Bluesfest is becoming a blur considering it’s been a week later when I’m writing up this review. I can’t remember vivid details leading up to the event, but let me tell you about my typical day during Bluesfest 2010.
I wake up at 6:30, grab a shower at Mike’s place and then head out the door. I enjoy the most amazing walk of my life…30 minutes in a sunny Ottawa across the bridge where I tip my hat to Parliament and then head into the office. I must admit that my ankle is really bugging me lately…it started back in May and it comes and goes. I assume that it’s coming to haunt me because of Bluesfest…standing around for four hours a night can’t be too good on the feet! My day at work is starting to become a haze…people are giving me the look of “Dude, have you been up all night?”. Most definitely not! Mike and I have adopted a responsible evening process to Bluesfest. Arrive home from work, have a few beer and dinner leading up to the main event, walk down to the event, grab a few more beer throughout the night, rock out, return home, have approximately three glasses of water while chatting it up to unwind and hit the sack. Generally we get to bed around 12-12:30. Considering we are waking up around 6:30, you can see how this takes its toll after awhile!
But I must say that I really appreciate Mike and Dave putting me up for the week and the fact that I have the most amazing walk to work in the morning. If people can walk to work in 30-45 minutes, I say do it! Your life will be better for it!
So that being said, I’m sure that we had a few drinks and then headed to see Steve Winwood as Trish wanted to see him. We found out later that the sole reason she wanted to see him was because he played with Eric Clapton at one point! Oh Trish! Your love for Clapton knows no bounds.
We knew it was going to be a crazy night at the fairgrounds considering it was hell just to even enter the grounds! There were tons, tons, tons of people…it was quite reminiscent of the KISS concert. In fact, looking at numbers, KISS had 30,000 people attend their show. The Ottawa Citizen reports an estimated 35,000 for Santana! I also heard that the festival organizers announced that those with lawn chairs had to stand up and fold them up which, if I heard that in person, would have applauded them for the two hour concert. Genius idea!
Steve Winwood had a great band and I recognized some tunes of his which was nice. The band was a good one and I think they really got great near the end of their set. When they finally left the stage we looked around and realized that it wasn’t going to be easy to get ANYWHERE. We were at the Claridge Stage on the left side and there was already a crowd back there. Not good. Doubly not good as we needed to get to Vero was coming later and said she would try and be at ‘the spot’ or near it. Gah.
We followed the crowd to the washrooms and re-evaluated. We were back by the food tents and there was no moving us. What to do?
Mike won the much coveted prize of ‘best pathfinder ever’ and he realized that it’s always easier to move away from the crowd and find the path of least resistance. Sure enough, we walked away from the crowd towards the sound cable fencing around the Claridge stage, followed an easy trail to get us to the beer tents. GREAT SUCCESS! Trish and I were doubly impressed with Mike. We then found the Amnesty International tent with Aaron waiting near the fence. The crowd was insane so it was nice to find a spot where we could call our own and have some space for once.
After a few songs, I decided to try and find Vero. In this crowd, I knew it was virtually impossible, but I could not live with myself without trying to find my love! So I started out slow…that’s the only way to get through the crowd…patience. But then the golden path emerged in the form of a person in a wheelchair ahead of me. While I took advantage of his mastery of creating a path, I also helped him out when he stopped near the beer tent and directed traffic around him. I must admit that seeing what a person in a wheelchair has to deal with while at Bluesfest made me realize that there should be a wheelchair zone dedicated to them. Countless time I thought someone was going to rush from behind and fall over the guy if it weren’t for myself and a few others protecting him.
Anyhow, I couldn’t find Vero so I stayed for a few songs..one of them being an excellent version of Maria Maria and some extended drum solo which came fairly early in the set. The crowd around me was inspiring. Dancing was happening all around me…we’re not talking rock concert dancing…we’re talking Latino Dancing at its finest point!!! I was having a really great time and the crowd was having a really great time as well. KISS was nothing like this with people pinching and punching their way through…this was a concert of love and I was feeling the mood.
When I finished my beer, I did what any good friend would do, pick up a Lemon Tea Beer for Mike and bring it back to him. He was quite happy. I then realized that Aaron had gone off somewhere so I convinced Trish and Mike that it was our duty to go into the crowd and have some fun. I wanted them to feel what I felt being in the crowd of Santana fans. Santana took to the stage and talked about love and spirituality and it was a poignant moment because I knew that we would find Vero somehow. We navigated the crowd back to the beer tent for a bit and then I figured we had nothing to lose by trying to get up to ‘the spot’ to see if Vero was there. Surprisingly, the crowd seemed a little easier to navigate the closer we got to the spot. We stopped a few times along the way but then an opening happened and we took it and before you knew it, we were at the spot! Then we found Vero fifteen minutes before the end of the concert! I called it a magical moment! It was amazing, to find the one you’ve been searching for, listening to some soaring guitar work by Mr. Carlos Santana along with this amazing band. This night was definitely in my Top Three of Bluesfest. The mood and music were infectious and everyone had a great time.
*Update* I cannot believe I forgot that Lou Diamond Philips was part of the band! He was on percussion and it was fantastic to see him on stage! I can’t believe we didn’t even realize until the end when they announced him. This begs a few questions…has he always been in the band? Was this a one-off? Why was this not talked about more? Does anyone even remember Lou Diamond Philips?! Mike and I downloaded Young Guns I & II that night and he got blazing fast speeds of 1MB/sec! At one moment I didn’t know if we were more excited by that or the fact that we saw Santana!