Category: Concert Reviews

If U2 are the kings of spectacle, Sir Paul McCartney is the king of performance.  I can truly say that if I never saw another concert, I would still be a happy man.

Words can’t define what I felt watching him perform the songs I love.  69 years old, 3 hours long, energy equivalent to me.  Outstanding.

Setlist:

1.Hello Goodbye
2.Juniors Farm
3.All My Loving
4.Jet
5.Birthday
6.Sing The Changes
7.The Night Before
8.Let Me Roll It
9.Paperback Writer
10.The Long and Winding Road
11.1985
12.Let ‘Em In
13.Maybe I’m Amazed
14.I’m Looking Through You
15.I Will
16.Blackbird
17.Here Today
18.Dance Tonight
19.Mrs. Vandebilt
20.Eleanor Rigby
21.Michelle
22.Something
23.Band On The Run
24.Ob La Di Ob La Da
25.Back In The USSR
26.I’ve Got A Feeling
27.A Day In The Life/Give Peace A Chance
28.Let It Be
29.Live and Let Die
30.Hey Jude

Encore
31.Lady Madonna
32.Day Tripper
33.Get Back

Second Encore
34.Yesterday
35.Helter Skelter
36.Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End

(photos accumulated from a variety of sources…Ottawa Citizen, Flickr, etc.)

I figured I should fast-forward to story of interest right now, instead of catching up on reviews from the past week.  If you didn’t know already, the main stage at Bluesfest collapsed last night while battling against a massive windstorm.

My story starts out by heading down to the fairgrounds for the final day of Bluesfest.  As always, I’m sad to see it go, but happy to see it go at the same time.  I had a hard time with the Gauntlet this year…I caught a cold mid-way through and those late nights did not help much!

I’m heading down later than I wanted to arrive, but at least I let Trish know that she should go without me because I knew she wanted to get there in time for Cheap Trick.  As I’m walking down Booth Street, I can see this shadow which can only be described as Sauron descending from Mordor (or the Gatineau Hills…take your pick).  It was the most ominous cloud I had ever seen.  I had a few choices ahead of me…do I hightail it back to the car?  Do I go forward and take shelter along the way?  I spied the situation…I was at Lebreton Flats and I could easily stay inside a bus shelter.  But how much shelter would that REALLY provide me?  So I decided to enter no-man’s land…a kilometer of no shelter between Lebreton bus shelters and the War Museum.  Along the way I was texting Trish telling her that she better get out of there…something big was coming.  I wasn’t even going to bother entering the fairgrounds.  I knew lightning (or something worse!) was on its way down and my only safety net was the War Museum lobby.

When I arrived in front of the museum, I figured I would sit and listen to the music until the rain started.

Then the unthinkable happened.

A gust of wind essentially swooped into the stage area and pushed out the roof.  The roof was flapping in the wind and at one point I guess the structure said “Hey wait a minute, the roof is attached to the entire lighting and tarpauline structure…I’m going to go along with it!  So then the entire thing collapsed in one fell swoop.

Here is a video taken from basically where I was standing outside the gate.  Note that from the video, you can’t really tell if it hits the crowd.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvjHZNKwMp4

Here is a better video of the entire thing collapsing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfqpXNfywT4

So at this moment I go into panic mode.  “Where is Trish?  Is she alright?  Are there other of my friends out there?”  I think “Do I go in and look for Trish?” but then the swarms of thousands of people made me realize it was a fool’s errand and I headed into the museum to take shelter from the storm.  Interestingly enough, I had not one drop of rain on me.  Yes, I consider myself quite smart for hanging out near the museum instead of going inside what can only be described as “Windmageddon ’11”.

Inside the war museum I saw my buddy Wes who was in the beer tent right next to the main stage and figured he owed his life to the fact that the wind had knocked the entire structure backwards and not sideways into the beer tent.  I frantically started texting my friends and found out that Mike, Rachel, Andre and Karilee were all offsite at the time which was great news.  My favourite text from Andre is “heading down now.  Looks like poncho time!!!” not realizing the extent of the storm clouds!  Texts slowly trickled in…here’s some news for new cellular phone owners…with thousands of people using their phones in the same area, sometimes nothing works for you.  Trish finally found me and recounted the harrowing tale.

Essentially Cheap Trick was finishing up a song and then all of a sudden left the stage.  They must have seen the storm wind coming.  Two seconds later Trish is caught up in a windstorm so fierce that when I see her, there is dirt in all her clothes and hair!  She then said the stage collapsed before her eyes and she hightailed it out of there looking for shelter.  There were fears of other structures falling down…namely the videographer scaffolds (turns out the Mayor Jim Watson was up on the scaffold at the time!) and the speaker stacks.  She made the smart move by entering the museum from the North side where all the people weren’t heading towards and eventually found me and told me the tale.

It was storming pretty bad for awhile we stuck around for an hour after texting our friends to let them know that Bluesfest was effectively cancelled and there was no use in coming down.  I was quite scared that there may be fatalities but it sounds like a few people ended up in the hospital and are out of the hospital 12 hours later.  Whew!

Trish and I managed to share a poncho (sweet!) and walked back to our cars (where I managed to get soaked feet while avoiding every puddle…damn you Pumas!) and along the way Trish swerved out of the way of something and then I realized there was a tree in the middle of the road!  In fact, there were three along the way and I’m sure a dozen more in the downtown core.

I recommend reading the articles up on the Ottawa Citizen for more information on the crazy, crazy end of Bluesfest.  I’m just glad that no one was killed and I commend the staff on site that maintained order and informed us (well those of us inside of the museum) of what was going on.

Upon entering the Bluesfest grounds after an afternoon at HOPE Volleyball, I was in serious need of some food.  I could feel I looked quite disheveled.  I had been in the sun all day with some beers, I am working on zero sleep for the past 12 days…it wasn’t a good scene.

Luckily for me, my colleague Roula from work decided to notice me in a crowd and then introduce me to her husband who had this shocked look on his face that said “What happened to THIS guy?!”  I had a good laugh about it the week after while chatting with Roula as she basically said I looked like death warmed over!

First up was Death from Above 1979 which I never really got into…they were entertaining with their guitar/drum combo up on stage but not sure if I would invest a lot of time listening to them.  I find there are quite a few bands that pop up in the past five years that find a good jam/riff to play with and just give’r with some lyrics over top of it.  Hey, I can do that too!

Next up was the big draw of the night…Jane’s Addiction!  I can honestly say I do not know them at all, but Martin suggested a few albums to me and I had been listening to them for the past week and was curious as to how I never heard them before!  They were right smack dab in the middle of the alternative scene that I grew up with.

After a good 45 minutes of some excellent wailing from the band, we decided to mosey over to the Mother Mother show where Rachel was.  I must say that this was my first time seeing Mother Mother and they stole the show that night!  Forget Jane’s Addiction, this is where the energy was!  It was infectious…Vero was even dancing!  You know a band is great when it can automatically get Vero dancing!  I really enjoyed their two keyboard players.

DFA Setlist:
Turn It Out
Dead Womb
Going Steady
Too Much Love
Cold War
Black History Month
Go Home, Get down
(unknown)
Little Girl
Blood on Our Hands
You’re A Woman, I’m a Machine
Pull Out
We Don’t Sleep at Night
Romantic Rights
Do It!
If We Don’t Make It We’ll Fake It

Jane’s Setlist:
Up the Beach
Mountain Song
Ain’t No Right
Had a dad
Ted, Just Admit It…
Just Because
End to the Lies
Three Days
Been Caught Stealing
Ocean Size
Stop!
Jane Says (acoustic)

Mother Mother:
Chasing it Down
The Stand
Problems
Calm Me Down
Original Spin
Simply Simple
Polynesia
Body
Ghosting
Dirty Town
Wrecking Ball
Body of Years
Baby Don’t Dance
O My Heart
Hayloft
Sleep Awake

Ugh.  Wore up this morning with a killer sore throat in Karilee and Andre’s living room.  Brutal sore throat.  The onset of strep throat?  I had strep throat five years ago and I’m always worried about getting it again.

I made my way home after a killer breakfast (thanks guys!) and spent the rest of the day recuperating (read: working around the house) before we headed downtown for another night of Bluesfest.

First up was Grammy Award winning Peter Frampton who we all mocked for having the title ‘Grammy award-winning’ in front of his name all the time!  Now, to set the record straight, I don’t know much Peter Frampton.  I only know a few hits from the radio.  I also know that he is touring the 35th anniversary of his killer live album ‘Frampton Comes Alive’ (which is a great live album title by the way).  He was recreating the setlist of that fabled night on the current tour.

With sore throat in tow, Vero, Vero, Martin, Trish and I headed towards the main stage to catch Frampton at his best.  Mike and Jean-Luc met up with us later.  I had this amazing Philly Chesesteak in hand (from Fitz Catering where they actually know Vero and said hello) which difficult to navigate the crowd with, but turned out to be so tasty!

What can I say about Peter Frampton?  He put on a killer show…I never knew he could rock so hard.  They were jamming away, soloing here and there, having some great singalongs…it was a highlight of Bluesfest.  My favourite moment occurred when he took the talk box and started talking to a guy selling popcorn.

“Hey mister, please give me some popcorn” the robotic voice said.

You can see the man with the popcorn on a giant stick walk away but after the finale of ‘While my Guitar Gently Weeps’, the guy comes back and throws a bag of popcorn on stage for him!  Classic!  It was a good laugh and the band seemed really into the crowd as well.

Two thumbs up for Peter Frampton.  I must seek out his live album.

Next up was Huey Lewis and the News…a band I only know from Back to the Future and American Psycho…which has a hilarious scene where the killer in the film talks about Huey Lewis and the News’ ‘consummate professionalism’.  Andre and Karilee met up with us and we had some good laughs and commenting about their professionalism throughout the set.  I got to hear “Power of Love’ track that I wanted to, and they had an amazing a Capella moment with a hilarious song called “Sixty Minute Man”.  Quite impressive!  I even found a bootleg of that concert and it sounds fantastic.

I headed straight over to the main stage to see A Perfect Circle.  I’m a big fan and haven’t seen them in a few years since they took a hiatus so I was curious to see what they would pull off…especially since they were touring a lot of their Emotive album (which is essentially (minus one track) a covers album).

The stage was shrouded in shadows and at one point I believe someone even said “There’s a singer up there?!”  Maynard James Keenan definitely shies away from the spotlight…he doesn’t take stage center and he is in a back corner with no lights on him for the most part.  James Iha was up on a small pedestal and Billy was down on the main stage walking around with incredible guitar solos.

I especially liked hearing Counting Bodies like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War drums (not a song for everyone!) as well as The Noose.  I was surprised to not hear Judith at all which is a big hit.  Let us not forget the excellent covers…Trish was impressed solely from their Depeche Mode cover of People are People and they also had a John Lennon and Memphis Minnie cover (When the Levee Breaks which was made popular by Zep.)

There was this crazy, crazy dancer in front of us at one point that just prompted us to laugh.  He was really into the show, thrashing around and having the time of his life.  I LOVE it when I see someone let loose like that.  I find I’m more content with standing still nowadays…must be my body wearing down or the fact that I had what seemed like strep throat!

The show ended around 10:45 which was 15 minutes earlier than curfew…I thought they were going to come back out, but I guess not!  I was impressed nonetheless.  Trish was impressed by the fact that they covered Depeche Mode.  Hey, if that’s what gets you liking a band, so be it!  🙂

That being said, I felt like crap so it was time to go home.

Setlists:
Frampton:
Something’s Happening
Doobie Wah
Lines on my Face
Show Me The way
It’s a Plain Shame
Wind of Change
All I Wanna Be (is by your side)
Baby, I love your way
I Wanna Go to the Sun
(I’ll Give You) Money
Do You Feel Like We Do

Encore:
Shine On (Humble Pie)
Jumping Jack Flash (Rolling Stones)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Beatles)

Huey:
The Heart of Rock & Roll
Don’t Fight It
Respect Yourself
I Want a New Drug
Small World
If This is It
Power of Love
Jacob’s Ladder
Sixty Minute Man
(Unknown)
Heart and Soul
But It’s Alright
We’re Not here for a Long Time
Encore: Workin’ For a Livin’
APC:
Annihilation (Crucifix)
Weak and Powerless
The Hollow
3 Libra (All Main Courses Mix)
People are People (Depeche Mode)
Counting Bodies like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums
Blue
By and Down
The Package
The Noose
Magdelena
The Outsider – Oh man, how can I forget this song?  This was epic.
Imagine (John Lennon)
When the Levee Breaks (Memphis Minnie/Led Zeppelin)
Passive

After sleeping in after the U2 concert (and revelling in the spectacle), Saturday night was calling our name and we headed down to the fairgrounds for a highly anticipated night.  On the main stage, The Tragically Hip…one of Canada’s finest bands.  On the smaller stage, M. Ward…one of folk music’s finest additions in recent years.  Unfortunately, I had to make a choice between these two excellent bands and the winner was M. Ward solely based on the fact that I’m pretty sure I can see the Hip again in my life…M. Ward…not so sure!

M. Ward is an amazing, amazing songwriter and producer and I was looking forward to hearing him and his band.  It’s interesting…I had never seen his band in photographs until the day of and I realized he has a fairly older gentleman in the band (who we joked that he must be his father!).  We found a great spot in front of the National Bank stage which is one of the smaller, intimate stages which made the show even better.

They took the stage and the next few hours were bliss.  They played my faves…Chinese Translation, Requiem, Magic Trick…you name it, they played it.  They also ended with an excellent encore of Roll Over Beethoven.  I really enjoyed the one song encore (as opposed to the multi-song encores most acts do nowadays).  It brought something special to the show.  Granted, they came back for a second encore, but at least they were one song encores.

I stumbled into the Dane Clan who were up from Sudbury so we got into a little Kapuskasing vs. Sudbury banter for awhile and then shared some beers.  I literally shared some beers after the show was done and the beer tent was closed for the night.  The next morning I awoke with a killer sore throat and the running joke for the next few days was how I got strep throat from the Dane Clan up from Sudbury.

I met up with Vero and Trish who enjoyed the Hip show (it was Vero’s first Hip show!) and afterwards I headed out with Andre and Karilee for a night on the town…well it started out that way and then we had horrible service at The Preston; some new bar.  At least we had a great shawarma at the end of the night!

I would go see M.Ward a million more times.  In fact, I heard he was in Gatineau a few months ago!  How the heck did I miss that information!?