Here are 2 more reviews from 2 bloggers for the Ottawa Bluesfest:
Our own Bluesfest Brothers and Pop contribute again!
by Bill Love
Ok it's us again - Karl, Brad, and James: the father and sons guest reviewers with a catchy new moniker; Bluesfest Brothers and Pop. Do you like it?
Undaunted by forecasts of rain , we headed off to see the Bluesfest lineup for Mon July 13. When we arrived and asked for schedules the volunteers pointed us to the Bank of America stage and said it was all happening there.
Our timing was perfect - we managed to walk up 10 rows from the stage and be entertained by the surprisingly diverse Gym Class Hero's. We're not much for cover song ...especially of 80's pop tunes but I felt the the rest of their set showed off the groups vocal and musical talents culminated in an excellent rendition of Cookie Jar. Kudos also for the mini Michael Jackson tribute...inspired a mini moonwalk.
However, as they graciously forecast, the night belonged to the Stone Temple Pilots (STP). Admittedly I came to concert knowing little about the group beyond their numerous hits (recall from previous review that I missed the 90s).
The fans were chanting STP before the band came out and they didn't dissappoint. With an effective light show and tight power chord songs they handled the set like pros.
I was especially impressed with their stage presence - guitar player acting like a modern day Keith Richards, lead singer dressed like a sort of Miami Bice lounge lizard doing a lot of quasi ballroom 'backwards' dance moves and the bass player looking like one of the bad guys from the Matrix.
The fans were 'all in' for this one yelling out all the hits (maybe that's why Scott needed a megaphone ;-)). As we were up close and personal they educated me on the mosh pit, slam dancing, and body surfing. (anyone missing a left shoe ?)
Over to teen town...they probably consider STP an 'old' band....putting me in Granpa Simpson territory.
By Brad G.
Gym Class Heroes put on a great show, it got everyone jumping and was really entertaining. All the women in the crowd seemed to love Travis McCoy, the lead singer of the group. It was good to see almost all the fans stay for the entire performance even through the pouring rain. They really involved the crowd well, which made for a better show, Travis, made comments about the song before he sung it so you knew what to expect. I give it a Brad rating of 8 cookies out of the cookie jar.
The last show of the night was Stone Temple Pilots I had never seen them before or even heard of them but they were so wicked. The singing and guitar playing were absolutely amazing, and it brought in a very hard rock crowd. There were about five songs where mosh pits started, I only got pulled in once but others made sure they were in it. It really showed how much the fans appreciated their music, there was also a whole bunch of times where people got put on top of the crowd and started crowd surfing. I would definitely give it thirty people being pulled into a mosh pit out of thirty because after seeing the show I am now definitely a fan.
STP, TFO, GLS!
by Todd Snelgrove
How does one fit 'Stone Temple Pilots', 'Tom Fun Orchestra', and 'Great Lake Swimmers' into a snappy headline?
The Bluesfest does tend to become a bit of an endurance test, especially this year with the after hours program going on downtown. I woke up yesterday afternoon still reeling from the spectacular show Kid Koala put on at Capital Music Hall on Sunday night. I got my work done and with one eye on the increasingly discouraging weather I made my way down to the Bluesfest to catch Stone Temple Pilots.
This being the only evening of the festival with only one stage in operation, I was curious to see how many people were going to make it out on a Monday night. I noticed the bicycle valet wasn't very busy and expected a humble crowd at the mainstage, but was surprised to find a phalanx of rabid fans stretching well back into the Rogers Stage area. Dressed all in white a la Freddie Mercury and alternating between microphone and megaphone, singer Scott Weiland led the Stone Temple Pilots through a raucous rock and roll show from atop his own riser at the front of the stage.
This was a full-on balls-to-the-wall fists-in-the-air concert with a heavy band awash in smoke machines, big-show lighting, and a big screen behind the band showing everything from car chases and nuclear mushroom clouds to random psychedelic patterns. I ran into Bluesfest's head electrician the other day and was told that the lighting output on the Bank Of America Stage is equal to the mainstage at the enormous Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee, and the Stone Temple Pilots used every single watt last night, much to the joy of the enthusiastic crowd. There was even some crowd surfing as the band raged through some of their bigger hits like Plush and Interstate Love Song. Suffice to say, it was a night to leave the lawnchair at home.
It was the last night of the first ever Bluesfest In The Byward, and I wasn't going to let it pass me by. I was pleased to see that the Great Lake Swimmers were playing at my favourite live venue, Maverick's, but I just had to see the Tom Fun Orchestra first. Eight Cape Bretoners crowded on to the stage at Pier 21 and drenched the hyper audience in sheets of sound that while never fully abandoning the entrenched down east flavour touched on styles that I heard variably described as 'ska', 'acoustic dance', 'electric east coast', and my favourite from Lindsay the Merch Girl, 'cluster rock'. Call it what you will, the Tom Fun Orchestra is a thickly textured, rollicking good time that manages to avoid any sort of cliche.
Over at Mavericks I walked in on an utterly silent sold-out crowd who watched with rapt attention as Byward mainstage headliner Serena Ryder sat in with the Great Lake Swimmers for the last half of their quietly intense set. She has appeared on more than one of their albums and proved to be a focal point on stage as the band worked through an engaging string of subtly hook-laden ambient folk tunes. The wall-to-wall audience stared in awe at what we all collectively intuited was a special evening of music, and it proved an excellent ending to the Bluesfest In The Byward offering this year, as I'm sure many walked away from Mavericks with that show-of-the-festival look on their faces.
It was great to see the Bluesfest step beyond the expected again this year with the new Bluesfest In The Byward. There are some bugs to work out, but five days of late night programming and a huge free outdoor stage has raised the bar yet again for this amazing festival and from where I was standing it looked like a huge success. It's just astounding to sit back and watch the Bluesfest grow year after year, and I'm sure this Bluesfest In The Byward thing will be a stepping-stone to something even more astounding as the years go on.
That's the end of the late night stuff so I'll actually be able to get reasonable dose of sleep now and then, although I suppose it makes sense to maintain my lack of sleeping pattern at least until Wednesday's Rock & Roll All Night And Party Every Day-a-thon.
