And, I say this not driven by any of the reactionary nationalism in the zeitgeist but actually as a true reflection of my experience of this year’s Sled: Canada represented hard. Acts from here in Alberta and across the country were absolutely the star of the show for me.  

As a Calgarian, I always love the spotlight that Sled Island shines on our small but mighty scene, and I got to enjoy a healthy dose of this homegrown talent: I kicked off my fest at The Ship with the ever-delightful Rifle Country Players delivering their just-campy-enough country goodness; Eye of Newt had a weird and wonderful set in the Sled Sauna (i.e., upstairs at the Legion. Also, bonus points for getting to see Samantha Savage Smith at the Palomino on Sunday, with a more than a little bit familiar looking lineup); I also caught the smooth vibes of Bad Bodies upstairs at the Legion; and Brain Bent did a fine job whipping up the crowd at the Palace ahead of BB BOMB and Otoboke Beaver, maybe the best set I’ve ever seen from the high-energy riftsters. The really standout Calgary act for me though was Abrupt Decay. Admittedly, their grindcore sound is a little on the heavier side of things than I’d normally drift towards, but their set was a full-body sensory experience that left me shaken and white-knuckled in the best possible way. With crushing force, very interesting compositions, and wicked dynamics, this is an act that I’d highly recommend keeping an eye on. Plus, they were really lovely humans and truly sweet to chat with when I ran into a couple members later on in the festival. 

Past the municipal borders, other Canadian highlights included past Sled favorite Aladean Kheroufi’s smoky soul offerings, supported by a band that has no business being as tight as it is. A nice silver lining of not getting to The Mummies early enough meant I got to catch great fuzzed out sets while waiting in line from BITTER//WASHED and Holy Void, both of which were stellar. Saskatoon duo Grimelda also served up a hearty serving of deconstructed rock gumbo, and Montreal punk trio Crachat put on a furious and tight show. The Garrys’ surf/psych rock was, as always, dreamy. 

My runner up for favorite show of Sled 2025 was Motherhood, who I first saw at a previous Sled (I want to say 2023?) when they topped my list of best new-to-me discoveries, and have since risen to become one of my favorite active bands in Canada. This year, I hyped them up a lot to anyone I knew who was Sledding, which turned out to be the right call. Motherhood put on a fantastic set at the Legion, where, in terms of my pure enjoyment, I thought they even outshone headliners Tropical Fuck Storm. With tracks from their latest release, Thunder Perfect Mind along with older favorites, they were again just the right balance of weird and inviting. Motherhood are a band at the top of their game, and just keep hitting all the right places for me. 

Although it was a close call between this and Motherhood, coming in at the top of my list is sort of a two-parter: PYPY was a tough show to rally for, being the late night closer of Saturday night’s Palomino line up. But the Montreal art punks blew me away and made the lack of sleep totally worth it with a blistering set and front-person Annie-Claude Deschênes giving one of the most commanding performances I’ve ever seen. Not to diminish the rest of the band, which was also tight and explosive, but she had the crowd eating out of the palm of her hand. And, when I caught her solo set the next night at the Palomino as the main floor festival closer, she literally did have the crowd eating from her hands. This performance art/dance pop combo set involved a bistro/cafe scenario complete with flowers, accouterments, and a serving of what I believe was flan, in addition to copious amounts of whipped cream straight from the can into audience members’ mouths - all set to vibrant and electro-pop. There was no cool distance between ACD and the spectators, we were all part of it, and as she closed the set with decisive shouts of “Closer! Come closer!” and invited us all to crowd around her in a tight dance circle, it was a moment of catharsis and shared joy - none of us strangers. Which is why I have to give the top spot for Sled Island 2025 to the Annie-Claude Deschênes/PYPY combo, because both shows were what really served to awaken and connect me to that deeper sense of joy and creativity and belonging that Sled Island embodies. So thanks to them, and thanks to all the artists, and organizers, soundpeople, bartenders, showgoers, volunteers, and everyone who helped weave this crazy thing together. It was exactly what my heart needed.