Ottawa Bluesfest, 2010

In Ottawa, summer always feels at its most … summer..y…ish … during Bluesfest. For the first time since 2006, I did not buy a full festival pass. I did manage to get out to the ‘fest on five separate evenings, saw lots of great shows, and had a fantastic time. It’s not the same without the full pass, though. With the full pass you’re more inclined to go out even when you’re not REALLY into someone, you’re more open to checking out musicians who are new to you, and all in all it’s a better experience. Who’d have thought I’d be saying that after my 2007 review??

My regular Bluesfest Buddy, Anya, was in Belgium this year — I must say, my dear, that you were missed! But I GUESS being in Barcelona during the World Cup Final would’ve been okay too. ;) I did get to enjoy the shows with Bambi and her friend Sharleen, James and Karen from soccer, Mya on a couple of nights, Meaghan, and ran into James and Alex from curling as well. Cat joined me on the night I won free tickets through Spectrasonic, and we caught up with Mars and her boyfriend, and on another night also ran into Rowland. Lots of others I know were at the festival, but didn’t have a chance to run into — I hope the shows were enjoyed by all.

Here’s who I saw this year:

• John Butler Trio
• Hole
• Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
• Metric
• Roger Hodgson
• The Flaming Lips
• Brothers Chaffey
• Moneen
• Steve Dawson’s Mississippi Sheiks Project
• Sarah Harmer
• Arcade Fire
• Drake
• Stars
• Great Big Sea
• Weezer

The 2010 highlights include:

Hole

I first saw Hole back in high school with Lisa, I’m pretty sure it was at Edgefest at the Rideau Carleton Raceway (other acts I think included Dave Matthews Band, Gob, and Finger Eleven — shortly after they became Finger Eleven from having been the Rainbow Butt Monkeys — seriously). These were the days before everybody had the Internet, and if you tried to “webcrawler” search lyrics to songs by your favorite bands like “Hole” or “Bush,” you were going to come across trouble and nothing else. It rained on that night, just as it rained this time. I remember my expectations of seeing Hole back then, and they were high, as Lisa and I both thought Hole was totally amazing — and it was kind of disappointing, when Courtney Love was the exact kind of shit-show we’ve come to expect. The songs were good, but she was clearly fucked up and (a) we were pretty young then and (b) you got way less of a sense in those days of just how fucked up some people were, when you only got it from magazines and the occasional BIG story on Much Music, not the 24-7 barrage of the Internet that we have now.

This time around, “what kind of shit show will this be?” was half the draw — none of the original band members are with Courtney Love anymore; Melissa Auf Der Mer having gone one to a marginally successful solo-career, and I hear will be in the soon-to-be-revived Veruca Salt via Bambi; the lone male of the former Hole, “sickly Eric” as I recall Lisa and I calling him, was not on stage he has been replaced by other similarly odd-and-lanky-seeming male bandmates. This time any disappointment was in how much of a shit show Courtney Love WASN’T, truth be told. Any of that disappointment was brief, however, because she was actually pretty charming and was able to really rock out and she can still wail at 46 (the show was on her birthday).

She opened with a newer song, mixed with a bit of a cover of the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” – teased the Canadian crowd that she’d considered teaching the band some Bryan Adams or Alannah Myles, which was ultimately unnecessary as they knew some Leonard Cohen (“Take This Longing”). She played a lot of old favs from Live Through This like Violet, Doll Parts, and Miss World as well as Pretty on the Inside. “Newer” hits (for me anyway, since this was around when Hole disappeared in my books before now) like “Celebrity Skin” and “Malibu.” The closing was a cover of “Thirteen” by Big Star, which was a definite highlight. All in all, a good way to remember a lot of the good things about angstier days.

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

Joan Jett is one of the ultimate women in rock & roll, and at 52 is still 100% badass. With a new Greatest Hits album out with The Blackhearts, everything you’d possibly want to hear was played – from the opening of “Bad Reputation” and “Cherry Bomb” to classics like “School Days,” “Love is Pain,” and “Do You Wanna Touch Me.” Joan Jett rocked “I Love Rock n’ Roll” with the whole crowd belting it out along with her, and I just about died for “Crimson and Clover.” She did not play “Love is a Battlefield” or “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” since she is not, contrary to popular belief, Pat Benetar. Joan Jett closed with “Everyday People” which was a really excellent choice to end the show — I had fully expected any one of the aforementioned songs to be a closer, but the absolute right choice was made.

One of the best things about Bluesfest is that it draws absolute icons of the music world out to Ottawa in an outdoor festival setting, which is definitely one of the best ways to see music. Sure, the acoustics aren’t as great as many indoor venues, but the vibe is right, man, the vibe is right.

The Flaming Lips

Truth be told, I am not particularly familiar with the Flaming Lips beyond a few classics — like “She Don’t Use Jelly,” which they played early on, “Magic WAND” and “Do You Realize?,” which has to be one of my all time favorite songs – sad and uplifting all at the same time. Still, everything I’ve heard I’ve enjoyed, and beyond that one of the big draws is the total circus that is The Flaming Lips stage show.

I had VIP entry this evening and brought Mya along as my guest — this was my second time doing the VIP thing at Bluesfest, and it is a welcome break from an otherwise exhausting couple of weeks. After spending the day at the HOPE Beach Volleyball tournament, it was a welcome change to sit back in a chair — enjoy Metric’s initial show — and later catch The Flaming Lips from the comfort of a chair and access to a private air conditioned port-a-potty! The show began with the silhouette of a dancing woman on the massive on-stage screen, before her lady-bits were highlighted and zoomed in on for the band to appear through in a door on this screen. All but the lead singer emerged in this way – the lead’s entrance instead was in a giant man-sized hamster ball, which rolled out into the audience for some crowd surfing. Other appearances included enormous amounts of confetti, dry ice, strange dancers, giant bouncy balls, and a man in a bear suit. The tunes were great, the chatter with the audience was excellent, and the show is just as crazy as you’d think. An excellent ticket.

Steve Dawson’s Mississippi Sheiks Project

One of the few nights that I was there fairly early and able to catch a few shows ahead of my main draw, Cat and I enjoyed a number of performances compliments of tickets I won through the Spectrasonic Facebook Group! This was the most “Bluesfest”-y night, for me, which was part of why I enjoyed it so much. Having gone early enough, we were able to check out a couple of things we hadn’t really heard of, and caught parts of shows that were really great like the always fun Brothers Chaffey and the enchanting Sarah Harmer.

In between shows, we caught some of Moneen, who we thought sounded familiar. The familiarity was in band-name only, because when they started to play it was really neither mine nor Cat’s cup of tea, so off we went to explore and see what else we could find. We made our way to the Hard Rock Stage for Steve Dawson’s Mississippi Sheiks Project, essentially a cover/tribute to a string band from about the ’30s. They included a variety of performers playing old blues, ragtime and bluegrass, on stand-up bass, acoustic guitar, steel guitar, slide guitar, and more. It was something totally unlike anything else we were seeing that night, a lot of fun, and a thoroughly welcome change. A really great find! Also fun this night was seeing so many people – including running into former soccer coach buddy, Katie Roberts!

Arcade Fire

The band I was the most excited to see at this year’s festival was Arcade Fire, although I didn’t realize what a rare occurrence it was for them to appear in Ottawa, despite their connections to this city through members of the band. I’d never seen Arcade Fire before, and like basically everybody totally dug their album Funeral and have been itching to see them ever since.

They DEFINITELY did not disappoint, it was probably the most into it I was at any of the shows over the course of the festival this year, and I was surprised at how much of it I knew. The band was surprisingly unpretentious, the energy level was absolutely off the charts, and the crowd was phenomenal. If you haven’t seen Arcade Fire and the chance arrises – jump on it.

Weezer

I think I’ve been listening to Weezer since about the sixth or seventh grade. With that in mind, I had high hopes for a lot of older tunes — classics from Pinkerton and the blue album mostly was what I wanted to hear, with a dash of newer hits. After just getting back from a weekend in Sudbury for my cousin’s wedding, I made it to the festival grounds just in time to meet up with everybody who’d been at the festival throughout the day and settle in, somewhere towards the back of the crowd. Normally I am one to try and get up relatively close (without being an arsehole pushing my way about) but as tired as I was, I was glad to hang back.

Weezer is one of the bands that through the years I was surprised I never got around to seeing, so I was incredibly excited for this opportunity. After the first couple of songs, which were a good start, I was ready to grab some water at one of the vendors on site. Just as I started to walk away “Undone (The Sweater Song)” came on and I couldn’t pull myself away through that, “Say it Ain’t So,” “El Scorcho” and “Buddy Holly.” Enjoyed “Island in the Sun” and “Beverly Hills” (despite the fact that the green album wasn’t as great as the blue album – nothing is!), and Weezer doing MGMT and Lady Gaga was also awesome. One of their most recent releases, “If You’re Wondering if I Want You To (I Want You To)” rekindled my love of Weezer and I loved hearing it live. While I usually am really into bands that are super interactive with the crowd, I was really not into it in this instance because Rivers Cuomo essentially sounded like an idiot…. but what can ya do, I got to belt out “Say it Ain’t So” along with the band and not just in my car, and that was pretty darn cool.

All in all a good end to the festival, though I must admit some sadness as I miss the disco craziness of previous years, because a fun disco dance party is just a good upbeat way to end the week…s.

I hope next year to return to the full pass, but hope that the prices don’t continue to jack up the way they did this year. While I certainly did miss my regular outings with the full pass, there is no way I was going to pay $300 for it! Time to start investigating Folk Fest…