Exciting times ahead! First day of Bluesfest has hit us! Vero and I braved the torrential downpours to drive out to Bronson Avenue where I was meeting someone to sell my ticket to the Saturday show as I am playing at HOPE Volleyball that day. After securing that transaction we made our way to the grounds. This year they have eliminated wristbands but have implemented a ‘scan your ticket to get in, scan your ticket to get out’ policy for each day. Probably a smart idea considering the wristbands were the same thing each year. 😉
Vero being the nice girlfriend realized that the first stop should be the beer tent. This year they have implemented a wristband for the beer tents in that you show your ID, get a wristband and then the beer servers don’t have to check IDs all the time. Again, a good idea to speed up the process!
The grounds weren’t too full at all but that’s probably due to the rain that had just hit. We found Mike to the right of the sound booth at the Rogers stage listening to Amanda Rheaume. I had a great laugh when he told me that he escaped the rain showers by hiding out in the port-a-potty for ten minutes! Random note about the washrooms this year…they stink! They must have cut the budget on that chemical stuff they usually put in there.
We decided to move up to the front of the stage to see Amanda Rheaume, an Ottawa gal. She was quite entertaining and I really enjoyed the overall band. When we got up close to the stage we noticed that her shirt was unbuttoned about three or four down and you could see her bra so we figured that this was the look she was going for. Poor thing didn’t realize this had happened as she quickly did up all the buttons once she finally realized a few songs later! She was pretty self-conscious about it for the rest of the set! Heck, who wouldn’t be? “Hey Mom, I get to play Bluesfest! Oh dang…look at the photo the Ottawa Citizen took…” Two thumbs up for Amanda Rheaume and her band. Thoroughly entertaining.
We traipsed around the Bluesfest grounds while we heard Amos the Transparent play in the background. From what I could hear, I wasn’t overly impressed but I wasn’t paying too much attention. We ended up bumping into Danny and Kathy, Tina and Neil and Mike’s cousin in the span of five minutes. We checked out the merchandise booth as well. I have visions of buying the poster for this year as well as the years previous that I had been to the festival. When I had checked out the posters in the past, they were all $75 as they were signed by an artist who played at the event. However, I found out that there were unsigned posters for $25! So I will contemplate my purchase over the next 12 days.
We met up with Krista and Ben and headed over to the Rogers stage to catch The Black Keys. We had heard good things about the band so I was anxious to check them out. Out come a duo from Ohio…one on drums and the other on the guitar. What proceeded was a blistering set of distorted slide guitar rock. It was catchy, it was entertaining, it was…you know, after awhile, I don’t know if it was the beers in me, but it really started to sound the same. I really tried to pay close attention to what was going on but it was lost on me. Ben was saying that their albums have piano/keyboards added to it so it was interesting to him to see them in a live setting with just the guitar and drums. I would say that they were entertaining but I’ll have to give them a second chance in the future.
After The Black Keys finished their set, we headed to the old faithful spot (three trees from the main stage and in line with the left sign) to catch Jeff Beck. I’ll be honest with you…I don’t know anything about Jeff Beck. Everyone is excited to see him. He is up there in the guitar gods status along with Clapton and Page…but I’ve never heard any of his stuff. How could that be?
What proceeded was 90 minutes of pristine musical craftmanship. Every note was perfect, the band was in top notch form. This is what music is supposed to be! But I had no idea that Jeff Beck is a purely instrumental act! Ha ha. So once in awhile my attention would waver. He was quite amazing though and I enjoyed his tunes. I shall probably seek out more Jeff Beck music in the future. But I guess when you haven’t prepared yourself for a night of instrumentals, you’re not mentally alert enough to stick it out. To say Jeff Beck and his group wasn’t amazing though would be a lie and I am glad to have seen him in my life. Two thumbs up as well.