Over the next few days, after I’ve collected my thoughts on the previous night’s performances, I will discharge a glob of opinion into the soft Kleenex of the editors at Nomag. I settled on “The Gravy Train” because I thought it set just the right tone for a summer festival (one with lots of choices available) that happens to take place in our nation’s capital. Also, it kind of winks at the low cost of checking out bands I would normally not get to see (and I get to go for free after all). It’s kind of the equivalent of a drive-by shooting in way. Given the diversity of the line-up this year (a consistent trend as the festival has expanded well beyond its ‘Blues’ mandate), I am sure to come across some stuff that is truly dope.
I’m not limiting myself to emerging bands, some of the big headliners will get a bit of love (or hate), and so too will country acts and the odd World Music guy. Basically whatever sounds interesting.
_____________________ JULY 5th, OPENING NIGHT! _____________________
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic ZerosFor those stuck in line for an hour and a half trying to get into the festival grounds, you have my sympathies. It seems that even after nearly two decades of organizing an event, there can still be opening night glitches. More tragic though is that many people missed Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
In short, Edward Sharpe is a kind of indie-pop-ensemble and probably a good case study in what would happen if all your friends from daycare stayed BFFs, got stoned one day and decided to make the best band they could, where everyone got to play something as long as you showed a commitment to sharing and being nice.
Most criticism about this group is centered on frontman Alex Ebert, once lead singer for jerk-punk group ‘Ima Robot’. Some reviewers want him crucified for having a musical change of heart (you can count on Pitchfork for their smugness), but I am not so prepared to hate on him for these this reason.
If I were to however point my shit-caked stick at something, it would be the band’s stranger, other trappings. Like how they tour around in a Jo Cocker inspired Magical Bus, or that they have a penchant for singalongs, and maybe that they can never seem to get enough hand clapping, always with the hand clapping. Also there is an unsettling and unironic display of hemp pants and a kind of lovey “I’m-going-to-give-you-a-bear-hug-just-for-coming-to-our-show” sorta thing.
A mark of their success though might be that they have’nt been totally ridiculed. I mean, it takes guts to commit to where this band is going. I think it would be pretty easy to get eviscerated for simply suggesting that we breathe life into the corpse of the 1960’s.
Normally when the hippy shit comes out, I’m the guy running for the door. I can see how it’s a little too precious for some, but musically they’re pretty tight, well orchestrated and they walk the line between whimsical and annoying pretty well. This is a feat made more difficult by the number of instruments on stage. It became apparent that they’d probably let you join the tour if, for instance, you were discovered sleeping on their bus one afternoon…possibly explaining the number of members on stage come to think of it; I counted 10.
There’s a bit of celebration going on which is kinda nice, and a bit of California hipster DIY foretold, but mostly, a pretty healthy dose of optimism that’s a welcome relief from the popular gloominess we’ve come to expect.
There’s something special about a group bent on delivering us a bit of the lilt our parents left behind but I must warn you that some listeners will certainly slip into a sugar and spice and everything nice diabetic coma, you take the good with the bad with these guys.
Overall, I felt they were a welcome addition to the festival. Its summer time, surley we can find a place for some horns and harmonies and some good friends frolicking in the park stuff. You know, fuck it, chill out guys…’A Perfect Circle’ will play soon enough so just give it a chance would’ya?
A good festival band. Worth checking out and decide for yourself.
The Flaming Lips
Just so that I am fully out of the closet, I want to say that if The Flaming Lips were a church, I would worship at it. A spiritual awakening goes some way in describing the feeling my friend Annie and I experienced last summer at Metropolis in Montreal where I finally saw TFL for the first time.
We left the show not knowing what had happened to us, like it was time to make the world a better place. Wayne Coyne had taken us through the abyss and we left the show blinking and fumbling with all the naïveté of new born kittens, we were puzzled and forever altered.
Ok, much has been said about these guys already so I’ll spare the pontificating. The thing with the Flaming Lips stage formula, I have always thought, is that it works better in closed, intimate settings. Places where everyone comes along for the ride. A venue where the doors are locked, and where assurances can be made that the ceremony won’t be interrupted. This made me puzzle over whether an outdoor show would work.
So the wind grabbed a lot of the confetti and blew it away from the crowd. No big deal there since I was near(ish) to the front and got a face-full. The balloons sort drifted toward the food stalls much to the surprise of shawarma eaters. The performance was good, but shortened to only an hour. This seemed a bit of shame.
Coyne was a little preoccupied with the sunset taking place behind the crowd. To weasel around with a Flaming Lips line from “Are You a Hypnotist” I guess you could say “the sun eclipsed behind the crowd”.
Though they were still great, the band seemed a bit bored. But, as a devotee I can’t hate on them except to say that I wanted more. They are always on point, their props and spectacle are finely tuned and their performance was album quality sharp.
Tegan and Sara
These two ladies are adorable, but for the love of God Tegan and Sara, please don’t get too cutesy. It’s a trap.
I think it’s great you don’t drive SUV’s (as you pointed out), walking is indeed good for both your health and for the environment, insisting on how your lifestyle choices makes you original, however, is a little darling though ladies.
Just so that we’re clear, I have always filed them in the ‘I-probably-wouldn’t-pick-you-first” on my iPod playlist. Now I’m convinced that your stage show could use a little thought and songs could use a little something-something.
Overall, surely an inspiration to ‘Do it Yourselfers’ everywhere.
You’re doing fine.
Soundgarden
I am angry that you’re back together, nostalgia be damned! I hate it that when I rushed past your show that I still had the lyrics to your songs burned in my head.
Finally, like a geologist taking rock samples, similarly one can learn everything one needs to know about a band by observing their crowd. Uhg.
_____________________ WEDNESDAY, JULY 6th _____________________
OrienteersI give this Ottawa band a lot of credit. I personally dig the description “Space Folk”. I think it’s not an easy genre pairing, but in the hands of Orienteers, these styles are excellent lovers.
I love spacey, ethereal, moody stuff but I’m conflicted because I also love that synaptic honesty signal sent to my brain when I hear a good twangy-twang-twang. I like these guys for the same reason some people drink whiskey smoothies or why my aunt swears that sprinkling salt on to her watermelon enhances the flavour.
I love your stage presence and your pretty melodies though it can get a sleepy if you’re not in the mood for it. Also, I think these guys could fill in a few musical gaps here and there, for a tense few seconds I thought the bottom of the song would fall out completely, but I think they’re on to something.
Way to rehearse the shit out of it enough to do it well though. I look forward to the new album in September, 2011
Wale Tooth
T.O. seems to be sending bands out on the breeze like some sort of Parkdale sporegasm.
So, Whale Tooth. Everything you’ve heard about their energy and spunk is true. They are F.U.N. They have been described aptly as a kind of friendly pop rock.
These guys really highlighted the joy (lost on some other bands) that can be had when you actually like your bandmates and when performing live shows is still a neat thing to do. Or at least it seemed that way.
Great hooks; it’s hard to stop listening to them. They’re bouncy, cute yet not too saccharine (though I kinda had second thoughts when I watched this video before hand). Really guys? Leaf fights? Hopscotch? Super Soakers? Ice Cream?
So, anyway, if these guys were slotted in a line-up amongst some a group of morose, boring, posturing a-holes at the Horseshoe, I would probably think they were sent from Heaven above, what with the light melodies and backup vocals and general playfulness.
Finally, and most importantly, the lead singer for this band, Elise LeGrow, is fabulous in every way! I heard her hit notes rarely heard from your run-of-the-mill indie group, and she can hold these notes like a champ too! She’s the real thing! Moreover, she has got an infectious energy and bouncy ‘whathaveyou’ that made me kind fall deeply in love with her a little bit.
Please return my texts Elise.
Key and Krates
A long time ago I was a hazardous and dangerously unqualified dj, I played funky and jazzy House music because I hated how vacuous some electronic dance music could be though I like dances music. I always thought the addition of live instruments would really give it a much lacking, organic feel.
With a synth, dj and drum kit, these guys have realised my dream, even if the stole an idea I had never shared with anyone.
A live electronic ensemble that isn’t depressing.
I mean sure, there’s place for dark, hardcore electronic (see Skrillex review below), but Keys and Krates reminded me of how some dj’s can make you want to shake your goods and get all snake like you don’t care…as opposed to making you want to stand in the back of the crowd, texting to your buddies and lie about how awesome they are to see live while some ferrite-faced (recent) high school grads push around preteens because they’re hormonal (once again, see Skrillex review below).
These guys are adding a human fun to dance music and seem really happy to be doing it. I tip my cap to you.
Great turntablism, innovative remixes and good party-rock beats! I appreciated the Phil Collins/Justice mix and The Verve’s very well placed “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, and yeah, I know its been done before but like a good song is still a good song. Their three sweaty skulls kept metronome time for both their mixes and the audience.
On a personal note, I was annoyed a tiny bit by the hoards of Skrillex teens taking their drugs too early while staking out a good gawking spot on the grounds waiting for the next act. But, I’m heartened that Skrillex fans might have been turned on to happier party music.
Remember kids, sometimes if it hurts, your doing it wrong.
Skrillex
Sonny Moore, I hate your scene.
I don’t know if Aphex Twin is proud of you or angry with you.
Having said that, I am truly impressed that you can attract those legions of basement dwelling, angry, teenage fans.
Now before you think I am totally ragging on you, I want you to know that you’re good at what do, and as far as Dub-Step goes, you`re on the cutting edge. Like really. I also want to give you props for the take-charge crowd control you showed when the barricade broke and the masses of seething and spitting troglodytes wanted to get on with pushing. Well done. You tamed their wolfey hearts long enough to get things under control.
If you wrote a how-to guide on controlling teens, I know many of your fans’ parents’ would by a copy. And way to reign-in the dudes in crowd by making them pledge to take care of the girls getting groped and trampled on. Under the circumstances, it was a classy move.
Without a doubt you’re doing a pretty innovative thing, its unique and chest-poundy and a visually disorienting. It’s dark, discordant and unpredictable way rhythmic. You should make an album for the CIA, they could use it in sensory overload chambers, or maybe to bring the elderly to their breaking point.
Combine this with the on-stage chain-smoking, calls for some “fucking noise” to be made and the half-shorn metal hair, it all amounts to a nice pissed-off package, illustrating overall the aggression that is no doubt a part of the appeal.
I also give you credit for whipping up the crowd 50 rows deep. Wow, I’m surprised you didn’t get mainstage with that kind of following.
Come to think of it, I find myself liking you now a little. Well, I suppose that though I still hate your scene, you and your scene is impressive in a way.
Ben Harper
Dear Ben Harper, could you please just go back to making wussy, girly music? I don’t know, maybe because “Welcome to the Cruel World” was the only album of yours I really paid any attention to, I have been conditioned to think that’s what you’re all about. I find it genuinely weird that you want to rock out.
Similar to your tribal tattoos, it seems unnatural.
New Country Rehab
These country gentlemen have taken steady aim and hit the bullseye.
Have you ever been to a show and wished, for the sake of the band, that there were more people there to enjoy it? Yeah, I didn’t feel that this time, instead I was convinced they belonged to me alone and that you can’t have them.
Somehow I think that if the band heard me say this they would probably respond, “Come’on now pardner, there’s plenty to go ‘round” and I would have to abashedly agree then they’d take me to beer tent and dust me off and play me a song as I wandered off into the sunset.
Frontman John Showman should give seminars to fuckhead bands on how to make the audience feel appreciated. Add to this the fact that he is a real talent; he could charm the hooves off a pack of gin-up mustangs.
Lead by his spooky-stony, low-haunting voice the band asks you to breeze in to a bit of introspection, the stuff you’d only learn on a solitary midnight drive through Southern Alberta in an 18 wheeler loaded to the tits with dead cowboys and throat-hoarse preachers.
Whatever you do I don’t want you to think its gloomy! They have some really great toe tappers too, and have nailed a genre summed up neatly as “Outlaw Indie Country”.
By the way, they do a great service to the works of Hank Williams and have rigged up good repertoire of original songs too. If I had to sum it up in a phrase, I might say that they’ve wrangled deep contemporary content into an old timey husk.
And you’re from the Glebe?! I’m watching you!
Ottawa’s annual Bluesfest has expanded well beyond its original mandate. The title of the festival no longer really describes the spectrum of acts available. There is a little something for everyone. The festival boasts an average annual attendance of more than a quarter-million fans and a good deal of variety on it sex stages. The festival is now in its 18th edition and takes place between July 5 and July 17, 2011 at LeBreton Flats, next to the Canadian War Museum.
By Ewald Friesen
