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Considering Bluesfest ended and we needed some more rock, it was a good thing that we picked up tickets to see John Fogerty when he came into town!

From Wikipedia:
John Cameron Fogerty (born May 28, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock or roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival.

That’s right, we went to see the main man from CCR! I was stoked. Out of all the old greats out there – Zeppelin, Floyd, the Stones, I would have to say that CCR is my fave.

Mike’s parents came down for the event and we headed out to the Scotiabank Place after a good BBQ. When we got into the Place, we showed his parents to their section 106 (as they had picked up tickets at a different time than we did) and Mike and I headed down to the floor.

We had Row 5 seats and in my mind I thought “Hey, that’s pretty close.” but it wasn’t until Mike kept walking, and walking and WALKING up to the stage that my mind imploded with the sheer distance to the stage. When we got down there the Jim Cuddy Band was in full force getting into a little Five Days in May with a wicked violin solo. Back to Row 5 talk here, Row 5 was so close. I could take 3 giant steps and be at the stage. I was in awe. Mike was in awe. We have never been this close. Jim Cuddy’s sweat was hitting me.

We only got to see 20 minutes of Jim Cuddy before he left the stage. I recommend his solo work as well as the Blue Rodeo stuff.

We then headed to get another beer and found out that in Section 106, there were two other groups from Kapuskasing that both took a pilot’s course with Mike’s dad! Talk about a small world! This reminds me of the time we went to see Pearl Jam and there were three separate groups from Kapuskasing in the same section. We are talking about an arena of 15,000 people!

I was concerned with the fact that ONCE AGAIN, Mike and I would be the only people standing up in the crowd, but those fears were laid to rest when we sat next to some guys who declared they would stand up for the entire show. PLUS, they rushed the stage when Fogerty got up there. Security was so relaxed at this concert. There were so many people who rushed the stage. THIS is what a rock concert is about!

John Fogerty and band came to the stage in what must be his official tour outfit – a plaid shirt and a red handkerchief (they were also selling this outfit for $60 at the merchandise booth). He ripped right into Travelin’ Band and I knew it was going to be the most amazing night ever. The setlist was enormous but that’s what you get from a guy who can write the catchiest tune in under 2 minutes.

The hits didn’t stop coming. Here’s the setlist:

Setlist:
Travelin’ Band
Green River
Who’ll Stop The Rain
It Came Out Of The Sky
Born On The Bayou
Lookin’ Out My Backdoor
Lodi
I Will Walk With You
Ramble Tamble
Midnight Special
Bootleg
I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Have You Ever Seen The Rain
Don’t You Wish It Was True
Keep On Chooglin’
Down On The Corner (with Shane & Tyler Fogerty)
Rock And Roll Girls
Centerfield
Good Golly Miss Molly
Old Man Down The Road
Up Around The Bend
Fortunate Son
Bad Moon Rising
Proud Mary
Blue Suede Shoes
Long Tall Sally

The night became a blur filled with rocking tunes and beer. Mike and I were in awe of the performance the entire night. For a sixty-one year old, this guy has more energy than you and I combined. I would definitely have to say that this was THE concert to see in the past year in Ottawa.

Highlights:
– Midnight Special. Man, I dig that tune.
– I think he came out for a second encore that usually doesn’t happen (as seen from other setlists) and he played some Blue Suede Shoes and Long Tall Sally. Sweet!
– Considering the distance from the stage, I got some pretty good performance videos. I was always pre-emptively hitting the start button in fear that I would miss the beginning of Fortunate Son (only the best CCR tune ever, natch). I ended up getting that plus a few others.
– Either his kids or his grandkids were on the stage with him during Down on the Corner. It was funny watching them play guitar as they did not seem phased at all playing in front of a huge crowd. In fact, they looked bored. I suppose that’s what happens if you’ve seen your Dad/Grandpa play all the time.
– I like how I was going up to the stage to get a picture but some guy thought I wanted a picture with him instead. He was a cool guy so I graced him with my presence (although he was probably thinking the same thing)

Sigh…that will probably go down in history as one of the better concerts I’ve seen. I wish everyone could have been there. If you have a chance to see John Fogerty live, do it now.

****

That night when we got home, we had a couple pieces of pie and I swear that made me hallucinate during the night. I couldn’t fall asleep for the longest time and when I awoke at one point I had this hallucination that I wasn’t in my own bedroom! I thought I was in some craft of sorts with some portholes and I felt my wall and it felt like steel. I closed my eyes for a few moments and when I opened them I still saw the portholes but then I realized that they were just my windows and I was sleeping on a different angle on my bed. So instead of my body laying top to bottom, I was laying side to side which must have messed up my brain. Whew! No one kidnapped me after the concert!

My thoughts on Bluesfest after three days of integrating back into the real world…I can’t say I left it completely; we still went to work (well most of us did) and we still managed to function at 80% which is more than anyone can ask from us; but now we are back into it fully. We are still feeling the aftermath of Bluesfest and the need to drink beer out of plastic cups. In fact, Karilee has just sent an invitation for a plastic beer cup party next Monday. Beautiful idea, beautiful.

Bluesfest was pretty well what I expected. I went in there not knowing a lot of bands fully so my expectations were low. I came out from every show amazed at the tunes I had just heard and the memories I walked away with. I did not have one bad concert experience other than the fact of not being able to see Buddy Guy that much because we had to finish our beer before going over to the River Stage. Gripe #1.

Gripe #2 is as always, the ever longing lawn chair debate. Bluesfest organizers, you did the best you could, and in the end, the people standing up won the battle. I feel empowered. Next year, make a separate section off to the side for the people with the lawn chairs. We’ll both be happy.

My top four shows:
– Steve Miller Band
– Sam Roberts Band
– The White Stripes
– George Thorogood and the Destroyers

This was my first year that I bought a full pass to Bluesfest and I did not regret it. If the lineup is worthy next year, I shall do the same. I enjoy the time I spent with my friends on the festival grounds and the music we heard.

Here’s some stats from an article about Bluesfest. In fact, go visit this site for a lot of information: www.ottawacitizen.com/blues

– Number of people attending Bluesfest – 300,000
– Cups of beer sold: 250,000
– Litres of wine: 62,000

One litre of wine equals roughly 3 beer, therefore
62,000 * 3 = 186,000 beers

– TOTAL Cups of beer sold: 436,000

Roughly 1.45 cups of beer sold per person attending Bluesfest 2007.

Not too shabby.

We left the festival grounds on Sunday and headed to McDonalds as it was our safe place from the real world – a world full of going to the gym, watching what we eat and drink, and conducting ourselves responsibly. You see, we escaped the real world for 10 days and we just needed a few fries and a burger to soak up all the good times. Going to McDonalds was a rite of passage back into the real world, one where we wouldn’t be touching beer every day, or staying up until the wee hours of the night, or having a burger from the greasy spoon.

It’s good to be back, but damn…it was a good ride while it lasted.

iplaying: Pinned Together, Falling Apart – The Dears (No Cities Left)

White Stripes Setlist

Stop Breakin’ Down Blues [Robert Johnson]
When I Hear My Name
Cannon
John the Revelator [Traditional]
Death Letter [Son House]
300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues
Lord, Send Me an Angel [Blind Willie McTell]
Wasting My Time
Instinct Blues
I Fought Piranhas
Let’s Build a Home
Give Me Back My Wig [Hound Dog Taylor]
Catch Hell Blues
Astro
Cool Drink of Water Blues [Tommy Johnson]
Ball and Biscuit

Icky Thump
In the Cold, Cold Night
Hotel Yorba
Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
Black Math
I’m Slowly Turning Into You
Seven Nation Army
Boll Weevil [Lead Belly]

Steve Miller Band Setlist

Fly Like an Eagle
Living in the U.S.A.
Abracadabra
Mercury Blues [K.C. Douglas]
Threshold
Take the Money and Run
Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma
Swingtown
The Joker
Serenade
True Fine Love
The Stake
Wild Mountain Honey
Dance Dance Dance
Rock’n Me
Winter Time

Jet Airliner [Paul Pena]

George Thorogood and the Destroyers

One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer [Amos Wilburn]
Rock Party
Who Do You Love? [Bo Diddley]
The Fixer
Night Time [The Strangeloves]
I Drink Alone
Gear Jammer
Cocaine Blues [Clarence Ashley]
Bad to the Bone
I Got My Eyes on You [Mike Morgan & The Crawl]
Get a Haircut
Move It On Over [Hank Williams]
Love Doctor [Susan Angeletti]
Madison Blues [Elmore James]

***originally posted for a Sam Roberts message board…may be a little too much for people to read***

***all photos taken from .COBRASNATCH’s Flickr site***

Heading out to Bluesfest’s last night had a sad effect on me as I had been through the gauntlet and survived, but realized that I wished every night of the summer could be like this. Music all summer long. A man can dream.

We got there with time to spare so we grabbed a few beer and got a prime location to stand for the set. On my way over, I was mentioning to my roommate how I’ve finally come down off of my Sam Roberts Band high. Maybe it’s because they are well into the Chemical City tour…maybe it’s because the shows have an air of predictability to them…whatever it was, I wasn’t as pumped as I used to be for a SRB show. Hopefully this feeling would go away soon!

As soon as the opening keyboard chords of The Gate arose into the air I felt the excitement creep back into me. Perhaps all I needed was a kick in the ass of full out rock? The band was getting into the groove of things once With A Bullet was over and done with. The Resistance opened it wide open – crowds clapping, Sam sauntering around, Dave swinging his hair…it was all coming together. Forget what I said before – my love of the Sam Roberts Band came back fast and it was full throttle after three songs into the set.

Hard Road followed and then it happened. Paranoia. Out of all the times I’ve seen the band, they have never played my fave tune live. The night became magic. I will throw out one gripe though (and this has nothing to do with their performance). I enjoyed the jam at the end of Paranoia on their We Were Born in a Flame tour more than the Chemical City tour. From listening to the bootlegs from that era, I can hear some similarities between the jam of Paranoia and what became Mind Flood. So…I have this theory that they felt it was just too similar so when Mind Flood started playing in the Chemical City tour, they figured they had to change the jam at the end of Paranoia. That being said, I loved Paranoia, but I prefer the old jam better. However, I do like a band who shakes things up.

Fixed to Ruin hit everyone (which premiered in Ottawa at the Panda Festival back in the spring) and I have to admit the crowd was loving the new tune. You know you have a hit song when no one knows it but it can move the crowd.

As stated before, Brother Down, you can see Sam having the biggest grin on his face. He just can’t stop smiling at someone in the crowd.

At the end of the song he announces that his daughter is down in the crowd in the pit at her first rock concert. You can see it touches him.

I’m going to make a fairly obvious assumption that she was their with her mother considering I don’t think Sam’s daughter is even walking yet. Pretty cool to think that they went into the pit instead of hanging out on the side.

Also around this time, Dave takes the microphone and announces that he wants to wish his cousin a Happy 16th Birthday and that the next tune is for him. I thought that was awesome. He must have made his cousin’s night.

Let’s talk about Dave for a moment here. I don’t know if it was because he had family in the crowd, or if he was playing a hometown show (well, relatively close to home that is), but whatever it was, he was on fire. My roommate commented that he has never seen Dave rocking so much. He was pulling out some excellent leads as well as sheer rocking movements – my fave being the holding the guitar up high and strumming away. Classic guitar move right there people. Practice it if you own a guitar.

15

Other fan faves like Draft Dodger, Bridge to Nowhere and Where Have All the Good People Gone? Were excellent as always. Mind Flood blew me away once again (as always) and I am hoping there is a bootleg of this show floating out there (although Ottawa is rare on the bootleg scene unfortunately) as the song was one of the more blistering versions I’ve heard.

They came out for the encore of Eileen but then promptly left the stage as another band was taking stage across the festival grounds. I was disappointed that they couldn’t hang out any longer, but the festival rules are there to be followed I suppose.

All in all, my love for the Sam Roberts Band is back and I’m anxiously awaiting them setting up in their studio for awhile and throwing out a new album. Other than that, I’ll just revel in the excellent bootlegs that are popping up lately (thanks Chris and others!) as well as contemplate heading to Montreal for Osheaga.

Setlist:
The Gate
With A Bullet
The Resistance
Hard Road
Paranoia
Fixed to Ruin
Brother Down
An American Draft Dodger in Thunder Bay
Bridge To Nowhere
Where Have All The Good People Gone?
Mind Flood

Encore
Don’t Walk Away Eileen

—-

After the Sam Roberts Band, we headed over to the River Stage for what would be our last Bluesfest concert of the year. There we found alexisonfire in full assault and at this point, I just wanted to hang back and take the entire week in. I grabbed a few beer, talked with some people and laughed with Krista about the absurd things we did the day before at HOPE Volleyball. alexisonfire put on an intense show. They were frantic all over the stage. So much energy being outputted from the stage. I can’t say I know much alexisonfire tunes so I’ll stop there with the review. I’m glad the Bluesfest ended on a high rock note with both bands.

Alexisonfire setlist

Mailbox Arson
This Could Be Anywhere in the World
No Transitory
Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints
Boiled Frogs
We Are the Sound
.44 Caliber Love Letter
Rough Hands
Control
Keep It on Wax
Get Fighted
Happiness by the Kilowatt
Accidents

iplaying: The Second Part – The Dears (No Cities Left)

P1050890
Originally uploaded by palm0014

I have discovered that I can’t really be a music critic for the sole fact that I don’t have enough adjectives in my vocabulary. Which means that music critics must use their thesaurus all the time. Yes, that’s the answer.

Friday night brought us the weekend of fun and sun. Not really sun, but a lot of fun.

After an intense match of Rad Racer with Krista and Jill, we headed to Krista’s where she made the most amazing drink which we dubbed the ‘Blues on the Rocks’. It was followed up by the worst drink in the world which can only be compared to the caesar Donna made me for me one time where she used clamato juice which had been opened, and left in the cupboard for a year. Gak.

After disposing of that drink, we went back to some B.o.t.R. and headed down to the festival grounds. We missed Built to Spill, but no matter, INXS was coming up and we were excited. I was overly excited because the crowd was navigatable for the first time in the week! We managed to get a great spot close to the stage AND have enough room to dance around and come and go for refills as we please. Excellent!

INXS were pretty darn good. They started off the set with Suicide Blond and never let up. Ah, the horn section was amazing! I loved the guy’s moustache also. Top notch facial hair actually. I don’t know much INXS but the only thing I did know is that they have a new singer to replace Michael Hutchence – a Canadian chap called JD Fortune. I was impressed with his showmanship (as well as the rest of the band also who have been around for ages). Bright lights, soaring guitar lines (although Mike stated that half of the solos and saxophone bits were so lame that he could have pulled them off).

I am glad I went to see INXS and not Metric. Although I bet Metric would have put on a better show, I know that they’ll be around for awhile longer so I have a chance to see them in the future (as opposed to INXS which is a rare chance to see the band).

You can’t go wrong with us ending the night off with some McDonalds. I haven’t had McDonalds since Krista convinced me to go carb-free (or low carb, whatever you want to call it) and the quarter pounder was calling my name.

May I point out some excellent highlights of Friday night other than the show:

1) Someone texting Trish to the Cognos tent. Trish, you KNOW it must have been a hot man calling you out!
2) Krista realizing she lost her house keys which had us detour to wherever her roomate was. Upon getting home, Krista heard the jingle jangle of her keys when she threw her jacket off and realized that they were zipped up inside her pocket. No alcohol was consumed this night, whatsoever.
3) Getting to Carrie’s house where I was sleeping over as we were all heading out to a volleyball tournament the next day and seeing her priceless expression when she opened up her birthday gift from me. Yes, that’s right. Carrie’s birthday is in March. I suck at giving gifts on time.

iplaying: How Can You Do It Alone – The Who (Face Dances)

I had class on Thursday night so I didn’t up at Bluesfest for much of anything…I caught the tail end of the Robert Cray Band (who I saw at the Eric Clapton concert back in the fall). Trish and Mike said they were top notch.

We then headed into the crowd to catch Blue Rodeo. There was definitely a big crowd there for the event and I must admit I was a little excited to see them as this would be the first time in doing so. Like every other act on the bill, I don’t own their album, but am familiar with their hits. Blue Rodeo is no exception although a lot of their songs have been introduced to me after playing them with Troy on the guitar.

Planted in spot with my beer, I peered around and realized it was yet another beautiful night out there. A little cold I must admit and it didn’t help that I had the t-shirt on, but no matter, rock would warm my soul.

Blue Rodeo was better than I had expected. I had these expectations of a country-esque night, but this is not true. They still know how to put on a rock show! The sing-alongs, the guitar jams, the slide guitar (yowza!)…it had it all. Who doesn’t love having the entire crowd singing Hasn’t Hit Me Yet? Try and Bad Timing were also two faves as I’ve played it with Troy quite a few times. Hearing them live made me pick up the guitar the next day and hash out a few of their tunes.

I just found out that the Jim Cuddy Band is opening for John Fogerty this Wednesday which means I’ll get a taste of Blue Rodeo once again (however, I am unfamiliar with his sound and perhaps it is severely different from Blue Rodeo.)

I remember gazing up at the stars during a few songs and just thinking “It’s good to be here, right here, right now.” Bluesfest has become quite the event for me this year and I’m slowly coming off of the high that music for 11 days straight gives to a person.

Blue Rodeo stated “As long as there is a Bluesfest here, we’ll be here.”

Awesome.

iplaying: Death from Above – The Smashing Pumpkins (Zeitgeist)

Setlist

 

Til I Am Myself Again
Rose-Coloured Glasses
Better Off as We Are
Trust Yourself
Side of the Road
What Am I Doing Here
Bad Timing
How Long
Head Over Heels
Diamond Mine
Moon & Tree
All the Things That Are Left Behind
Lost Together

Hasn’t Hit Me Yet
It Could Happen to You

I’m trying to recollect my memory of Wednesday night now that it’s nearly a week past that point. A lot of work on the video got in the way of updates…

We showed up for a good time from the Steve Miller Band and we were NOT disappointed. This also turned into a night of impromptu partying which was fine for the majority of us. The Steve Miller Band started with a little Fly Like an Eagle which resulted in a 15 jam session along with a rapper. They could have ended right there and we would have been fine. But they just kept coming with the hits. Take The Money and Run, Jet Airliner…they never stopped! I was moving to and from our spot to get some more beer and when I returned Mike pointed out the unthinkable.

Gordie Johnson was up on stage jamming to Crossroads.

Gordie Johnson.

Gordie Johnson is best known for his work in Big Sugar which disbanded a few years back. I have always wanted to see Big Sugar live as Gordie Johnson is a loud guitar player. I knew he was around the area as I heard a rumour that he subbed into the Joel Plaskett Emergency when their guitarist couldn’t show up.

But I didn’t realize that his new band Grady were the opening act the night of Steve Miller! I was pretty upset the next day when I realized this. It was at their show that Steve Miller’s ears perked up and said “Boy, I like the sound of that.” and so an invitation for a few songs was granted to Gordie to come jam with the Steve Miller Band. Awesome. This is what festivals are all about.

All in all, one of the better concerts seen at Bluesfest! Do NOT miss the chance to see Steve Miller if you can!

*photo taken from the Ottawa Sun*
iplaying: Starz (The Smashing Pumpkins – Zeitgeist)

Setlist

Fly Like an Eagle
Living in the U.S.A.
Abracadabra
Mercury Blues [K.C. Douglas]
Threshold
Take the Money and Run
Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma
Swingtown
The Joker
Serenade
True Fine Love
The Stake
Wild Mountain Honey
Dance Dance Dance
Rock’n Me
Winter Time

Jet Airliner [Paul Pena]