Thursday night was shaping up to be the quintessential night to see Bluesfest. Not because of the bands, but because it would be an amazing night full of sunshine and beer.
Mike had already been staying over at Krista’s for the week as the smart man that he is so I managed to plan out to meet them both at Krista’s to have some supper before going to Bluesfest. So far, they have had a good time with their all-festival pass but I haven’t heard any AMAZING stories yet. I figured that would change.
I headed over to Krista’s around 4PM and didn’t get an answer at her door. I figured Mike should be there by then so I was a little miffed when I thought he may be taking a nap and not answering the door! I sat in front of her apartment building and finished reading Motley Crue’s “The Dirt” and then started at the sky for awhile. I waited for 1.5 hours until Krista showed up wondering why the heck I was hanging out there. Turns out that Mike was working until 5PM all week long as opposed to his normal 7-3 shift. I groaned when I realized I had spent a few hours waiting for them on her front lawn. It wasn’t a total waste as I could finish my book.
After a few beer and some spaghetti, we headed down to the festival grounds (dropping into the Royal Oak for some drink Krista called the Jagerbomb which is a shot of jagermeister and a red bull energy drink) and arrived just in time for Three Days Grace to take the stage. We grabbed a beer, settled in, and the world was kind to us by delivering us a rip-roaring show.
Halfway through the set, Krista wanted to go find her friend Ben so we headed out in search for him. We managed to find him in the sea of 30,000 people (bless the cellular phone technology!) and it was good meeting him. He seemed out of it at first but once he saw we were in the good spirits, we quickly came up to our energy level and we enjoyed the rest of the concert by Three Days Grace. Nothing much different in the set from the last time we saw them although instead of an acoustic version of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”, they played Alice in Chains “Rooster” instead!
I must admit that the night descended into madness and when the Black Crowes came on, I recollect that the concert could have been a ghetto blaster blasting Black Crowes tunes to me across the field because we were so far back in the field that we weren’t paying attention to the stage, we were paying attention to having a good time amongst ourselves. Ah well, that’s the beauty of Bluesfest. The night ended quickly in our minds and we then headed homeward for a bite to eat (Johnny’s on Laurier make a decent schawarma, by the way) and Krista wanted to have another drink at her place but I knew that would be a recipe for disaster considering we were all working the next day so I grabbed my backpack, walked 30 minutes to Vero’s and crashed their for the night. Luckily the Bluesfest Gods were looking after me and I emerged unscathed and felt pretty decent the next morning. Krista wasn’t so lucky.
photo from the Ottawa Citizen