Miscellaneous - Ottawa, 7/7/2005...10/7/2005

  by Andrew Carver

published: 23 / 7 / 2005

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Article

The Ottawa Bluesfest attracted a wide variety of musical acts to four stages surrounding the downtown city hall – some of which actually played the blues. The festival’s line up, as in previous years, was pulled in three opposite directions: It had to pull in the blues fans that got it off the ground, pay for itself by netting baby boomers and pull in a younger crowd with big names for its main stage. At the same time the festival made a sincere effort to attract younger audiences with both platinum selling “punk” bands like Simple Plan, Canadian rap superstar K-Os and indie acts like Broken Social Scene and Alexisonfire. Unfortunately, the highlight of the two previous years (for me, anyway), the Birdman Stage was no longer around to provide a platform for acts like the Dirtbombs, Bellrays, Soledad Brothers, Nina Nastasia, Pearlene, Cherry Valence and sundry others. Thus, the rock’n’roll quotient was a bit lower in 2005. The first act I caught was plainly targeted at the baby boomer crowd: Funk rock soul heavyweights War on the main stage. Even though it’s down to one original member (I forget which) the latest incarnation of the band acquitted itself well. All the hits ('The Cisco Kid', 'Slippin' into Darkness', 'Spill The Wine', 'Me And My Baby Brother', etc.) and an interesting insertion of Edwin Starr's 'War' ("Huh! What is it good for? Absolutely nuthin!") into 'The World is a Ghetto'. Yes, it's 1969 again! Other main stage headliners like Kid Rock, Black-Eyed Peas, Michael Franti and Spearhead and India Arie didn’t attract much interest from me, so I spent much of the rest of the festival puttering around the Grassroots Stage and the Black Sheep Stage. The first two acts I was really keen to catch both played on the Grassroots stage July 8: Tuareg guerillas turned musicians Tinariwen and country heartthrob Neko Case. Tinariwen looked resplendent in their colourful robes and played an awesome show of desert blues. They had a great hand drummer and bassist to provide some solid rhythms, and with four guitarists and all seven members singing they put out a terrific amount of sound. Neko Case put on a similarly excellent show: Her backing band was the Sadies (who also played on her recent live album 'The Tigers Have Spoken'), and needless to say they did an awesome job. Particularly memorable was a storming cover of the perennial Loretta Lynn tune 'Rated X'. They ended with 'Poor Wayfaring Stranger' after the audience dragged them back for one more encore. Saturday 9th was the first "full day" of Bluesfest, with acts on every stage starting about 12:30 p.m. My first destination of the day was the Grassroots Stage to see Gentlemen Reg, but I stopped on the way to watch lascivious local bluesman Capital B work through a few numbers, including 'That Little Voice Inside Me' from his latest album 'Completely Blue For You', with the aid of a fine backing band. Then off to see Gentlemen Reg ... he reminds me of Eric Matthews and Cardinal, though a slightly higher pitch. He's also been compared to Belle and Sebastien and Nick Drake. His more recent stuff is a bit more robust than that might suggest: He had an excellent band with him which included members of the Stills, the Stars and Final Fantasy. Jason Collett, followed Reg, and he was also good, in a somewhat more rootsy way. A crashing version of 'Out Bring The Sun' was a particular highlight. Then I zipped over to the Main Stage just in time to catch Magic Slim and The Teardrops tear up the stage with some hardcore Chicago electric blues. His second guitarist, John Primer, got a mention on the bill, and it's no wonder: He's also super. My next stop was the Black Sheep Stage where I saw Owen Pallett, a.k.a. Final Fantasy. Despite his ridiculously self-deprecatory banter, it's amazing what he can do with just his violin and a looping pedal. I also like the fact one of his songs is called 'The Chronicles of Sarnia'. (For C.S. Lewis fans, it’s a rather depressing city outside Toronto). After a quick dinner break I returned to the Black Sheep Stage to watch the Sadies. For some strange reason the stage’s emcee described them as "A freak show on wheels." I confess I split briefly to watch Metric play a couple of songs (the MBNA Grassroots Stage area was jammed) but I returned in time to catch such highlights as Pretty Polly and a concluding double whammy of Pink Floyd's 'Astronomy Domine' and DQE's 'Tiger Tiger'. Then Xavier Rudd came on. Rudd had won a boatload of new fans at his festival appearance the previous year, and I was eager to see what the reviews were about. I think I would have enjoyed his positivist, somewhat (okay, very) hippified world music more, but even his amazing one-man band performance couldn't distract me from the discomfort of the packed crowd. By the time he got around to singing about the ocean (I forget if this was before or after his ode to Mother Earth) I was about ready to launch a 'Free the Sardines' campaign. He did perform a very compelling cover of Jimi Hendrix' 'The Wind Cries Mary', which made up somewhat for being squashed. Sunday 10th there was another festival highlight as Florida’s Mofro played the opening slot on the Black Sheep Stage. I reviewed their second album 'Lochloosa' for Pennyblackmusic, and was glad to hear they were as good live as on record. The craggy vocals from J.J. Grey pack as much heart as John Fogerty’s best CCR work, and his sideman Daryl Hance is one of the most succinct and soulful guitarists around. The next act on the stage was southern DJ Diplo, but as he basically announced he was going to spin records, something I can do perfectly well myself, I figured my time could be better spent. Guitarist Carl Weathersby on the Main Stage, blues rocker Joe Bonamassa and blues shouter Nora Jean Bruso helped pass the time nicely. As I waited for the next act on my list of “must sees” - much-lauded Cuban guitarist Elmer Ferrer, who turned out to be very skilled but not hugely interesting to me. He won his reputation as a session musician, and his superlative chops did not equal compelling music. Thus, the first festival weekend closed on a somewhat anticlimactic note for me.

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