The two and a half hour trip to the 2026 edition of Loveless Festival began in my rural hometown. In my 2012 Mazda 2 I braved the wretched 401 highway all the way to Oshawa, home of the beloved GO train that  I rode all the way to Union Station. I quickly transferred to the subway, getting off at  Queen’s Park station. A short walk later, I arrived at the church, and entered approximately 20 minutes late to sundayclub’s set. 

Disappointed at myself for arriving late, I made my way to the back of the packed room as the band broke out into their recently released debut album’s hit track, “Sad Summer.” Vocalist Courtney Carmichael delivered the mellow chorus of “Sad summer/It’s a sad summer/And it’s such a bummer/I’m down when I should be high.” The lyrics were so simple they bordered on obtuse, while still completely encapsulating the feeling they plainly state. I am down when I should be high. The band’s good, no weak links. Nikki St. Pierre (what a name!) plays a great guitar with some very melodic solos. I wish I could have caught more of their set.

35 minutes after sundayclub, Luster Dust announced their arrival with a cacophony of guitar noise. The sun has just set, and the only light remaining in the church came from the lights on stage, mixing with the obscene amount of vapour pouring from the fog machines. Luster Dust’s leader Daniel Wilson both plays guitar and sings, but honestly I could not make out a single word he said. Not that it was his fault, but the vocals seem intentionally buried in the mix, serving as just another layer in the wall of sound coming off stage. Guitars carried the sound, mostly because there were so many on stage (three!), but the drummer was the highlight, bashing away at their kit like a shoegaze Keith Moon. For most of Luster Dust’s set, a couple in front of me violently lurched around in a way that was difficult to do justice to with words. I enjoyed the set, but I did not find it particularly danceable.

I love a band with multiple vocalists. I love a band that utilizes the textural capabilities of the synthesizer. I also love a band that can write hooks, and Velvet Beach can do it all. Having two vocalists, as they did, is such a simple way to expand the sound of a band, it’s surprising that more groups don’t utilize it.  Velvet Beach excels when both vocalists, Matias Gutierrez and Meagan Aversa, sing together. Their voices blend beautifully. Sometimes the nicher subgenres of pop music, like dream-pop, can forget what makes pop music great: hooks. Velvet Beach had both guitar hooks and vocal hooks. They’re a tight band, and were all on the same page musically. No standouts instrumentally, but that’s not a bad thing. They all do what they need to. No more, no less. 

It was almost 11:00 pm when Bubble Tea and Cigarettes took to the stage. They were dressed in black, and with the increasing amount of fog in the room, you could barely see more than a silhouette of the musicians against the lights. The duo of Andi and Kat, both on guitar, were also  joined by a drummer. It was an interesting set-up that frankly would have benefited from a bassist. Andi filled what might have been a thin sounding line-up with his synthesizer work. Despite all that, it was the guitar work that drew me to this band. Kat played simple melodic lines that reminded me of surf rock, or what you might hear on a Ennio Morricone soundtrack. Andi had the more traditional chops, ripping several solos over the course of their set. This included a slide guitar solo, which was not something I was expecting to hear amongst their otherwise placid indie-pop. Sonically, they were very interesting, but they lost me lyrically. The words themselves are not necessarily bad, but the suburban storytelling did little to keep their long songs interesting. The lack of dynamics in Kat’s singing style dragged as the set went on. Ultimately, it was a good set, even if I am not the target audience.

The show ended without an encore, and the crowd made its way back through the bottleneck that is the church doors out onto College Street. A short subway ride later I was back at Union Station to board a GO train and begin the trip home. 

The 401 isn’t bad late at night. It’s kind of meditative, no distractions. I stopped at a truck stop with an A&W around 1:45 AM, and got some fries and a Coke Zero before continuing on my way.