Friday during the day I didn’t do a whole lot. It was the last day of vacation so it was spent picking up a dehumidifier from Costco (third time going and it finally pays off!) and I also did a few other errands.
The main event of the night was Bluesfest as Anne-Marie and Steve were coming out for the festival. Woohoo! As we left Evan in his screaming state with Aunt Vero, we hightailed it to Mike’s palace of beer and had a quick one before hightailing it. I was already berating him for whatever silly thing he was doing that evening and I was on fire! However, the tables quickly turned when we were halfway to the concert and I realized I had forgot our tickets in the car! Doh! I felt horrible. We were trying to hightail it there to see Gord Downie start up as it was Steve’s favourite artist in the world and we didn’t want him to miss it.
Anne-Marie and I jogged back to the car and let me tell you, huffing wind after a few beer…not easy! We made it back to Steve and Mike where Mike berated me for the rest of the night. Well-deserved good sir, well-deserved! I kept the pace going because I knew we wouldn’t make it on time if we took our time.
While walking through the festival grounds I said “Who the heck is THAT awesomeness?” and it was the John Butler Trio who Mike wanted to see. Sorry Mike! I feel bad after realizing how great they were.
Ten seconds after arriving at the beer tent at the Subway stage, Gord Downie showed up and recited a little poetry and started things off. Success! We made it in time. We grabbed a few beers and found a spot which wasn’t dwarfed by umbrellas.
***Bluesfest 101***
Upon arriving at Bluesfest, I let Steve and Anne-Marie into a few history lessons about the Bluesfest including the ‘Three Bones of Contention (which a seldomly seen fourth)’. They are as follows:
1. People with Lawn chairs
2. People with Umbrellas
3. Noise By-Law
4 (seldom seen since 2006): That guy with the freaking guitar in the air! Mike swears he saw the same guy walk by that night but I didn’t think it was the same guy. Either way, if you hoist a guitar up in my line of sight, that thing is going down!
***End Bluesfest 101***
After losing Steve and Anne-Marie to a beer run, Mike and I headed over to see Courtney Love and Hole take the stage. She opened up with Sympathy for the Devil which was an odd choice. Mike put it ever so eloquently “Who opens up with a well-known cover tune?” Hole was surprisingly awesome. I am a big fan and I was wondering if Courtney Love would come on stage all out of it considering it was her birthday. I was impressed with the screaming vocals and the general vibe given off by the band.
We did end up heading back to Gord Downie right near the end to find our two lost cohorts in crime as we realized we never had set up a meeting point of we got separated. We found them, checked out the rest of Hole’s set and meandered around Bluesfest. We stumbled into Benoit and Michael near the beer tent and we listened to Joan Jett for a bit…quite the rocker! And then headed on a tour of the entire fairgrounds and ended up sitting outside the Comedy Tent and listened to a rather crass Louis CK spew out some jokes. It was a relaxing night as we sat on the hilltop and sipping a beer.
I then topped off the evening with a trip to the Elgin Street Diner which impressed Anne-Marie and Steve. I was either really hungry or they don’t make the poutines as large as they used to! Anne-Marie then drove us home and we hit the sack. All in all, it was a great night at Bluesfest once again…especially when the rain stopped!