Around Ottawa

This one is a little late, mostly due to me needing to get to the stage for the Friday night shows, but that’s fine. Thursday night was one of the nights I was looking forward too. With That 1 Guy, a favorite of mine, playing tonight I knew it would be worth showing up.
First up tonight was Ciwoniso. Their sound was more carribian to me, and I loved the singing in voice and power of their lead singer. They pulled in a great crowd and kept them happy for the whole set.

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While the comedians were on the stage I headed over for the start of the Matthew Good concert and enjoyed a pair of songs over there. While the music was good, he didn’t start the show with the energy of many of our performers. The crowds were still huge for the show, so people are still here for the musician. The act was all music, no show, and sounded exactly like you would expect of his music.

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Back over on the Blacksheep stage we had Konono No1 playing. We have had them on the Blacksheep stage before, and they always draw a crowd. The beginning of their set they had a huge crowd and their rhythm kept the crowd moving. On stage they use a huge, heat up, old loudspeaker for the sound and it added a lot to the sound level in the tent. Unfortunately by the end of the act the crowds thinned out, possibly due to the sound levels or due to the repeating rhythms that were starting to get to some people. Either way it was a good show for them.

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Finally was the highlight of the night for me, That 1 Guy. Last year we had him on our stage and most of us loved the show. This year we didn’t get him on stage, but we were able to go see him on the other stages. His act is unique, with his home made instrument, interesting mix of sounds and amusing topics(lasers, mustaches, etc). He didn’t disappoint tonight, with a new song: Stones Throw really working for some of the people backstage.

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That’s it for tonight, I’ll get the Friday stuff up tomorrow I hope, it’s all over Sunday so I should be done soon. They I will go through all this and rewrite it in a less rushed form, so if you see duplicates, that’s me improving on the very short stuff here.

OK, we had nothing on the Blacksheep stage later in the night and so I went home early. Sorry, no reviews for today.

Too Slim and The Taildraggers:

It was a confusing night last night, for someone who cannot always keep names straight, I kept mixing up Arcade Fire with Alexisonfire. Both played different stages but at similar times. I went to the Arcade Fire concert for a bit and that was the one I wanted.
Up early on the Blacksheep stage was Too Slim and The Taildraggers. A alternative blues band that rocked the house hard. This was some of the first real blues we have had on the Blacksheep stage this year and everyone was enjoying it a lot.

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As I wandered around the stages between working, I came and listened to The Aggrolites on the Hard Rock Stage. The part of their show I listed to was another blues sound and feel, but way more upbeat about things. Their one guitarist would not stop moving at high speed the whole show and everyone was in uniform.

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Back at the Black Sheep Stage our headliner for the night was Aterciopelados. A band that sounded as South American, to me at least, as their name implies. There were a large number of dedicated fans who were here just to see her play, and the music was worth it too. Great sound, good beats and a real show(going down to the audience once or twice). The main singer stayed late to chat with fans until everyone who wanted to talk to her was done.

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Finally I took some time to go over to the MBNA stage to watch some Arcade Fire. I’ve enjoyed a few of their songs and was hoping to No Cars Go. I was not disappointed in that department as they played it shortly after I arrived in the crowd. I was unable to get better shots as I could not access my preferred shooting location.

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Rush headlined the main stage tonight, and they were quite a show. I was able to catch the beginning of their show(And the “History of Rush” video they played was awesome).
Rush is not trying to be anything more than the band you know, and many love. They play their music, the stuff the fans want and the stuff they want. This of course takes over 3 hours as the stuff both sides want is a huge list. Great sound, still have their stage presence and had a monster crowd.

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Back over on the Blacksheep stage we had The Constellations on the stage early in the evening, a great group, with a variety of sounds spanning from rock to hip-hop to rap to rock again. The stage show was great and the music amazing. The crowd loved it too and it was a worthwhile group to have show up.

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Finally, for the headlines of the night on Blacksheep we had Ozomatli. This brought a similar sound to the last group, but took the hip-hop feel further and made it their main sound with a rock edge. Again the variety was great, the crowd was big and the energy on stage was enormous.

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On this day I have to say my favourite from the voice along was Basia Bulat. A lovely voice, a folk sound and a huge fan base following, I loved this act. I’m short on time today, so for now I’ll keep it all short and sweet.

I checked out the Flaming Lips, just a weird who with a very close up mouth camera on the lead singer showing on a huge background screen. A giant fish and random people standing on stage and balloons bouncing in the crowd… weird and still not a bad 70′s rock sound.

Over on Hard Rock stage was Passion Pit, and they had a nice electric guitar/electronic sound and a crowd that was doing half their job for them. I think I need to find more of their music.

And finally I checked out Metric on the main stage, I enjoy a number of their songs and was not disappointed in their stage show. Lots of energy and a huge crowd enjoying things, well worth the time.

More Shots:

OK, tonight we had other acts, but after watching The Planet Smashers do their thing on the 6:15 show, there was no point in going to see the others… The show was amazing, high energy band and crowd, awesome sound and non-stop fun.
I arrived on site just at the start of their set and was told to immediatly go watch them. And I did.

The tent was full to capacity, all standing room. The audience was bouncing and the people were all huge fans or new fans. There were people moshing in the center, security all at the front and everyone moving.

The five moving the most? The band. They were all over the stage, bouncing, playing, up on the speakers and running around. They were getting more of a workout than anyone there.

Their sound was great, and you really need to go find some music by The Planet Smashers to enjoy.

Whew! That’s a long title.

I’ll start this off with The B-52s, as everyone knows them by now. Love them or hate them, you have all heard their music over the years: Loveshack, Rock Lobster and many more. I was able to catch the beginning of their show, as they started a little late, and they are ready to go even these days. Their sound is exactly as you expect them to sound, which is amazing considering the years, and their onstage energy while I was watching was right up there.
The audience was quite large, and all there to see this band play. There was a huge variety, from the guy who looked like he was 3 days late for the Iron Maiden concert to the kids with their parents. The band on the other hand, does not present well up close. They have aged, and you can tell from any distance. I won’t post the shots, but there are some that really make them look old.

Now back to the Blacksheep stage. We had the Ethiopiques on earlier in the evening, doing some nice rhythms. The reminded me of 70′s era Bond music, and that’s not a bad thing to me. As with any of the good bands at this stage, they had the audience off their chairs and dancing with very little encouragement. They switched their lead singer up about halfway through the set, and unfortunately I did not foresee this, so we only have the second lead for photos. He photographed better anyway with the colorful vest and hat.

After another run of the same comedy group from the last 2 nights, we had our headliners up on the stage: The Septentrional D’Haiti. A large band with a Latin American, laid back sound. They entertained the crowds for the rest of the night, and people filtered in over the evening as they left other venues. Unfortunately they never really got a large crowd in the tent, but I suspect it’d due to the competition from the other stages. It is too bad as they were a good band and the show was worth watching. I really enjoyed the 4 piece brass section that they had, the sound was amazing.

I wandered over to the other stages to see what’s on, but I didn’t stay long. Over on the Subway stage was Steve Hackett. I’m not sure which guy on stage owns that name, but of the 2 people at the front, one was a woman, the other was dressed as a woman… It was a nice slow sound, upbeat and enjoyable. This band had drawn a nice large crowd and they knew the songs just by name, so it sounds like a following.

Finally, to end this long post, was Andrew Bird over on the Hard Rock stage. I went over and from the backstage area only could see 2 gramophone horns on the stage with mics setup to amplify the sound. Heading around the front of the stage I found a lone musician playing a violin and singing his tunes. His sound and technique really reminded me of Final Fantasy from a few years back. Setting up loops and effects on his pedals and then singing along with what he created. It’s a unique and very nice sound that I enjoy. I wish he had been on our stage!

And that’s all for that night, overall a good night. Friday could be interesting, I don’t remember who is playing right now, but it’s a good night for crowds, so we should see some large numbers.

We started the day off with the same comedy group as started yesterday. The acts were the same so we just skipped over that. The evening performance was a latin music group going by the name of Groupo Fantasma. They were a blast to listen to and watch. We setup the stage for the band before the comedians were on, and covered up the drum kit so we could let them perform. Once Groupo Fantasma were there we setup everything quickly and got them on stage. I was worried at first that they would not get a good audience, but they quickly convinced the people in the seats at the back to come down on the cleared floor to dance. Shortly the whole place was dancing, and it kept going for the whole show.

Groupo Fantasma is a high energy, non-stop latin music group. Their stage show is all about the music, each musician may show their stuff, but it’s all about the sound. The audience loved this, many of the members dancing(often with some skill), and as soon as the sound hit many more poured in.

Their lead singer did not just present a pretty face or a great singing voice, he worked just as hard on percussion right at the front of stage as any of them. I could go through the list of musicians, but it was huge.

Some more shots from the night:

Well, I found out a little bit back that Blacksheep stage was now the Blacksheep tent. Not a huge issue, except that the thermometer is hovering around 35 and humidity is around 75%. I headed off to Bluesfest on my squeaky bike(need to get some chain oil in there) and signed in. Oddly there was no lineup to sign in, which is awesome for the first day. Standing around outside in that heat would have been extremely uncomfortable. I signed in, saw some friends and headed up to the stage/tent. It turned out that this tent was going to be great to work at: it has air conditioning! I signed in, got my backstage pass and crew shirt, caught up with some old Bluesfest acquaintances and got to not working. There was not much to do tonight, as the comedy acts only really needed a mic and maybe a keyboard. Those are not my department and taken care of already, so we just kept busy doing odd jobs.

The first comedy set went up and I took off to see what was happening elsewhere on the site(I was having a hard time understanding the performers from the side or back of the stage at Blacksheep). The main stage area was filled with metal heads and faux-metal heads. It was an interesting site to see all these huge fans out to enjoy the headline band. As I looped around the outside of the site, there were the sketchy metal heads hanging around out of the grounds to get a free concert – and they did not look like the people you wanted to hang with.

The food was good, not amazing, but compared to when I started, anything is awesome.

The final act of the night was Wayne Brady, best known for his part in Who’s Line Is It Anyway? in North America(The Drew Carey version). The show he put on was basically a 2.5 man version of that show. He had another comedian on stage with him to work with, and a keyboardist(the .5 of a person) for the music. Many of the skits and segments done were similar to the ones you see on the show. Tonnes of audience participation, providing lyrics for songs, random words, jobs to sing about and situations for him to act out. A number of audience members were on stage during the act(by invitation) to move Wayne, do his sound effects or act as props. I don’t have any photos as there was a strict “no cameras” policy for this act, so we will see if I can get any over the next few nights.

The audience, technical crew and anyone else who was in the building spent the whole act laughing our asses off. If this is the stuff we will get for the comedy parts of our show, then we should be good to go. Air conditioning, good acts and a light workload made last night a fun start to Bluesfest.

Now to see if we can find a small pool to collect the cold condensed water pouring out of the AC unit and we should be able to keep cool.

Another year, another Bluesfest. I’ve been volunteering for Bluesfest for a number of years, and will be headed back again this year. Oddly enough I have somehow been able to work with the stage crew, as cheap labour to bring stuff onto and off of the stage between sets. This affords me a bit of access and some free time to listen to the sets. I will see if I can review and photograph the performances that I see. I cannot ensure I will see everything(too many stages to try) so most of these will be from my home stage at Blacksheep.

With the heat, this will be a real experience, I will need to keep an eye on the audience and crew for heat exhaustion and dehydration. Luckily I know a bunch of skilled ski patrollers that will be there with us. If I was not backstage I would be patrolling.

Tonight: I don’t know? The website is overloaded. What I do have is from my work schedule: Wayne Brady(a comedy act? This is new).

We will see how it goes.