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Concert Reviews

Day 10 – Ottawa Bluesfest – Lynryd Skynyrd

For the life of me, I can’t recall what I did on Saturday afternoon…I’m assuming we relaxed around the house for awhile. But at night, we headed back out to what had to be a great show…Lynyrd Skynyrd! We arrived while Ludacris was playing the Rogers Stage, grabbed a beer and headed to ‘the spot’. We couldn’t get close to ‘the spot’, so we just planted ourselves where we would be comfortable as well as convenient to nab a beer. We did end up right in front of Joe’s brother Ivo and his wife so that was fun.

Lynyrd Skynyrd did not disappoint whatsoever. Only this band would call their tour the ‘God and Guns’ tour and they had a backdrop to show it! I don’t know MANY songs from the band, but Mike was loving every moment of it. We did manage to make it closer up front near the end of the set and at that point, there was a guy chatting to Mike who was PLASTERED drunk but was amusing. He even saw me and say “Hey, do you know this guy (pointing to Mike)? I work with him!” where Mike just shakes his head meaning “I have no idea who this dude is!”. We managed to convince him that his friends were ahead of us so he shuffled off closer to the stage.

Of course, the highlight of the night was witnessing Free Bird in the live format. Mike and I were ecstatic! This was THE song which has infiltrated rock and roll pop culture…I’m sure if Beethoven were alive, someone would ask him to cover that song! It was great and definitely one of the better 10 minutes in rock history for us. Awesome!

Mike, Matt and I then headed down to the Market to meet up with (another) Mike’s bachelor party which was in full swing. Thank the Lord for cellular phones as we would have had no idea where to meet them. We stood in line at the Heart and Crown before deciding to hit up the gentleman’s club which was going to be their next stop. Then it turned out that they decided to go elsewhere and that we should meet them at the Heart and Crown. There was Mike in all his glory and I had a good laugh seeing him in a blissful state. It was good to see a bunch of the guys I haven’t seen in awhile. Shannon made it down for the event which was great!

We ended up deciding to head out to another gentleman’s club so we piled into the truck and by the time we got to the club, we had lost half the entourage as they had gone home for the night! What the heck?

In the end, the night was decent…there was another bachelor at the club who was beyond repair and was amusing to see. I also noticed everyone in the bar wearing Corono straw hats and I found out later that there was a promotion that night if you bought a bucket of beer.

The night ended as it always does…too soon…but it was a good time all around.