Ottawa Bluesfest, 2011

Wow.  Ten (of twelve total) days, six stages, close to forty bands for my fifth full festival pass in seven years of attending Bluesfest (steadily, I attended the odd concert sporadically before that).  Without a doubt, and despite the faults of the festival, Bluesfest is the best part of summer in Ottawa.

Some of the downsides: the new layout caused problems with getting around the festival in the main stage area as the beer lines and crowd melded more than ever and the sound bleed was a constant presence with the new orientation – so bad in a number of instances that performers commented on their stages about hearing the main stage.  There were major communication issues during the storm that nearly – but didn’t – rain out the Black Keys.  And of course the final night’s awful stage collapse, something that was certainly a freak accident.  More on that later.

The upside is always the performances themselves, and the chance to run into lots of people – this year I spent most of the festival with Anya, but also caught up with Melissa, Caitlin, Catherine, Isabelle, Chris, Angela, kevin, jon W, Al Yang, Sabine, Carmela, and if I missed anyone in that list I apologize.

So here’s who I saw:

WEEK ONE:

1. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
2. The Flaming Lips
3. Soundgarden
4. Tegan & Sara
5. Bootsy Collins
6. Bedouin Soundclash
7. The Roots
8. Skrillex
9. Ben Harper
10. Girl Talk
11. David Clayton Thomas
12. Steve Miller Band
13. Cage the Elephant
14. Blue King Brown
15. Harper & Midwest Kid
16. Cavaliers
17. Hey Rosetta!
18. Erykah Badu
19. The Tragically Hip

WEEK TWO:

1. Trevor Alguire
2. Andrew Jr Boy Jones
3. Ian Kelly
4. Buck 65
5. John Fogerty
6. Trampled by Turtles
7. Imaginary Cities
8. Metric
9. My Morning Jacket
10. Buddy Guy
11. Classified
12. Big Sam’s Funky Nation
13. Blue Rodeo
14. Death from Above 1979
15. Alex Cuba
16. Jane’s Addiction
17. Lupe Fiasco
18. Cheap Trick

MISSED BANDS DUE TO EXTREME WEATHER:
The Black Keys
Ra Ra Riot
Joe Satriani
John Butler Trio
Death Cab for Cutie

Highlights of this year’s festival performances include, but are not limited to:

The Flaming Lips

This was my second time seeing The Flaming Lips, the first being at last year’s festival through a VIP hook-up!  It was a different experience given that they were not the headliner that night, and as wild as their show is it was not quite as crazy as last year.  Still, The Flaming Lips are so entertaining, great tunes (She Don’t Use Jelly, Yoshimi, Yah-Yah-Yah, Do You Realize?), and I would recommend them to all.

Tegan & Sara

Another group I’ve seen before, but this time not so recently!  I saw Tegan & Sara at Capital Music Hall with Cat, back when Capital Music Hall was where RJ’s/Liquor Dome/now a Condo is.  Their music has really changed since then and is much richer and fuller as their albums have progressed.  It was exactly the same kind of show, though, with a lot of chatting and interaction with the crowd.  As well, it was great to see a far more diverse crowd due to the festival atmosphere enjoying their music – especially as Soundgarden performed on the main stage.  They played new tunes, old tunes, and were enjoyed by all it seemed – I do hope to see them again!

The Roots

Can I just say again that I want to have Kirk Douglas’ babies??  It’s always great to check out someone you haven’t seen perform live before, and The Roots were phenomenal.  My favorite moment of course was when they played “You Got Me,” with Douglas going off into some great solo-work.  Just awesome.  Search it out on YouTube, it’s there and it’s AWESOME.  Also The Roots are just so damn cool.  It would’ve been sweet to check out Questlove spinning at Ritual Nightclub after the show, but I’m an old lady and apparently so are all my friends ;)

Girl Talk

“COME WITH ME, FESTIVAL PEOPLE!” – nothing says super fun, hot, sweaty dance party for ninety minutes like a live set from Girl Talk.  Saw him a couple of years ago on a much smaller stage with Mya, so I was definitely stoked to see him again.  This time, Anya and I crammed our way up to the front and had a great time dancing away – until the moshing ridiculousness started, and the crowd surfing that seemed to keep coming our direction only to fall near us and land on our heads.  So what makes Girl Talk an interesting live performance is that he doesn’t just hit play on the laptop and go from there – he’s putting together familiar samples while also setting up and testing out new samples on the spot.  It’s pretty awesome, especially for the “musically ADD” I call it.  It’s just a lot of fun if you truly do have varied tastes to try and pick everything out of these stellar mash-ups.

Hey Rosetta!

I dunno how many times I’ve MEANT to see Hey Rosetta!, unsuccessfully.  Was so glad to finally see them, even if it was only briefly.  Hey Rosetta! were amazing, great music, great crowd atmosphere, and none of that could be dampened by the downpour we experienced that evening.  Several songs in, with the wind and rain picking up, festival organizers had to pull the plug on the show at least temporarily.  The crowd was relentless, however, chanting “LET THEM PLAY!” – figuring the Newfie band was used to a little rain.  One of the best moments of Bluesfest all time happened when – after the stage crew had covered all of the instruments on stage in tarps, and while they were working diligently to mop the stage and keep things safe – the folks from Hey Rosetta! picked up some instruments, unplugged, and came out into the crowd to play.  It was so *so* cool – those of us that remained at that point, hushed and listening closely while they wandered up and down the sound-guy/security aisle between the barricades, eventually encouraging the whole crowd to sing along.  Amazing, and a real class-act move in appreciation of their fans.  They became an instant fav!

The Tragically Hip

This was my …. seventh? time seeing The Hip I think.  I saw them years ago at Bluesfest, when it was held in Confederation Park.  I don’t even know if they had more than one stage for the festival at that time.  This was during my time at Carleton and was a riot.  I saw them a couple of times at the Corel Centre, including during the “Evening With The Hip” tour which was like seeing The Hip twice in one night – SO GOOD.  I travelled to Buffalo NY with Meg to see The Hip during Music @ Work, and have seen them at several Bluesfests since.  As always, The Hip are phenomenal.  You just have to love these sing-along type bands, and the high energy of Gordie and the boys.  The evening was made all the more enjoyable by the company, the highlight of which is Mars’ ability to move a train of people through a massive shoulder-to-shoulder crowd and find up front space.  Wicked.

Buck 65

Another repeat performer for me, but it’d been quite some time and I actually didn’t catch most of his set the last time I saw him.  It was the first year I went to Bluesfest at City Hall and checked out multiple stages and really got a sense of what the festival was all about.  This was my discovery of Buck 65, and it was great to get a chance to catch him again – even if it was only half a set so I could check out some CCR.  Highlights of Buck 65 include his dancing, and his humour – covering some Fogerty and noting, “it’s all good, he’s gonna do a Buck 65 cover later.”

John Fogerty

It was fuckin’ Fogerty, what more can I say?  After some Buck 65 I made my way over to the main stage for some classics and it was great.  Monster crowd, stellar performance, and again the kind of night where every song you’d want to hear was played.  I left during the encore to beat the rush, but stopped to grab a drink on my way out – the guys at the booth thought it was neat that Fogerty was “doing a Tina Turner song” as he played Proud Mary…. D’OH!

Trampled by Turtles

As much as I bitch and moan about certain things the festival does differently each year that pisses me off, they also always add something awesome – with the move to Lebreton Flats and the Canadian War Museum it was the addition of the Barney Danson Theatre for some more intimate performances.  This year, it was the free giveaway of iTunes Gift Cards with 31 songs by Bluesfest performers.  This was fantastic not only because free stuff is good stuff, BUT, also because it gave you another way to check out some musicians that you might not have otherwise.  I really hope that they continue with this, because it helped me to discover even more great music.  One such discovery is Trampled by Turtles, who perform a bluegrass meets pop meets crazy insane amounts of energy for an awesome time.  So enjoyed them.

Blue Rodeo

I am in love with Jim Cuddy, and I’ve never not had an amazing time at a Blue Rodeo concert.  I must’ve seen them nearly a half dozen times by now – though nothing has compared to the first time I saw them at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto with Laura and Helene, my last night living in the city before coming back to Ottawa for the fall semester to begin.  This year Blue Rodeo was joined by Cuff the Duke for some tunes, which was great.  Not so great was noticing Keelor having to leave the stage due to health problems.  Hopefully that ends up resolved, it would be a shame for him not to be able to continue.

Alex Cuba

Basically all I can say is that I must see him again.  He’s been in Ottawa a few times recently and I hadn’t managed to get out to see him, so that I had a chance at Bluesfest was great.  He’s super talented, and covered Blue Rodeo’s “Bad Timing” in Spanish, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I did snap some pics but none turned out I’m afraid… must’ve been too dazed from HOPE beach that day!

+++++

So for the Sunday stage collapse, it was the wildest thing I’ve ever seen.  I arrived in time to catch most of Lupe Fiasco’s performance, which I also thoroughly enjoyed.  Met up with Carm & Chris, and shortly before the end of the set we made our way over to the main stage to get a good, close-up spot for Cheap Trick.  While we were there, the Mayor took the stage to present Bluesfest organizers with a proclamation of Bluesfest Day in Ottawa in recognition of the success of the festival for the original founders/organizers.  It wasn’t long after that, that Cheap Trick took the stage and played a few somewhat familiar songs before launching into I Want You To Want Me.  I was enjoying the show, but also somewhat distracted by a few things – I was keeping an eye on my watch so that I could make my way over to the next show (Ra Ra Riot at the River Stage) since there was so much I wanted to see on the closing night.  The wind was picking up and many fans seemed to be taking notice of the dark gloomy skies, worrying that we could be rained out again, though never anticipating the events that were about to unfold.  Lastly, something that really stood out in my mind was the swirling confetti, rising up off the ground from the previous night’s headliner show Jane’s Addiction.  It just seemed so weird.

By about the fourth song into their set, half-way through the song the sound seemed to cut out.  I’m not sure if it was somewhat muted to the whole audience, or if we just heard things from the monitors and other on-stage equipment, because we were super close.  The band played on, as professionals do, assuming that this minor technical glitch would be resolved shortly.  The wind was really coming and by now the odd drop of rain was being felt – so the crowd was getting restless, since the previous week’s rainy night was such a communications disaster for the festival.  As the song came to an end, a couple of stage crew members rushed onto the stage – some to take down equipment, and another to urge the band to bolt as fast as they could off the stage.  Then everything happened insanely quickly and in slow motion all at the same time.

I remember watching the band start to run towards the back of the stage, followed by one of the giant Bluesfest banners on our side of the stage coming loose at the bottom and flapping in the wind out into the crowd.  I don’t know what other people noticed that caused them to run, because I sure didn’t notice it, but the next thing I know my sleeve’s being tugged on by Carm to start running.  In the few seconds that we ran backwards away from the stage, I’m yelling “Be careful! Be careful!” terrified that people are going to be trampled.

Then we stopped.  We turned around, and watched the stage come down like a house of cards.  It was as if the whole thing just deflated in front of us – and I don’t remember much crashing or banging or popping type sounds like you’d expect from the collapse of a massive steel structure like that.  Instead, all you heard were gasps and shouts of “oh my God!” or “oh no!” from the crowd.  It settled, and the next thing I know I’m running back towards the stage.  My two concerns were if any of the stage had come forward and injured anybody who hadn’t moved as far as quickly as we did, and also if anyone had been injured in the rushing crowd.  Everything seemed strangely calm when I reached the barricade – the stage hadn’t come forward at all, and no one seemed to be hurt from the mini-stampede.  I shouted “Can you see anybody? Did everybody get out?” and moved back and forth along the gate trying to see, hesitating while I thought about hopping the fence.  Before I could, a security guard came rushing by screaming for people to get back.  A rush of people were at the front of the stage area now, surveying the scene, so I started to walk back to where I’d left Carm and Chris.

I didn’t find them in the crowd, so I began my walk out of the festival site.  By this point, it was pouring rain and even hailing.  I called Carm first to let her know where I’d gone, and that I was now leaving.  Then I called my mom, worried that the news would break quickly and that my parents would worry.  Then a fury of text messaging/Blackberry messaging began to try and track down everybody I knew who was on site that day, and more and more relief as I learned that people had safely exited the site.

I knew there was no way that I’d catch a bus, so I continued my walk up Albert Street towards where I’d left my car downtown.  All I could think was that there was no way that people on the stage made it off in time.  It came down incredibly quickly, and with no warning it seemed though I’m sure those on/back-stage had a different perspective than the crowd.  I hadn’t seen the back of the stage, and had assumed that it had just collapsed in on itself towards the centre and not that it had essentially leaned back and tipped over as it did.  People in the street were chatting with one another while walking through the rain, amazed at what they’d seen and concerned that people may have been seriously injured or killed.

By the time I arrived about a block from my car, I’d seen toppled trees, lightning strikes, and think my clothes weighed an extra 20 lbs from all the water.  I got in my car, made a quick phone call, and then started to drive the rest of the way home, anxious to see what the news was.  Even by my place there were sirens everywhere as TONS of emergency vehicles made their way to the scene.

Thankfully, there were only a few injuries and though they sounded awful at first all of the injured people were released from hospital in a matter of hours.  It’s an absolute miracle that the whole situation wasn’t far worse.  There has been a lot of talk/reporting about the fast-action of staff and volunteers, and while I’m sure there was, the fact is that the majority of what kept the situation as “at bay” as it can be considered is dumb fucking luck.  My thoughts on why things weren’t worse:

1. It was daylight, so you could see everything, which I’m sure helped to keep the panic at bay.
2. The crowd was sizable, but not huge – not like The Hip, not like KISS, not like some of the humungo acts that headline have seen.  You were able to move around quite freely and easily.
3. It was quick.  You weren’t in a sense of ongoing danger or urgency, other than the fear that *other* people had been hurt.  I never felt like all of the tents would blow away or that other stages would come down – I honestly thought the worst thing would’ve been lightning in the field.
4. The storm was awful, so regardless of what was going on you just wanted to get out of it.  People weren’t rubbernecking the situation as much as they would have, surely, had the weather not been so bad.  Were it some other kind of incident, crowd disbursement would’ve been more difficult without the rain and hail; in fact, loads took shelter in the museum to wait out the storm.

It was a bizarre thing to witness, and would’ve been truly traumatic had there been more serious consequences.  I think that even though it was a total freak accident type of situation, the festival will still have to take a hard look at some issues and make some changes for emergency situations in future.

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