Month: July 2007

I had class on Thursday night so I didn’t up at Bluesfest for much of anything…I caught the tail end of the Robert Cray Band (who I saw at the Eric Clapton concert back in the fall). Trish and Mike said they were top notch.

We then headed into the crowd to catch Blue Rodeo. There was definitely a big crowd there for the event and I must admit I was a little excited to see them as this would be the first time in doing so. Like every other act on the bill, I don’t own their album, but am familiar with their hits. Blue Rodeo is no exception although a lot of their songs have been introduced to me after playing them with Troy on the guitar.

Planted in spot with my beer, I peered around and realized it was yet another beautiful night out there. A little cold I must admit and it didn’t help that I had the t-shirt on, but no matter, rock would warm my soul.

Blue Rodeo was better than I had expected. I had these expectations of a country-esque night, but this is not true. They still know how to put on a rock show! The sing-alongs, the guitar jams, the slide guitar (yowza!)…it had it all. Who doesn’t love having the entire crowd singing Hasn’t Hit Me Yet? Try and Bad Timing were also two faves as I’ve played it with Troy quite a few times. Hearing them live made me pick up the guitar the next day and hash out a few of their tunes.

I just found out that the Jim Cuddy Band is opening for John Fogerty this Wednesday which means I’ll get a taste of Blue Rodeo once again (however, I am unfamiliar with his sound and perhaps it is severely different from Blue Rodeo.)

I remember gazing up at the stars during a few songs and just thinking “It’s good to be here, right here, right now.” Bluesfest has become quite the event for me this year and I’m slowly coming off of the high that music for 11 days straight gives to a person.

Blue Rodeo stated “As long as there is a Bluesfest here, we’ll be here.”

Awesome.

iplaying: Death from Above – The Smashing Pumpkins (Zeitgeist)

Setlist

Til I Am Myself Again
Rose-Coloured Glasses
Better Off as We Are
Trust Yourself
Side of the Road
What Am I Doing Here
Bad Timing
How Long
Head Over Heels
Diamond Mine
Moon & Tree
All the Things That Are Left Behind
Lost Together

Hasn’t Hit Me Yet
It Could Happen to You

I’m trying to recollect my memory of Wednesday night now that it’s nearly a week past that point. A lot of work on the video got in the way of updates…

We showed up for a good time from the Steve Miller Band and we were NOT disappointed. This also turned into a night of impromptu partying which was fine for the majority of us. The Steve Miller Band started with a little Fly Like an Eagle which resulted in a 15 jam session along with a rapper. They could have ended right there and we would have been fine. But they just kept coming with the hits. Take The Money and Run, Jet Airliner…they never stopped! I was moving to and from our spot to get some more beer and when I returned Mike pointed out the unthinkable.

Gordie Johnson was up on stage jamming to Crossroads.

Gordie Johnson.

Gordie Johnson is best known for his work in Big Sugar which disbanded a few years back. I have always wanted to see Big Sugar live as Gordie Johnson is a loud guitar player. I knew he was around the area as I heard a rumour that he subbed into the Joel Plaskett Emergency when their guitarist couldn’t show up.

But I didn’t realize that his new band Grady were the opening act the night of Steve Miller! I was pretty upset the next day when I realized this. It was at their show that Steve Miller’s ears perked up and said “Boy, I like the sound of that.” and so an invitation for a few songs was granted to Gordie to come jam with the Steve Miller Band. Awesome. This is what festivals are all about.

All in all, one of the better concerts seen at Bluesfest! Do NOT miss the chance to see Steve Miller if you can!

*photo taken from the Ottawa Sun*
iplaying: Starz (The Smashing Pumpkins – Zeitgeist)

Setlist

Fly Like an Eagle
Living in the U.S.A.
Abracadabra
Mercury Blues [K.C. Douglas]
Threshold
Take the Money and Run
Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma
Swingtown
The Joker
Serenade
True Fine Love
The Stake
Wild Mountain Honey
Dance Dance Dance
Rock’n Me
Winter Time

Jet Airliner [Paul Pena]

We started off the night right by hitting up Bluesfest for some fish and chips for dinner. Let’s be honest…when you enter the gauntlet which is Bluesfest (10 days of rocking), you slowly run out of groceries at home and it’s a lot easier to eat out. But this is a bad thing people! Palmer’s advice – Pick up some groceries!

Met Vero’s friend Chantal at the Jonny Lang concert and we were hanging with Karilee, Krista, Mike and Trish. Jonny Lang has been around for the past decade and he’s still young! He was entertaining but the cream of the crop was the guy manning the tambourine and one song brought him out in the spotlight with his spot-on impression of a train conductor (pulls the cable, Woo-Woo!). There was also this excellent dancer across the field who was into the music.

So, back to Jonny…he was a great guitar player. He had the greatest face while pulling off his licks. Krista referred to it as his ‘sex’ face. I would hate to think that this is actually the face he has while having sex. I found there were a few too many ballads coming out of his set, but this is a premature analysis considering I thought he was only one for one hour and I think he played for 2 hours and I only caught 45 minutes of their set.

Why did I only catch 45 minutes of the show? Because it was time to head out to Buddy Guy at the River Stage! We headed to the beer tent to stock up on beer. Please refer to a future entry which will be the latest in my Open Letter series to Bluesfest. Let’s just say that whatever happened to us is more atrocious than the lawnchair people.

(insert the future entry on the Open Letter of the Transition between the Rogers Stage and the River Stage.)

We show up to the River Stage and I can hear the sweet tones of Buddy Guy eminating from the stage. We couldn’t see too well as we were very far from the stage and in front of many tall individuals. This was unfortunate. But the sounds…the SOUNDS!

Let’s talk about Buddy Guy for a moment. Yet another artist whom I don’t know anything about. All we know about him is that he’s 73 years old and can still rock. He taught Hendrix, Clapton, Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughn everything they know about the stage performance and guitar playing. Who invented playing the guitar with their teeth? Buddy Guy. That’s right.

The fascinating aspect of Buddy Guy is that he was very erratic with his show. He would be in the middle of a song, get bored of it, yell out “Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute!”, end the song, talk about how he taught some guitar player a song, then rip into some Hendrix for us. Then he would get tired of it and move onto something else. At least he made it seamless and the band knew he was like this. It is almost like it was planned.

There was also a moment where he left the stage and kept playing. I had read about this and realized that he was probably going to get a drink or go to the washroom! Sure enough, he stops playing for 90 seconds and then starts up again and shows up on the stage about 4 minutes later! Ha ha! I had these visions of him walking back to the porta-potty, doing his business and then heading back to the stage.

The abrupt nature of the show didn’t stop as he started a song and as soon as he was done the first verse he abruptly left the stage and that was the show! Very odd! But it didn’t matter. We were witness to a legend. This man could play. REALLY PLAY. He didn’t slow down at all and he was a great showman. I am definitely going to open up my knowledge of music to include Buddy Guy. If you have the opportunity to check him out, do so. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

We headed back down to Bluesfest on Friday night to check out Bela Fleck and the Flecktones on the Rogers Stage. All I know about them is that Mike loves these guys and he plays a mean banjo. With that information in hand, we headed out, found an excellent spot in front of the stage (look more room over at the Rogers stage!) and settled in.

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones were amazing. I definitely had them as the best show of the Bluesfest (and it’s only the second night!) after watching them. They had Bela who is this amazing banjo player…then they have Victor Wooten who plays a mean bass.

The cream of the crop is Future Man who plays his own invention – the Synthaxe Drumitar which is a MIDI controller shaped like a guitar. It was amazing! The fact that he came out in a pirate outfit doesn’t hurt either. Actually, I am having a good laugh now after reading Wikipedia for this information and find out the guy’s name is Future Man.

Let’s not forget Jeff Coffin on horns, more specifically playing two saxaphones at the same time!

Honestly, they put on an amazing show of their talents. Mostly instrumental, it kept me grooving all night long.

Sunday night we headed down to see The White Stripes. We got there a bit early and didn’t feel like checking out the other acts so we just found a great spot to stand around in which wasn’t too far off from our spot where we watched George Thorogood.

There was this small fellow in front of me taking pictures with his nice Nikon camera. He was getting some good shots during the night. At one point this one guy offered to get him up on his back to get a better view so I hoisted the guy up and held him up on this guy’s back while he snapped some shots. I should have asked him to send me some!

I don’t know much about The White Stripes. All I know is that Jack and Meg White consist of the band so I wondered how amazing that would be. I also don’t own any albums.

They put on one of the more energetic shows that I’ve seen! Jack White can wail on that guitar and Meg pounds the drums like a human metronome. I enjoy their stage decor also – the white and red theme plays well in a stage setting. They had a red cloth draped from the top to the bottom and they had multiple microphones positioned around the stage which made it interesting to watch. I especially liked when Jack sauntered up some steps to an upper platform and performed his Godzilla walk. The shadows played well throughout the set also. Very well thought out.

Even though I didn’t know any of their songs, I was impressed by the sheer rock of the show. Two thumbs up.

Setlist

Stop Breakin’ Down Blues [Robert Johnson]
When I Hear My Name
Cannon
John the Revelator [Traditional]
Death Letter [Son House]
300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues
Lord, Send Me an Angel [Blind Willie McTell]
Wasting My Time
Instinct Blues
I Fought Piranhas
Let’s Build a Home
Give Me Back My Wig [Hound Dog Taylor]
Catch Hell Blues
Astro
Cool Drink of Water Blues [Tommy Johnson]
Ball and Biscuit

Icky Thump
In the Cold, Cold Night
Hotel Yorba
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
Black Math
I’m Slowly Turning Into You
Seven Nation Army
Boll Weevil [Lead Belly]

iplaying: Neverlost – The Smashing Pumpkins (Zeitgeist)

After Bela Fleck and the Flecktones left the stage we headed over to the beer and refresher stations. We managed to become masters of the peeing relay race. We had Sara, Krista, Matt, Mike and myself all with beer in our hands. Not wanting to bring it into the porta-potty, we managed to send Mike and Sara into the porta-pottys while we held onto the other beer. Because they weren’t out by the time a stall became open, we let one of the guys (who was complaining about his bladder bursting five minutes before) go ahead of us. He was so ecstatic that he ran into Sara’s stall and we heard a yelp! We all had a good laugh at that. Mike emerged and grabbed some beer and we got Krista into the washroom. It was a great example of logistics at a festival.

May I point out that the beer lines were stellar this evening but the washrooms weren’t not as good. May I also point out that some guy gave us a great deal (unknowingly) on beer…2 for $6 instead of 2 for $11! Mike and I both walked away with this great deal with smiles on our faces.

We managed to follow the crowd in and find an excellent spot to check out George Thorogood. It’s all about going with the flow of the crowd. When we settled in, we noticed that the big screen had a ticker tape running on the bottom of it so that you can text message a message onto the screen. Knowing this, I borrowed Krista’s cellphone and text messaged “Mike, will you marry me? – Ryan” and it showed up 20 minutes later! It was hilarious. I am hoping that someone in the crowd read that and knew Mike.

I must admit that I found the text messaging to be highly distracting though. Half the time you want to watch the stage and see what’s going on but there is this carrot dangling in front of you called ‘text messages’ and you are always interested in seeing what’s going to be displayed.

Once again (as with most of the Bluesfest 2007 artists), I don’t really know a lot of George Thorogood’s music. But they put on a rockin’ good time. Mike mentioned to me that there were a lot of songs he recognized but never knew it was George Thorogood who played it. We had some Bad to the Bone, Who Do You Love and the classic – One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer. Great sing along tune.

At the end, George pretended to pass out from the sheer crowd noise and his band had to revive him. They then ended the night with O Canada playing with some videos of flags waving. Oh George, how patriotic art thou?

All in all, they put a good time and everyone came out of there happy for the good Friday night of rock.

We then decided to head out to the new Heart and Crown up on Preston Street for a beer. I jogged ahead to Sara’s place to find Chris and his buddy hanging out. Later on, Krista was complaining about her shoulder being sore so I was demonstrating that she should swing it like Pete Townshend plays his guitar – like a windmill. So I rev up my arm into windmill swinging action but fail to realize that there is a doorway directly above me. My arm swings once, twice, CRACK! Oh man, I busted up my hand pretty good. My thumb is pretty good three days later but it was hard on me for the first bit! Mental note in life – While performing any Pete Townshend impressions, be aware of your surroundings!

We then headed out to the Heart and Crown and I saw a rockshaw, a rickshaw with a booming sound system and crazy lights.

The new Heart and Crown was decent. The service there was a little insane and we found out from Mike’s friend who works there that they were severely understaffed that night – no bouncers, no waiters, etc. I even had to grab a broom from the backroom and clean up some broken glass in the washroom (Palmer did not break any glass. It was there when I got there.) So at first glance I would say that the new Heart and Crown has some potential to be a great place, but I would have to say I prefer the original so far.

Update: Judging from the comments section a few posts below this one, a ‘Kim’ said she was at the show. The only Kim I know is my cousin Kim and I am shocked that you were in town and didn’t hook up with the Palmer. Here’s an open notice to anyone coming into town for a good time – you’re always welcome at my home, and I always accept a Bluesfest beer.