Another evening with a good crew of people…Mike, Trish, Ben, Krista and I went for some Asian cuisine and then headed to the Festival. Did I ever mention that Andre introduced us to the greatest staircase in the world? It’s definitely easier to get to the festival grounds using the new stairs!
We missed out on Dana Fuchs which was disappointing…the only thing I know her from is the Across the Universe film where she plays Sexy Sadie. But she can wail. And wail she did, from what I heard of in the news the next day.
Old Crow Medicine Show was another recommendation by Mike’s roommate Dave and it didn’t disappoint. A good bluegrass band is what every person needs! They were really entertaining and I had a good laugh when you had four younger guys on one side of the stage and then the older guy on the banjo to the left and every time the band would huddle, it seemed like he was left out! Kind of like an old Uncle you don’t want cramping your style!
We then headed to the Subway stage since Vero was going to meet up with us there to see Marianas Trench…some band she heard on the radio a few times. Turns out that they were rescheduled for a later time so we headed over to Matthew Good who was getting quite the crowd built up. We finally found Krista and Ben deep in the crowd but lost Dave at one point who decided to hang back.
Matthew Good always puts on a great show and this one did not disappoint. I still question why I don’t own any of his albums considering his a Canadian alt-rock classic! I shall have to rectify that situation. I really was impressed with all the songs and the band put on an excellent show. Some great alternative rock anthems from this guy.
The entire crew split up as Trish wanted to see Crowded House, Mike wanted to see Derek Trucks and Vero and I went to see Marianas Trench. So Marianas Trench is a band with a young fan base. I believe the average age was around…12. They started out very cool…dressed as ninjas coming out and kicking ass to some good techno music. That’s about all they had in them in terms of awesomeness because the rest of the 30 minutes that I stood through was some pretty grueling stuff. If you can think of some one-hit wonders, I believe this is exactly what this band would appear to be. I believe in 30 minutes, they played three songs and just yammered in between them. I couldn’t tell if they were just drunk, or just slack in their professionalism as a musical act…either way, after three songs of torture I told Vero I couldn’t take it anymore and I was going to head over to Derek Trucks to see what he was all about. Considering the guy toured with Eric Clapton, I was expecting something a little better! Interestingly enough, when writing up this review, I notice that Marianas Trench has mysteriously disappeared from the list of performers that performed at Bluesfest. Nowhere to be found on the site, I wonder if Bluesfest has adopted a policy of ‘we’ll keep you on your site if you prove to play some good tunes’.
I wasn’t disappointed. Derek Trucks was wailing away on his guitar when I got there and never let up. From what Mike told me, Susan Tedeschi is the singer of this band and Derek Trucks is her husband and tours as the guitarist. Susan wasn’t too bad on the guitar herself and she had an amazing voice. I especially liked when they ripped into Helter Skelter…wait…was that the Beatles tune they played? For the life of me I cannot remember but it was a great tune. Come Together? Man, I can’t remember! Argh.
I unfortunately couldn’t find Mike as he found a good spot next to the sound stage…with good reason! You have to make sure to have the best spot in the house when seeing a band like this shred through some good blues music. A lot of people always ask “Where’s the Blues music at Bluesfest?”. Well, there was no need to ask it at this festival. They had some class acts at the festival this year.
After that was done, I headed back to our meeting spot and found out that Crowded House wasn’t all that good, Marianas Trench wasn’t all that much better, and Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi turned out to be the hit of the night. Wicked!
I said farewell to Bluesfest for a few days. The Festival had taken its toll on this weary soul and Vero’s sister had decided to stay until Saturday so I decided to take that opportunity to see them one last night.