Well this is it. The final day of Bluesfest. It’s been a long ride…one that I took four days off from. I must admit that I was a little disappointed to sell off my Saturday ticket. I was expecting to spend the evening with Vero for the first time without guests in the house…but then she had to go to a Bachelorette party! Serves me right for spending all week long at Mike’s place and not remember this fact! So I stayed in on Saturday night wondering what kind of fun I was missing out on.
On the final night of Bluesfest, we headed over to Krista and Ben’s place for some BBQ and then hightailed it back down for the final time and headed to the Mill Street main brew tent to try out their Stout. It was a decent stout as all products of Mill Street are. In fact, I highly recommend you trying out the Extra Special Bitter which was my fave of the festival. However, the Lemon Tea was good as well, but I couldn’t handle the sugary taste all night long.
The Lost Fingers took the Subway stage a little late and the crowd was pretty sparse…I’m not sure if it was due to the Jimmy Cliff show happening at the other stage or not. Either way, I was loving the extra space and I was loving the Lost Fingers. They are a French group who appear on stage with acoustic guitars, a stand-up bass and purple suits. Perfect! They have a knack of re-envisioning old classics in a way that hasn’t been heard in awhile…I really enjoyed their AC/DC medley and was hoping to catch them play their excellent rendition of Pump Up the Jam. They mix up both French and English tunes which was a welcome change. I give the band two thumbs up for their fun nature!
We then headed to ‘the spot’ for Weezer. I am glad we left when we did because it didn’t take long for the crowd to pile up behind us. We found Vero munching on a poutine with ketchup (gak!) and settled in for the ride.
I will admit that when I heard that Weezer was playing, the thoughts that ran through my head were “Cool. I like Weezer. I love the Blue Album and it should be a decent show.” But I wasn’t prepared for the feeling that arose within me as they started playing.
Weezer is a powerhouse of a band on stage and I couldn’t get over the full-on rock show they can deliver. Rivers Cuomo was all over the stage, waving his hands around and geeking out. I just assumed that he would be playing guitar for the most part, but that didn’t happen that much at all! He was stage left, stage right, in behind the stage, walking into the crowd, walking to the sound booth, climbing the lighting rigs…that guy moved! I especially loved the trampoline in front of the raised drum kit so that he can get up there in one superhero-like bound. Fan-freaking-tastic!
The tunes, OH the tunes they played. I swear they played the majority of the Blue Album. In fact, I will let it be known that as soon as Surf Wax America came on, the following events occurred:
– visions of me pretending to surf to this song in Vero’s living room
– visions of me pretending to surf in my parents living room while listening to some old ‘surf tunes’ LP that I would put on before the bus would show up in the morning. I’m sure Maureen has seen me fake-surf in the living room back in the day.
– Palmer circa 1995 rammed into my soul. I had the energy of a 17 year old and started bopping around. I don’t know where it came from me but it was the most amazing feeling in the world. I wanted to rush the stage and jump around with all my cohorts in crime. It was fabulous.
– My friends in behind me must have thought I went insane. It never let up. The entire show was like that. Fist-pumping, song chanting, just these waves of alternative 90s rock waving over me.
In the end, it was my favourite show of Bluesfest. It hit me totally unexpected…I never knew how much I loved Weezer until this moment. They put on a fabulous, fabulous show. They even covered some MGMT and Lady Gaga in the end which was great. Rivers is quite the showman. He’s talking to the crowd, he’s interacting with them, he’s jumping into garbage cans…there was just hilarity going on at all moments.
Sigh…I miss that show already. It was a fantastic, fantastic show and it brought the good concert-going feeling in me. I can’t believe the Ottawa Citizen didn’t even write a review about the show in the paper the next day. They opted for a ‘Bluesfest Review’ (which was an excellent write-up), but come on! One of the best ‘fest shows doesn’t even get a write-up?
It doesn’t matter. Weezer won best Bluesfest show for me. Hands down. Well done gentlemen, well done.