Badbadnotgood

With a reputation for re-imagining new-school hip-hop gems through their own blistering avant-jazz musicianship, Toronto's Badbadnotgood were a clear highlight of the festival's Thursday night lineup. Setting up for their first of two showings that evening behind a delicate piano solo, it wasn't long before the threesome threw some dirt on their sound, opening things up into a stream of bludgeoning, trap-laced compositions that had fans moshing at the front of the tightly packed crowd. Between flipped renditions of James Blake's "No Limit to Your Love" cover, Waka Flocka's "Hard in Da Paint" and Kanye's "Mercy," the trio's creative wizardry melded traces of traditional jazz and classical with undulating drum patterns, frenetic bass lines and, in brief spurts, crowd-pleasing sax solos by studio player Leland Whitty in his live debut with the band. With pig masks and lion costumes adding further theatrics to the proceedings, Badbadnotgood proved once again why their name is catching so much buzz both at home and abroad.