Miscellaneous - Ottawa, 11/7/2007-15/7/2007

  by Andrew Carver

published: 23 / 7 / 2007

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Article

Monday, July 9 Indie rock once again dominated on Monday, at least on the Black Sheep Stage. On other stages horribly lame “punk” rockers Hedley butchered Bob Marley tunes while Johnny Lang and Buddy Guy played for blues fans from opposite ends of the age spectrum. Locals Relief Maps traced the territory between Joy Division and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Halifax crew In-Flight Safety buckled down for their take on the delay-friendly harmonic rock of the early 1980's British outfits like Chameleons and Echo and the Bunnymen. There was, howver, no disguising the real draw of the evening: Polaris Award-winning violinist Final Fantasy. Owen Pallett's set at Bluesfest two years ago was an intriguing introduction to an artist just beginning to garner wide public praise for his delicate and emotive pop tunes. The crowd for his second Bluesfest appearance expanded tenfold, and was treated to both Pallett’s artfully constructed but spare tales of urban and romantic disenchantment and a charmingly lo-tech visual backdrop provided by Stephanie Comilang (who also did his ‘This Lamb Sells Condos’ video) using an overhead projector. Tuesday, July 10 Roots rock ruled on Tuesday. Longstanding Ottawa country rocker John Allaire played a particularly robust set. He was followed by a pair of festival highlights. First, Randy Newman traipsed through his considerable back catalogue with his characteristic sharp wit. Newman started things off with ‘It's Money That Matters’ ("I like to begin things with a spiritual," he quipped, probably not for the first time) and ran off a few of his greatest hits like ‘Short People’, ‘Great Nations of Europe’, ‘The World Isn't Fair’, ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’, ‘Birmingham’, ‘Sail Away’, ‘I Love L.A.’, ‘Political Science’, a laugh-out-loud version of ‘In Defense of Our Country’, an audience participation version of ‘I'm Dead (But I Don't Know It)’ and ‘Louisiana 1927’ - particularly heartfelt considering some of his family still resides in New Orleans. Alejandro Escovedo put on last year’s best Bluesfest set, and came perilously close to doing the same this year, just being edged out by Toumani Diabate and Co. (Elsewhere jam band moe., and funk titan George Clinton performed amidst clouds of pot smoke while Los Lobos turned up the volume at the River Stage. Soulful Nashville bluesman Anthony Gomes put on a stirring set and Mission, B.C. emopunks Faber Drive demonstrated that it is possible to suck even worse than Hedley). Wednesday, July 11 Wednesday opened with a burst of guitar heavy rock. Guitar Explosion united a trio of Canadian electric blues axemen at the Rogers Stage, while onetime Big Sugar frontman Gordy Johnson brought his ZZ Top-meets-the-Melvins trio Grady to the main stage. The real attraction of the day for Ottawa’s alternative music fans began at 8 p.m. with an appearance from Cat Power. The notoriously erratic performer had alienated most of her local fan base at a previous visit to the area, but kept things together for her Bluesfest show. Stalking the stage in a green fatigue long-sleeved shirt, fingerless gloves and copious mascara, she wrapped her sultry voice around a large portion of her recent catalogue and several covers. ‘(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction’ and ‘Dark End of the Street’ were okay, ‘The Tracks of My Tears’ was a tad bombastic. She was ably abetted by her new combo, the Dirty Delta Blues gets its name from Dirty 3 drummer Jim White, Delta 72 organist Gregg Foreman and Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion sideman Judah Bauer. Heavily sideburned bass player Erik Papparazzi rounds out the quartet. While short of electricity, her set at least provided her many fans with the relief of knowing she hasn’t slid completely off the rails. The real surprise of the festival ended the evening: Tanya Tagaq Gillis is a solo Inuk throat singer. Tagaq has taken what began as a game played between the women of Canada’s distant north and wedded it to modern technology. After a little chat with the audience about throat singing and the role of Michael Red in constructing the loops and computerized backgrounds for her visceral chants she got down to some seriously gut-wrenching vocalizing. If Diamanda Galas had grown up around polar bears, she might have given Gillis a run for her money. She asked if there were any throat singers in the audience; local rapper Ben Jammin called out "How about beat boxers?" and he and Rise Ashen got on stage to give it a go. This was not as improbable a mixture as you might think, since Ben has in fact collaborated with Tagaq's throat-singing cousin Celina Kalluk up north. Kalluk herself showed up a few minutes later and the two ladies performed a couple of traditional numbers in a tight clinch. There was a lot of laughter at this show (and not just when Rise Ashen took a pratfall) - the competitive aspect of throat-singing involves trying to make the other singer crack up, and Tagaq has an earthy sense of humour and convivial style – if she ever gives up singing she should host a breakfast show. Thursday, July 12 Although a bit of a letdown compared to previous days, Thursday did offer a few intriguing shows. London, Ont., performer Basia Bulat is a bigger draw overseas than in Canada, but her savvy chamber pop is starting to garner a homeland audience. Maryland musician Michael Nau is also on to something with his crossbreeding of Sufjan Stevens and Neutral Milk Hotel. His show reminded me of Anathallo as well. Over on the River Stage, Hugh Pool played steel guitar blues with a heaping helping of distortion. It was a most refreshing change after witnessing many acts tread to carefully around the form. Unfortunately Black Sheep Stage headliner Ndidi Onukwulu wasn’t quite so brusque with the past of R&B. Her mentor and guitarist Madagascar Slim wrought some strange sounds with his Ibanez, but her vocals were disappointingly traditional. The truly exciting act of the evening was veteran Canadian outfit Blue Rodeo, whose Gene Clark- and Gram Parsons-inspired tunes kept a large crowd both inside the grounds and on the sidewalk outside. Friday, July 13 Friday was a good night to wear dancing shoes – first New York Gypsy punks Gogol Bordello had the crowd at the Rogers Stage jumping ferociously along to their bass heavy sound as wildman singer Eugene Hutz alternated between manic spiel and aerobic antics. Later in the evening a huge young crowd wedged itself in front of the River Stage to mosh and body-surf along to Metric’s dancerock. The band test-ran a new song called ‘Up In Flames’ on the audience and played a bunch of favourites like ‘Dead Disco’ that had the fans sloshing back and forth. The real highlight of the day was sandwiched in between those acts: Built To Spill upheld their reputation as one of alternative rock’s premier guitar rock combos. The band’s guitar trio looked almost morose as it unleashed waves of feedback, washes of chords and spacey leads, but the crowd was thrilled almost to the point of hysteria by mind-expanding versions of ‘Else’, ‘Big Dipper’, ‘Time Trap’ and ‘You Were Right’. Sebastien Grainger, formerly of DFA 1979, also played a capable set with his backing duo Les Montaignes: Strident vocals and power trio rock. (Other stages offered an opportunity to see INXS or Ten Years After, sans Michael Hutchence and Alvin Lee. Whoopee.) Saturday, July 14 It had to happen eventually – after a week and a half of rain never quite falling, the Bluesfest crowd got a soaking. There was little new to see, though local acts Jom Bryson, Danny Michel, Amanda Rheaume and The Empiricals provided typically entertaining sets that ranged from roots music, through David Bowie-influenced pop and Joan Baez-influenced rock to Asian-flavoured surf instrumentals. Montreal’s Patrick Watson was a bright spot on a gloomy day: The Montreal-based performer has a charming, somewhat goofball stage presence and uses a delay pedal on his voice with interesting results. His band has some fun with odd musical doodads as well, creating a dreamy and decidedly askew variety of piano pop. Kanye West drew a large late-night crowd for his main stage headlining shot, but by then many slightly soggy show-goers had gone home to towel off. Sunday, July 15 The final Sunday kicked off with a band as Danny Michel performed a full band set (normally he flies solo). His loosey-goosey practice regime led to a ramshackle but invigorating performance. The next performance provided one of the festivals unexpected pleasant surprises. Louisiana-born guitarist Papa Mali combines some of the spaciest, spiciest swamp-funk with a heavily reverbed singing style that makes one wonder if Baby Huey has been reborn in one rotund and dreadlocked Austinite. Although King Sunshine outnumbered Papa Mali’s trio by a factor of three to one, the groove of their ska and calypso-influenced sound was pale in comparison. They boast an impressive percussion team and a good horn section, but the quality dips near the front of the stage: Their fetching singer was too mannered, a factor made all the more evident when one of the saxophonists took over the microphone near the end of the set. They probably pass muster in a sweaty dancehall, but in the middle of the sunny day they lacked that certain something. The Deadstring Brothers played a more forceful set. Unabashedly retro, the group takes 'Exile on Main Street' as its starting point and strains it through Gram Parsons’ ‘Grievous Angel’. With a female singer and percussionist, organ player and steel guitarist buttressing the guitar, bass and drums the band puts out as full a sound as 1973 could hope for. Steve Forbert also sounds like a 1970's roots rocker, but since he actually started in the 1970's, he’s more than entitled. Along with his Soundbenders he treads territory similar to Steve Earle and Bruce Springsteen. Like Earle some of his tunes have a political slant, though Forbert leans more heavily on environmental issues than Earle. He’s also a lively performer, swaying and shaking with nervous energy as he thumps out his gritty acoustic rock. The final event of the festival was Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings. Jones’ old-style soul revue has been through town on several occasions and always attracts a big crowd of fans. The group’s performance was as usual energetic, and Jones is a dynamite performer. The only real complaint with the show is that a metal barrier and the height of the stage made it hard for Jones to get the degree of audience participation she’s enjoyed at club shows. She’s a determined lady though, and if she has to haul a few girls on stage to dance along to the James Brown and Tina Turner-influenced soul songs, so be it. Her set over, there was nothing more to make ones way home through revellers from the main stage – most of them clad in flashing doodads and singing Village People songs.

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