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Seven bands, four stages, too many drinks

Last night, we caught seven different bands, some for a whole set but most for just a few songs. Clearly, it was our busiest Bluesfest day so far, and probably the busiest one there’ll be.

We showed up in the early afternoon to see Joel Plaskett. He actually played two shows yesterday—lucky for us, because the first show was in a small theatre inside the War Museum. Which only seats about 230 people. And we were 258 and 259. Bo-urns, we said. But then we walked over to the Black Sheep stage and caught a few songs by hometown band My Dad vs. Yours. They’re a hard-rocking instrumental group, and I really liked what I saw. Too bad the music was drowned out by my bellowing “Ottawa represent!” over and over and over. (This did not happen.)

After this, we saw Fight, Fight, Fight over at the River Stage, great venue, mediocre music. I guess they’re a punk band, but the line between rock and punk to me is pretty indistinct at times. I guess what makes them punk is that their lead singer was terrible. About halfway through we took off and went to see Spiral Beach play. We’d seen them open for the Hidden Cameras on Shelley’s birthday, and I wanted to check them out again. Super young kids; super talented. They’re essentially a bunch of spazes, but the music is tight and fun, and I’d see them again in a heartbeat.

We killed time waiting for Plaskett 2 and watched Leo Kottke’s set. One guy, folky guitar, folksy stories. I may have liked it or been remotely interested if I hadn’t just come from seeing a great show. Isha caught up with us around this point, and that’s when Plaskett started. He was awesome. I don’t know what else to say. It was his second show of the day and he’d played three shows at the Winnipeg Folk Festival just the day before, but the music didn’t suffer for it.

Killed a bit more time at the River Stage again and heard half of Shout Out Out Out’s set. We were busy talking, drinking, and eating, so I can’t say much about the band other than they play good music to drink beer and eat mini donuts to. Hawksley Workman was next, back at the Black Sheep stage. I wanted to like him. I tried very hard to. But I failed. Sorry, Jay. He’s very talented and he’s got an unbelievable voice, but he’s also pretty clearly in love with himself. He was playing at the same time as the White Stripes though, and he had a small but very devoted audience, so it may have been a for the fans show, and he may have been ramping up the theatricality and the affectation a bunch, I can’t say for sure. We split a few songs in and closed the night with The White Stripes. The crowd was huge, the music was loud, and it was pretty great all in all. Sadly, I recognized exactly one of the songs, but I’m not all that familiar with their catalogue. The last song we caught before heading home was “Icky Thump,” which I dig, but he had the audience sing the part with the all the la las and that bummed my out. Jack White: unbelievable with a guitar. Meg White: holds a steady beat. The people who write The Onion agree.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Adventuresome!

That's my word that sums up everything.

In other news, a lot of repetitive-wordy-word-word band names.

J
Anonymous said…
I would of expected that Black Sheep played on the Black Sheep stage. But then again, I am easily confused.

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