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July 18th was the final day of the 2010 Ottawa Bluesfest. It was a great capper to a triumphant year, arguably the best in the festival’s history. Heck, the bands I missed would’ve made for a great lineup, but man, the bands I did see over those ten days…The B-52’s, Rush, Tal Mahal, Joan Jett, Derek Trucks, Gord Downie, Furthur, Santana, Steve Winwood, Iron Maiden, Roger Hodgson, The Flaming Lips…yep, it had been a pretty good Bluesfest.
But I still had a final day of festing to go, one that saw me arriving onsite before the gates even opened so I could be ready and waiting when my young protégés began to arrive. I believe this was the second year of the Bluesfest’s Be In The Band program, which means it was the second year that a whole parade of bands made up of 8-15 year-olds would be tromping on and off of the Black Sheep Stage all afternoon playing their best two songs for a festival crowd. And for the second year I was in charge of several of the bands, all of whom totally slayed it.
With accolades and high-fives all around I handed the kids over to their adults and got on with my evening. I began with reggae and ska legend Jimmy Cliff, who was pretty darn energetic for a guy in his ’60’s. He played everything anyone could have wanted him to play, including a percussive cover of Boney M’s River of Babylon and both of the cuts he added to the Cool Runnings soundtrack, Wild World and I Can See Clearly Now. It was a great set.
After an extensive encore the band walked off the stage one musician at a time, starting with Mr. Cliff himself and ending with the bass player. It was an understated way to end a peaceful, soul-cleansing pile of music and a perfect warmup for the closing set of the festival, which came courtesy of Weezer.
Now, I’ve never been a crazy Weezer fan by any stretch. As a guitar teacher I’ve taught a handful of their hits a boatload of times, so often in fact that I had long ago forgotten how good the songs actually were. Most of Weezer’s songs are so simple and obvious that they seemed to have already existed so I hardly gave them the credit that they deserved. This show changed my mind.
They opened with Hash Pipe (who didn’t?), launching a super-fun set that bounced between song-I-knew and song-everyone-else-knew until the night-ending Buddy Holly (which was one of the song-I-knew’s). When they played a cover of Lady Gaga’s Pokerface the singer put on a blonde wig and mugged for the bigscreen cameras. Later in the set he brought a garbage can up onto the stage and crawled inside, eventually dumping the garbage on top of the first few rows of fans.
So like I say, super-fun set.
And also like I say, what a fantastic time Bluesfest was all-around that year. Getting Furthur on the bill was a huge feather in the festival’s cap, marking both the first time any incarnation of the Grateful Dead has ever played Ottawa as well as being pretty much the best show of the entire ten days. Okay, tied with The Flaming Lips. Sure I thought Arcade Fire was pretty lame but maybe that’s just me, while Hole was unquestionably lame and there’s no damn way it was just me.
Overall I was pleased with myself for getting my daily reviews in on time every early-morning and I was proud as an old, weathered peacock when I stood sidestage watching my two student bands rocking their Be In The Band sets. They were both awesome.
I suppose I’ll never forget meeting Bob Weir and Phil Lesh after the Furthur show. I know I’ll never forget watching Rush’s set from the pit. Now that was a boyhood dream come true. Though the fourteen-year-old me will never forgive the forty-two-year-old me for not using my all-access pass to position myself in such a way to have met Geddy, Alex, and/or Neil after their show. Damn me.
And to think, the following year of Bluesfest is the one everyone talks about.
Todd Man Out 