Category: Concert Reviews

Day 6 of Bluesfest brought myself over to Krista’s place for a few drinks before the show.  Mike and I started out by having a quick (much needed) nap before the festivities started with some tacos.  We then headed out with Krista to meet up with Julie and Ryan and we stopped into the Royal Oak for a quick drink (much like the year before) and caught the bus over to the festival.

First up, The Yardbirds.  The band that started Led Zeppelin.  Let me tell you, there are some young folks in a band that has been around since the Sixties!  Supposedly Spencer Davis, The Yardbirds and The Zombies are all touring around together (as apparent by their t-shirt).  I thoroughly enjoyed when the band ripped into Dazed and Confused.  I didn’t stick around for long though as we headed back to see Xavier Rudd.

I have heard much about Xavier Rudd but never took the time to listen to what he has to offer.  A man from Australia who (amongst a lot of other instruments) can play the didjeridoo.  In fact, he had three of them set up at the drumkit that he was playing from time to time.  Awesome!

We did go from stage to stage during their performance as he wasn’t keeping my attention up.  We did meet up with Vero, Luc and Julie who had come from a few drinks after work.  I also randomly met up with Simon and Emily who were there for the night!  That was quite exciting and brought the night up to a whole new level!

The sirens in the distance signalled OLP was on the stage and was about to rip into a great song…One Man Army.  It was quite the setlist from the band tonight…a mixture of greatest hits coupled with a bunch of new tracks that will debut on their new album Burn, Burn on July 21.  The new tunes were decent but I’ll have to give them a closer listen on the album.  I do really enjoy their new single though.

I was surprised to hear them play Denied as that’s a classic track that doesn’t make it out all that much.  They are hitting the point where it must be hard to rotate their setlist as they are struggling with the immense success of their career as well as touring their new material.

Light show was great, band was in great form.  Vero mentioned that she thought Raine had aged quite a bit and I swear I heard mention of a pencil-thin moustache.  Really?

I look forward to seeing them again on a proper tour in the Fall.

Setlist:
One Man Army
Superman’s Dead
Angels Losing Sleep
Monkey Brains
Innocent
Clumsy
Paper Moon
The End is Where We Begin
Somewhere Out There
4AM
Denied
Is Anybody Home?
All You Did Was Save My Life
———————————–
Naveed
In Repair
Starseed

A strange day for Bluesfest…only one stage open and three acts on it.  I wish the organizers would give us a notion of what happened in this case?  Either way, we were here to see one of the great alternative acts of the 90s…Stone Temple Pilots!

Unfortunately we could not find Matt and Karilee in the crowd….Matt being the biggest STP fan I know, I was disappointed not to be with him during this event.

I have seen Scott Weiland perform with Velvet Revolver in the past and he is quite the showman.  He can move around the stage with gusto.

Unfortunately tonight, he was not that man.  Standing with legs spread apart in a stance, that’s about as much as we got from the guy tonight.  He didn’t even really chat with the audience all that much (except for a story about how the fishing here in Canada is amazing as he caught a fish ‘this big’).

This doesn’t mean that the show wasn’t great.  They had an excellent video backdrop which was a welcome sight to Bluesfest.  The band was killer as well.  I have never seen STP live before so it was a welcome addition to my repertoire.  They played all the hits and announced they were working on a new album.

STP remains one of the core alternative bands that I have not had the chance to fully digest but judging from the what I heard tonight, I’m sure I won’t be disappointed when I finally set myself down to listen to what they have to offer as a discography.

As for the performance…great songs, and if Scott Weiland was the usual frontman he usually is, it would have been close to the best performance of Bluesfest.

Have I mentioned that I’m starting to hit the wall of the Bluesfest Gauntlet?  These new Puma sneakers are not worthy of standing in for three hours straight.

Setlist:

• Silvergun Superman
• Wicked Garden
• Vasoline
• Big Empty
• Lounge Fly
• Army Ants
• Sour Girl
• Creep
• Crackerman
• Plush
• Interstate Love Song
• Seven Caged Tigers
• Down
• Sex Type Thing
• Sin
• Unglued
• Piece Of Pie
• Dead And Bloated
• Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart

After a day of relaxing in the backyard with Vero, Mike and I headed out to Bluesfest that evening.  We were both groggy from Bluesfest/HOPE from the past few days so no beer was drank on the day of rest!  First stop was Girl Talk who was a DJ I had heard about who is amazing when it comes to mashing songs together…something I am fond of.

When we arrived at the Hard Rock Stage, it was insanity.  There were 100 people up on stage dancing and there was the man known as Girl Talk jumping around while managing his laptop of songs.  Mike made a comment in that for all we know, this guy is not mashing the songs up on the fly…I guess we’ll have to do some research into the matter…either way, he had the crowd in a frenzy and everyone was having a great time.

After fifteen minutes, I grew tired of simply hearing someone play some music off a laptop so we headed over to see Hubert Sumlin which sounded like a decent blues band when we had walked by earlier.  They were decent and this Hubert Sumlin guy was older than Father Christmas.  He sat down once in awhile while jamming but when he came out jamming, it was great.  I just read on the Bluesfest site that he was Howlin’ Wolf’s guitarist for twenty-five years!  Awesome!

After a few songs, we decided to mosey on down to the BlackSheep Stage to see a band called ThunderHeist.  Not knowing what to expect, we found a vocalist, drummer and keyboardist and it was interesting.  They were nearing the end of their set and everyone was loving it.  I personally didn’t care for their music which seemed like a fusion of rap-rock and keyboard synths.  I had a good laugh at the end of the set when the singer said “I want to kick the mic stand but we’ll have to pay for it!” and then someone told her that she can do so and then she kicks it and the crowd goes wild.

Mike and I then hunted down some poutine from a little chip wagon in the back of the fairgrounds.  After receiving our poutine and Italian sausage we waited, waited and waited to pay the woman.  She just wasn’t paying attention to us.  So we inched away from the counter, gave her a few chances to call us back and in the end, we walked off with some free poutine and sausage.  Unfortunately, the sausage wasn’t cooked so Mike threw it out and my poutine was quite nasty but hey, I cannot complain about free food.

Joe Cocker was the main event for the night.  A man who I know nothing about, other than he had this rocking version of ‘With a Little Help from my Friends’ back in th day.  Everyone seemed really into him during the night…the band was really top notch.  I love the musical work ethic of older bands…they are not sloppy.  Everything is perfect.  I realized a few things about Joe Cocker during the night:

– He only sings.  I always thought he played guitar!
– He sings a lot of cover songs…he covered Come Together, She Came in Through the Bathroom Window and With a Little Help.  He also sang ‘Long as I can See the Light’ by CCR.  He also sang ‘You Are So Beautiful’ by Billy Preston.  I have since found out that Joe Cocker is famous for his variations on popular songs!  So now I’m wondering if the versions I’ve heard over the years are the originals, or his own creations?  Interesting.  So now I am also wondering if people are cheering because they love his versions of the song, or if they love the song itself?  Strange.  Who makes it THIS big as a cover artist?
– The guy can wail for an older gentleman.

That’s that!  Nothing much else to say.  It was a decent concert…some rocking numbers, some slower ones, but all in all, a decent show.  Have I mentioned how cold it’s starting to get at night at Bluesfest?  I enjoy a cool night but it’s getting a little ridiculous when your beer frosts over!

On Saturday we dragged ourselves out of bed to head out to HOPE Volleyball 2009!  Only my favourite event of the year…it may actually be bigger than Christmas in my opinion.  Beach, beer and bands…heck, I’m sure you can fill in some other ‘b’ words there and realize it’s a good time had by all.

We picked up Rob and headed down the highway to encounter a lot of rain.  Let’s be honest…we knew it was going to rain.  They were calling for severe thunderstorms for the entire day.  Grrrreat.  I came prepared by wearing a bathing suit and some sandals and a t-shirt.  If the rain hit, the t-shirt was coming off.  No use in getting a shirt wet all day!

We arrived at Carrie’s to find everyone up and about.  Seeing Melissa, Casey and Katie again was good times had by all and we cracked our first beer and headed off to Mooney’s Bay.  Only about a twenty minute walk from Carrie’s place.

When we arrived, we found the most amazing court waiting for us…Court #42, on the sand, next to the water!  We’ve never had a court that nice before!  Of course, we all know it couldn’t have lasted.  We lost our first game and headed over to the grass area to see Court #82 where the other group of us was playing.  It started pouring rain on us so we hung out underneath a tree for awhile until their first game which was ridiculous because playing volleyball on wet grass is a recipe for disaster.  Case in point, Marie-Eve somehow sprained her foot and we had to hunt down a First Aid booth afterwards.  Note: First Aid Booths do not carry Tylenol nor do they carry Tensor bandages.  Keep that in mind for HOPE 2010!

We played our second game in which I personally played one of my better games AND I noticed that the pains in my ribs were slowly evaporating (did I ever post that story about myself falling off the Sea-Doo?  I think not!  More to come later…) so all in all, it was fun.

Of course, we knew the beer gardens were opening at 11 so off we went.  It was raining on us quite heavily by that point and we lost a few people along the way (most importantly, Rob who had my wallet) but we found him hanging out at the beer tents wondering where the heck we were!  Armed with a few beers, we hung around the stage and wondered where the heck Carrie was with our food!  Each team gets an alloted burger and the team captain has to pick it up.  She did eventually show up but sans food which didn’t do my stomach any wonders!  Mike eased my pain and made me realize that we can pick up the food at any time.

Then, it started to rain.  Hard.  Like…REALLY hard.  We are talking my skin was getting peeled off by hail.  There was lightning all over the place.  The darkest clouds man has ever seen.  The Apocalypse had arrived on our favourite day of the year.  I hightailed it for the porta-potty and hung out there while watching the show.  There was a girl outside wanting to use the washroom so I caved in (being the gentleman that I am) and realized I got screwed over as the rain was too much for the tarp she lent me.  I stood there waiting for her to exit to give her back the tarp and found the rest of the group marvelling at the bunch of people who decided to slip-and-slide down the hill!  It was quite hilarious although I felt bad for the guy who went a little too fast and proceeded to hit a patch of gravel at the bottom of the hill.  Ouch!

It was close to noon so we headed out to our third game.  I can only describe the grounds in a profane manner…it was a shitshow.  It was chaos…it was like Woodstock outside the beer gardens.  The sand on the beach had become a mud pit.  There was water everywhere.  We literally had to walk through pools of water up to our ankles to get to our game.  This was not a good scene.  Then we heard that all games were postponed for 30 minutes.  We arrived at our court thinking we could have a little game for fun but the other team had the same idea and hung out there.  We hung out in the water for a bit, proceeded to try and surf on a makeshift surfboard and then we left a few people playing volleyball while we realized the best part of the day would be back at the beer garden.

I recognized the music upon entering and sure enough, it was Bluesfest’s own Amanda Rheaume up on stage!  Alright!  We grabbed a few beer and hung out in front of the stage for awhile until others showed up and told us the volleyball tournament had been cancelled completely.  Argh!  No way!  We were slightly disappointed, but I’m going to be honest with you.  While I love playing volleyball, I hate leaving a good band in the afternoon to play a game.  So it was a blessing in disguise.

The rest of the afternoon was a mixture of torrential downpours, naps, beer, bands and all around tomfoolery.  I had proceeded to wear a ripped t-shirt of Carrie’s with a headband which prompted the strangest looks for everyone.  I just told them it was my bachelor party and all was forgiven.  Amanda Rheaume, Ill Scarlett (were they the ones in the short bicycle shorts?), LoudLOVE and the Watchmen graced the stage.  Mike and I were really excited to see the Watchmen as they have been out of sight for quite a few years.  They put on an excellent show…all this hits, top form, having fun on the stage catching footballs thrown from the crowd.  Near the end of their set the sun had finally come out to dry us off.

We definitely needed to be dried off…there were a few times during the afternoon where I had a chill going on.  Marie-Eve had to leave for home as her lips were blue.  It was crazy out.

I don’t know what else to write about HOPE Volleyball 2009…I read in the paper that it was the first time in 27 years that they had to shut down the tournament.  Too bad considering we had the best spot on the beach!

After The Watchmen finished up, we headed back to Carrie’s to take a few naps and have some pizza.  We headed home around 8PM and quickly proceeded to bed afterwards.

Once again, a great time with great friends…friends are what makes a rained-out event worthwhile.

Friday night, Vero and I headed out to Bluesfest to meet up with Mike.  I had arranged to sell my ticket to Saturday’s festivities because I was going to HOPE Volleyball but I had never heard back from the woman so I had little hope.  Lo and behold, she did end up calling Mike’s cellphone and I was $20 richer!  Score!  So now, instead of my pass costing me $210, it cost me $190.  Eleven Days of Rocking for $190….$17 a day.  Not too shabby at all!

Carrie ended up showing up at Bluesfest again on Friday night…she couldn’t stay away once she got the taste of the festival!  We headed over to the Hard Rock Café stage where I wanted to check out Okkervil River.  We spent 30 minutes listening to some good alt-country tunes going on.  They were decent.  There was quite the crowd for them.

Then the ‘Friday Main Event!’ came along in the form of the Sam Roberts Band on the Rogers stage.  This is their fourth year in a row and I doubt they will ever miss a Bluesfest.  I have managed to catch them a few times over the past year as they are promoting their excellent album ‘Love at the End of the World’.  I even managed to get surprised tonight by hearing No Sleep, Dead End and Uprising Down Under…a couple of tunes I haven’t heard in awhile.

Unfortunately for the show, the volume was lacking.  There is this constant fear of breaking the noise by-law this year and there are by-law officers with their decibel readers around the area (supposedly…I have yet to see one but I keep reading about it in the Citizen).  This produced an adverse effect in that the show just didn’t feel…rocking at first.  In fact, I found the band to be playing at a fairly slow tempo for the first couple of songs which was uncommon.  Plus, the choice of opening songs didn’t keep up the momentum…Love at The End of the World was great…but then they proceeded with No Sleep and Lions of the Kalahari.  Perhaps they were trying to get the less frenetic ones out of the way to make room for the rest?

Fortunately, about half way through the set they cranked up the energy a notch and this was the band that I have grown to love.

Some highlights:
– While the girlfriend does not care for Sam’s non-shaggy look, I remarked at how much he resembled Cat Stevens!
– Mind Flood…always, always, ALWAYS a great closer of the night.  Matt was wondering when the set would end as Mind Flood started and I commented “Oh, in about 15 minutes.” and his eyes went wide wondering what onslaught of rock was coming his way!
– The majority of the Love at the End of the World songs have great energy!  The crowd loves it.

All in all, I’ve seen better SRB shows, but I can’t say they disappoint.  It was my friend Carrie’s first SRB concert and they won a fan.  I’m going to assume that this will be the last time I see the band before they end their summer tour and most likely take some time off.  But who knows what the rest of the summer has to offer?

After the concert, we said goodbye to everyone as Vero and I had to head off to pack our things for HOPE Volleyball.  We did manage to scour the merchandise booth.  I picked up a couple of great looking US Tour Posters from the band that I’ve had my eye on for awhile on the website (I just hate paying for that shipping!) and Vero picked up a great t-shirt.  I also bit the bullet and picked up three Bluesfest concert posters.  In the previous years, I had looked at them and didn’t feel like paying $50 – $100 on an autographed poster of the event.  But I had no idea that there were unautographed copies for $25!  So I said “What the heck?” and bought 2007, 2008, and 2009 and now I will only have to fork out $25 each year I go.  I found that 2007 and 2009 were really cool looking posters whereas I wasn’t too keen on the 2008 ‘Funkalicious’ themed one.  I am a lover of the streamlined art…not the crazy stuff.

I can feel the Gauntlet creeping up on us…my bones are getting tired from rocking and this is only Day 3 of 12 days of Bluesfest!

Setlist (from my weak memory…probably out of order):
01: Love At The End Of The World
02: With A Bullet
03: No Sleep
04: Lions Of The Kalahari
05: Fixed To Ruin
06: Dead End
07: Detroit ’67
08: Hard Road
09: Up Sister
10: Bridge To Nowhere
11: Uprising Down Under
12: Brother Down
13: Them Kids

Encore
14: Where Have All The Good People Gone?
15: Mind Flood

I mentioned to Carrie that in comparison to Day 1 of Bluesfest, Day 2 blew it out of the water.  This was the start of Bluesfest that we all hoped for.  I must also admit that I don’t think there will be a night that will top Thursday night’s events, even if KISS is coming next Wednesday.

Vero and I headed down to the fairgrounds around 7:30 and searched around for our people. Matt and Karilee found out and we soon found Mike as well. Mike let us know that a bird pooped on his arm earlier which is hilarious.

Up first was Metric. Now, to give you a little history on Metric, they are a band from Toronto whom I’ve had the opportunity to see live a few times at Bluesfest but always passed them up for another band playing. Their live shows have become things of legend and I’ve kicked myself for not catching them before. I then picked up their new album ‘Fantasies’ and I’m not lying when I think a) This will be the album that will make the band explode b) It’s probably my favourite album of 2009 and the year isn’t over yet. It’s catchy, it’s got melody, it’s got everything. Honestly, don’t pass this album up.

So there you have it, Metric hit the stage with Twilight Galaxy which ended with some bombastic charm which introduced us to what would be the rest of the show. The rest of the show had Emily Haines moving around like she was in permanent workout mode. I LOVE IT! A singer with that much energy…it’s like she had some form of chocolate water at her keyboards! They played the majority of their new album with the exception of Front Row and Blindness I believe. I loved how Emily shook the tambourine during Help I’m Alive…her mannerisms were somewhat puppet-like sometimes and she was amazing to watch. She talked up the crowd quite a bit…gave a shout out to their beginnings in Ottawa when they opened up for Billy Talent years ago…they talked about their devotion to a new power in the universe…the power of love, before ripping into ‘Stadium Love’. They played Dead Disco as well as a few tracks from Live it Out like Monster Hospital and Empty (!!! One of my faves).

They got the crowd amped up so much that when they left the stage, there was a large portion of the audience demanding an encore. After five minutes, a lof people left but you could feel it in the air…they would be back. There was too much electricity in the cool night breeze to end it on that note! Vero, Mike and I went closer to the stage to join the cheers and sure enough the band did come out and bowed to us but indicated with their watches that they just didn’t have time to do another song. If there’s one thing I hate about festivals, it’s that it’s all stuck on a schedule! Anyhow, I thought that this must have been ultimate feeling for them…the crowd beckoning them back to show their adoration. Amazing, amazing set.

Up next was Ben Harper and Relentless7. I don’t know much of Ben Harper, other than the fact that he appears on some Pearl Jam bootlegs and everyone in the Pearl Jam community seems to (heart) Ben Harper. So I was quite interested to see them as the word on the street was he was one of the big names coming to the stage.

After loading up with a few beer in hand, we headed to the old faithful spot which had a crew of lawnchairs right next to us. You can’t get mad at these folks though as they had their kids with them and they were rocking out all night long! The band started up and there was Ben Harper sitting down playing lap slide guitar. Awwww yeah! Man, I didn’t know he played lap guitar! This is great!

What came down from the heavens was what can only be echoed from the headline of The Ottawa Citizen’s article: “A relentless onslaught of awesome”. I swear I must have wrote that! The band was incredible and EVERYONE was feeling the vibe. This was not Day 1 of Bluesfest which was lowkey…this was the true kickoff of the festival where there is some great rock hitting the masses on a beautiful summer night with no rain. They even covered Zeppelin’s ‘Good Times Bad Times’ as well as Queen’s ‘Under Pressure’. Mike was so impressed with the band that he was about to buy their double live vinyl album ‘Live from Mars’ for $47 but we realized that this was just a foolish venture!

Ben Harper has a voice that has been snatched from the angel’s and I’m glad that he’s down amongst us mortals singing to us.

Day 2 of Bluesfest will probably go down in my books as the best of the festival but we shall see by weeks end.

Setlist

Faster Slower Disappear Come Around
Number With No Name
Shimmer & Shine
Good Times Bad Times [Led Zeppelin]
Lay There & Hate Me
Why Must You Always Dress in Black
Red House [The Jimi Hendrix Experience]
Another Lonely Day
Skin Thin
Fly One Time
Keep It Together (So I Can Fall Apart)
Boots Like These
Under Pressure [Queen]09
Up to You Now

The blog entry is a long time coming.  The weekend of June 27 is five months ago and it’s still fresh in my mind.  Mike, Ben, Jill and I headed out to Peterborough to visit Krista’s parents.  Mike and I had never met them before and we feel it’s important to meet the family of friends so we figured this was a good way to kick off the summer as it was promised to be a weekend of fun in the sun.

The road trip up was decent enough.  There was an excellent classic rock mix created by Ben (who won the competition). Mike’s compilation of road tunes consisted of live tracks from various bands.  Jill’s didn’t make the cut as she didn’t burn the CD properly.  I do recall a harrowing experience where I decided to pass what seemed to be 15 cars and then a truck decides to meet me in the oncoming lane.  I managed to merge back in just in time but someone noted that my face was white as a sheet!

Krista’s parents were a great time and their house was spectacular.  We felt like were staying at a hotel.  We each got our own room and we had some fun in the pool and the fire pit.  Mike and I attempted to play some guitar after a few beers, but it was failed miserably as it’s pretty hard to play without words in front of you.  This prompted Ben and Krista to buy me a miner’s cap light for future forays into the darkness with a guitar.

The next day we lounged around, took a spin in the boat around the lake, lounged around some more and then I went out on the Sea-Doo with Dave.  Now, I have never been on a Sea-Doo before and let me tell you, it was quite exciting!  The things can rip across the water like a bat out of hell and turn on a dime!  Dave had some fun trying to whip me off.  I did my best to hold on but at one point my hand slipped and in I went.  This was the equivalent of smacking a brick wall.  I was out of breath for a bit and was quite sore afterward.  Turns out that I had bruised some ribs falling off the Sea-Doo and I didn’t feel much better until a few weeks later when I played Hope Volleyball.  I almost think that some muscle was out of whack considering I was pretty sore leading up to the volleyball tournament (we’re talking having a hard time getting out of bed), but after a few games I felt great.

Saturday night brought the main event…Matt Mays at the Montreal House.  Now, if you have never been to the Montreal House before, it’s quite an experience.  Krista’s parents described it as a tavern with no windows and some interesting patrons.  In fact, each ceiling tile had a patron’s name on it, one of which was Krista’s uncle!

We started off the night in full force drinking back a few suds and watching The Novaks who were decent.  We then chatted with a few people who had come up from Toronto to see the band.  All in all, I enjoyed the Montreal House as a venue as it was a no holds barred kind of crowd where anything went.  The stage was super tiny and it reminded me of the Sunshine Tavern back home (just without windows).

When Matt Mays and company (a hodgepodge of members of El Torpedo and his old band…ah, I can’t recall the name right now!) took the stage, it looked pretty tight up there.  Around midnight Matt Mays takes the stage and he must have been growing a beard since 2003.  It’s like ZZ Top on stage.  So we’re rocking and all is well and good until Matt Mays starts talking about how the last time they were in the Montreal House, they were so drunk because he staff gave the band a beer cylinder to drink from.  Sure enough, a few songs later, he’s crying out “Oh no, OH NO!” and sure enough, the staff is bringing up this massive beer cylinder to the stage.  So five minutes go by as everyone from the band takes a swig but then the greatest thing happened.

“Well, we still have to put a good show on for you guys, so you can all finish it off.”

And that’s how I ended up with a beer cylinder in his hands, not once but twice and the second time I finished it off and hoisted it in the air like I had just won the Stanley cup.

For the life of me, I can’t find a set list for that night….it was a collection of different tunes from his different albums.  Here’s some vague recollections of the night.

• Standdown at Sundown has now become one of my favourite tunes after seeing this played live.
• He played Digital Eyes and Spoonful of Sugar solo.
• Terminal Romance was a highlight of the night for me.
• The energy of the place was infectious.

The night ended in a blaze of rock and alcohol and we stumbled out of the Montreal House like any good patron would.  Krista’s parents were gracious enough to come pick us up in two cars and we somehow managed to moon the other car while driving back.

The next morning was a rainy, miserable one.  We ate some breakfast, packed the car and headed for home.  It was amazing to meet Krista’s family, amazing to see Matt Mays as the Montreal House and amazing to experience all that Peterborough has to offer.  I was glad to have experience Krista’s parents awesome house before they sold in Nov 2009.  But now there’s a new place to crash around Morrisburg!

Wednesday night, of all night, brought Mike and I to Maverick’s to catch Grady and company.  For those of you who don’t know, there was this amazing band Big Sugar whose front man, Gordie Johnson went on to form the blues-rock band Grady.  Can I also point out that Gordie Johnson is probably the best Canadian (if not…the world, dare I say?) guitar player out there and it’s a treat to see them.

When we arrived at Maverick’s we assumed we had missed the Spades as it around 9:15 but we were mistaken as the show started with Sal Piamonte at 9:30.  Sal’s band had everything going for them.  A killer lead guitarist, a bass player who moved with the groove and a great front man in the form of Sal.  I couldn’t put my finger on who they reminded me of but the closest I could come up with were the Black Crowes…but even that isn’t hitting the nail on the head in terms of comparisons.  Their melodies were catchy and I found myself singing along to the choruses after hearing them a few times.  Two thumbs up for this band from Ottawa and I’ll make sure to check them out again.  I did go to buy their album at night’s end but alas, they were all sold out.  I ended up talking with Sal himself and he assured me that if I sent him a note, they could mail one out for me.  They have gained a fan.  Check out his website at http://www.salpiamonte.com/.  May I also point out that there was this one guy how had a Grateful Dead Tour 1990 shirt on and he was rocking out hardcore near the end of the set.  I thoroughly enjoyed this fan and hoped that I would be this energetic when I grow that much white hair!

After a few bottles of Labatt 50, the Spades started around 10:45 and they were quite the energetic trio.  The guitarist was frantic and I loved how the drummer had the simplest yet powerful drum kit going.  Catchy tunes…indie style…frantic all over the place…they had this crazy cover of Penny Lane at the end of their set which (unfortunately) could have done without the screamo version in my opinion.  But musically it was top-notch.  If you’re looking for a good energetic band, look no further than The Spades!

Last but not least, Grady hit the stage around 11:50.  I had a good chuckle as Mike was thinking that we would be home FAIRLY early tonight but in the end, we didn’t roll into bed until 3AM.  Gordie Johnson and Big Ben (an Ottawa native) TOWERED over the crowd with their cowboy hats and their black attire.  Nina Singh is quite shorter in comparison but managed the drumset impeccably.  I found it odd to see her sit straight and appear to not be smashing the hell out of the drumkit like I see some many other drummers do, but at the same time have the kickdrum hit into my chest.  Clearly, drumkits do not need to be thrashed upon to hit you like a ton of bricks.

I know no songs of Grady so it was all new to me, but I ended up buying both of their albums at the end of the night.  This.was.a.rock.show.  What an amazing guitarist Gordie is.  I’m really loving the slide guitar and am thinking of sitting myself down for the next year to learn how to play it.  The opening tune thundered into us and really got things going and it never really stopped.  The two hours later were amazing and it’s been a long time that I’ve seen a rock show like this.  Some highlights:

• Big Ben putting the shout out to his hometown of Ottawa and Gordie commenting that he never swore once in his speech.  Big Ben explained that his dad was in the crowd.
• Big Ben busting a bass string.  I’ve never personally seen that happen and he said it’s the third string he’s busted in his life.
• Covers of Sharp-Dressed Man, a little YYZ for good measure and Digging a Hole (of Big Sugar fame).  Gordie had James of the Spades come up for a tune where he held his own and then Gordie’s brother (?) from a band called Flash Lightning joined them for a few songs at the end.  I love how jam sessions just take over the event and they’re just having fun on the stage for 30 minutes.  That’s what a rock band is all about.
• The awesomeness which is the 18 string, double neck Gibson.  I wonder how much that weighs?
• Overall, the sheer force of the music coming out of the band.

I can’t really explain how much fun it was to see Grady but I’ll definitely make it a point to see them again.  They are based out of Austin, Texas nowadays so I’m not so sure if they make it up to Canada all that much!

After the band ended, we shook Gordie Johnson’s hand letting him know he put on a good show and we headed for the door to grab a bite to eat.

McDonald’s called our name at 2AM on a Wednesday but unfortunately for us, we didn’t realize there were two schwarma joints open on York Street AND a new Dunn’s location?!  There were also a dozen cop cars parked around the Byward Market and it wasn’t until the next morning that we found out that there a few guys involved in a shootout involving one of them perishing.  Lucky for Mike and I, we were rocking out at the time.