*Note: all photos taken from Flickr. Click on them to view other photos taken by the photographers! They take great shots and should be looked at!*
2012 marks the first year that I have ever attended the Ottawa Folk Festival. Four days into the festival, I’m really not sure why I never bothered! It is a great time.
Last year marked the first year that Mark Monahan and company took over the logistics of the Folk Festival. I believe this spearheaded an increase in awesome acts that I was interested in seeing. In fact, I would say that I’m having a better time at Folk Festival than I did at Bluesfest this year. Don’t get wrong, Bluesfest was still great, but I’m enjoying the lineup from Folk Festival a lot more!
The FF is held at Hogs Back Park which is conveniently located next to a parking lot at Vincent Massey Park which was advertised as a paid parking area, but mysteriously has been a free parking lot all weekend long. Plus no one seems to know about this little factoid so it proves to be easy to get in and out of!
The first night had some intense beer lineups and a few logistical issues that affected Mike but other than that, the setup is super well done.
The vibe there is also interesting…there are a lot of families with their kids and they make an event out of it. There are a lot of lawn chairs, there’s babies with ear protectors on, there’s the salt of the earth old guys with beards to their knees. It’s a pretty chill event and I feel like I am just more at ease watching the music unfold compared to Bluesfest where it’s such this grand event that it’s a little intense at times. If you know me, you know how I loathe the lawn chairs at Bluesfest, but this festival just calls for it.
Let’s call a spade a spade here…I am invading this festival. I am an outsider to these other folks who have come here for years and have established that it’s alright to set up a tarp and take up oodles of space for you and your family. But at the same time, I’m looking at them and saying “This is freaking awesome! I can bring my family to a festival? Two thumbs up!”
And now onto a few reviews:
Matt Mays
New album out! The band is back! If you do not know this man who hails from Halifax, what are you waiting for? It was a great rocking set with a few tracks from the new album, sprinkled with some classics. PLUS I got to hear Terminal Romance live again which pulled on my heart strings again. Only complaint was that the lead guitar was NOT mixed at all into the PA from we could tell. Bummer. Anyhow, check them out on their fall tour…on now!
Matthew Good
A stark contrast to Matt Mays’ electrifying set, Matthew Good had nothing but an acoustic guitar. This completely made sense seeing that it was a folk festival. In the end, I have never really been a big fan of Matt Good so to hear his songs acoustic didn’t do much for me and I roamed the area checking out some booths for a bit. Also stumbled into an old student of ours (Jill) who happened to be the student who interviewed Vero for her job along with Benoit! I should have asked about the bone earring!
- Born Losers
- Metal Airplanes
- While We Were Hunting Rabbits
- Sort of a Protest Song
- Load Me Up
- Strange Days
- 99% of Us Is Failure
- Suburbia
- Alert Status Red
- Motorway to Roswell (Pixies cover)
Ben Harper
I’ve seen Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 a few times and they put on a rocking good show. I was excited to see this in action again but then realized that this was Ben Harper solo and he would go forth and blow me away with his acoustic guitar, xylophone and some uke. It was really interesting seeing him in this element. I don’t know much of Ben Harper so for all I know, this is generally how he plays music and his electric stuff is rare. Either way, to hear a cover song of Indifference by Pearl Jam put a smile on my face.
Trouble Man (Marvin Gaye cover)
Indifference (Pearl Jam cover)
(Unknown)
Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen cover)
Kathleen Edwards
I saw her show for the first time in the spring and was blown away. I was doubly blown away by the tight, tight band they are now after awhile of touring the Voyageur album. There wasn’t much chatter until the end where she opened up about taking some time off touring to get her bearings in life. I really enjoy this gal from Ottawa and I expect bigger and better things from her in the future.
- Mint
- Empty Threat
- Asking For Flowers
- Going to Hell
- Six O’Clock News
- Chameleon/Comedian
- Change the Sheets
- A Soft Place to Land
- 12 Bellevue
- For the Record
Old Man Luedecke
Mike hauled me over to check this banjo player out after Timber Timbre wasn’t proving to be the most exciting thing I have ever seen. I am super happy that Mike brought us over here because it proved to be a great time! From the East Coast, Old Man Luedecke and his friend with mandolin in tow brought forth some great tunes with a Canadian vibe. My favourite part of the show was when he described how he wanted to meet surfers. “I’ve always wanted to meet some surfers. They seem cool…they go surfing for two hours of the day and then relax for the rest. That seems like a lifestyle I can become one with. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to meet any surfers, so I can’t write a song about them, so I did the closest thing that would relate to people. So this is a song about falling down drunk on a beach.”
Lindsey Buckingham
Fleetwood Mac would never have been without Lindsey Buckingham. So it’s great to show up for a rock legend. With an acoustic guitar in hand which was cranked to the point where I wondered if it could get any louder, he dazzled me with his guitar prowess throughout the next two hours. I definitely am not a connoisseur of his solo work (small machine) or Fleetwood Mac (big machine), but what he provided us was entertaining enough. I was hoping to hear Go Your Own Way and I definitely did! He had some looping stations at his feet that would trigger background rhythm as well as backup vocals. Neat! I should play around with that concept one day. During a wicked guitar solo the PA cut out on him! He left the stage for a bit and came back for a few more once it was fixed. The crowd begged him for the song again so he attempted it again but the PA cut out again! I feel this is too much of a coincidence…I think his backing rhythm track was too much for the system to handle and shut it down both times. Anyhow, it was a great show considering.
Corb Lund
Mike dragged me out to catch Corb Lund, a Canadian country singer. When I say dragged, it was because the entire day was full of monsoon type weather. I grabbed a rain jacket and my rubber boots and hit the ground running. It wasn’t too bad once we got there but there were times where the rain just pelted us. Luckily, Mike is (and always will be) the man and spied a nice little tent off to the side of the stage where we could get some shelter! With beer in hand, we enjoyed Corb Lund and his songs about drinking rye, meeting goth chicks and generally, some fun tunes. I’m sure one day I will become one with the country music scene…where everyone knows the words and are having an amazing time coming from the Pontiac to see an idol. I will definitely check out a few of his tunes in the future.
Paul Langlois
Famously known across Canada for his membership within The Tragically Hip, Paul Langlois brought along Robbie Baker for his third ever solo show where he played tunes from his album. Mike and I stayed for a few tunes until I went to get something to eat (the schwarma was tasty!). They were interesting enough tunes but nothing to write home about. I did have a good laugh when between songs he would try and be cordial with the crowd but at one point said “I’m not usually the front man so I’m not sure what I’m supposed to talk about here.”
Great Lake Swimmers
Mike’s old roommate Dave introduced me to this Canadian gem of folk music. I describe it as music to listen to while you’re on a dock somewhere…very low-key stuff but amazing musicianship amongst the entire band with melodies you will be humming until you enter the grave. They are touring their new album New Wild Everywhere which is amongst their best. They even ended the night with a song by Gram Parsons. We ended up forgetting about seeing Great Big Sea and headed home to get out of the cold, cold weather.
Patrick Watson
Listen, I’m going to say it right here, I think Patrick Watson stole the show. The two hours were mesmerizing. I know Patrick Watson from his Polaris Prize winning album Closer to Paradise and have fallen off the radar with his newer stuff. But I’m back in baby! The sights and sounds from the stage were ethereal in nature and you can’t help yourself but get lost within the music coming from the stage. This is not your typical band…they play all sorts of instruments and effects and have a great repertoire with the audience. The only thing that was disappointing was the sound bleed from the other stage but we moved a little to the left and it balanced it all out. I’m awarding Best Show of Folk Festival to these guys.
Setlist
Words in the Fire
Into Giants
To Build a Home [The Cinematic Orchestra]
Where the Wild Things Are
Dan Mangan
A Canadian superstar in the making, Dan Mangan brings a charm to the stage that I feel is reserved for the great songwriters across Canada (like Lightfoot!). Backed by an incredible band, the crowd was sparse, the night was cold, but he gave us a great show which involved a slew of people dressed as robots hitting the stage at one point, and a sing-along on the final song which was premiered the last time he was in Ottawa in the spring. I have to be honest in saying that for a band that has been on the road since the spring, I thought it would have been a much tighter set (musically) but there were a few things missing. I’m not sure if it was due to the it being FREAKING COLD OUT or if it was just that Dan Mangan is much better listened to within a hall instead of a festival. Either way, I didn’t walk away disappointed and the crowd enjoyed him.
Setlist
About as Helpful as You Can Be Without Being Any Help at All
Oh Fortune
Sold
Leaves, Trees, Forest
If I Am Dead
Post-War Blues
Basket
Starts With Them, Ends With Us
Robots
Rows of Houses
Regarding Death and Dying
Jeopardy
So Much for Everyone
Hey Rosetta!
A last minute addition to the lineup when the Lumineers bowed out, we arrived to see Hey Rosetta KILLING it on stage to a crowd of 12,000 people…the largest crowd of the festival. I had read somewhere that University students got discounted (or free?) tickets that night and they showed up in droves. The place was packed and they were loving the band and the band was loving them. Tim Baker made some comments about how much energy was being thrown out there for a Monday night. I am glad that they fed off that energy and put on an amazing show…MUCH better than when I saw them at Bluesfest earlier in the summer. Perhaps it was a combination of a great crowd, a night-time show and a band who were on a tour break and got called back in…but it all added up to one of the Top 3 shows of the festival in my opinion.
Bon Iver
Bon Iver isn’t for everyone. His falsetto voice and his “I’m sitting in my cottage recording this in the middle of the winter so don’t expect it to be anything but somber” music styles took me awhile to get into, but once I did, I was hooked. We had to go move our vehicles at the beginning of the set but I could hear from a distance that the band was fantastic. Coupled with a SLEW of bandmates on stage, he faithfully recreates his original songs and adds some live flair to them as well. Live flair is defined (by me) as giving the audience a little something more to the song. A song doesn’t have to be a carbon copy of what is heard on the album…it can be breathe a little more outside and become a new thing altogether. I really enjoyed the lighting and sounds coming from the stage. Definitely not disappointed from what I assumed would be a guy with a guitar, keys, and a bunch of backing tracks from a laptop!
Other Highlights
– What other festival can you arrive on Day 1 with shorts and a t-shirt and leave on Day 5 wearing a winter coat and a toque? No joke, I was getting colder every day and it wasn’t until the final day where I bit the bullet and brought out full parka gear that I enjoyed myself a little more. Miserable weather for the most part.
– Urinal Corn – Someone found a half eaten bag of kettle corn in the porta-potty. It was tied off at the top, didn’t look suspect. There were many dares going around to eat it or not with me taking the plunge with a handful. People are so paranoid over little things like that when in reality, it was probably just some drunk guy who accidentally left his awesome kettle corn in the washroom. The best part was when we pawned it off to some guy who, when asked by his girlfriend where he got it from he said “It doesn’t matter baby. Just eat it.” Classic.
– Layout/Organization – I really didn’t mind the festival at all. I thought the layout was great, there were enough beer tents, and our parking over at Vincent Massey Park was incredible. It wasn’t too far to walk to the grounds every day either.
I have to say it, Ottawa Folk Festival was probably my favourite festival of the year. While I do love Bluesfest, I enjoyed the lineup more at this festival and the smaller, laid-back affair which this was. Krista warned me that Bluesfest used to be this way and it’s only a matter of time…well, I say bring it on. It’s much deserved!
Special thanks to my friends who made the trip out…Mike and Rachel who was with me each night…Trish, Jill, Krista and Ben for Night #1, and the rest of the festival with Amanda, Becky and Wes.