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In the Spring of 2018 I was pleased to get a rare phone call from my nephew back east in Moncton, asking if he and his newly-minted wife could come to town for the Ottawa Bluesfest and stay with us for the week. Of course m’lady and I were happy to oblige; we freshened up the spare bedroom and stocked the fridge.
When I asked what bands they were coming to see, the first names out of Amy’s mouth were Greta Van Fleet and the Foo Fighters, who would be taking over the main stage for the entire evening of July 10th, 2018.
If you haven’t heard of Greta Van Fleet, imagine a very, very young Led Zeppelin. If you haven’t heard of the Foo Fighters, welcome to planet Earth.
The thing that sets Greta Van Fleet apart from Led Zeppelin is the fact that they have Led Zeppelin to copy from, something Led Zeppelin was distinctly lacking. This allows the guitarist to totally cop all of Jimmy Page’s stage moves, inspires the bass player to take turns at the organ, and gives the drummer a snare sound to strive for. I gotta say, they sound great, but it was a bit hard to watch the lead singer. Reason #1: he looked like a young Mike Reno had dressed up for Hallowe’en as Jimi Hendrix, and has neither’s talent. Reason #2: What he does have is a voice that sounds unmistakeable like one of the greatest singers in the history of rock music and his easy smirk shows that he knows it. All the sound without any of the dues.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here – there was the whole issue of getting in the gate first.
When we arrived onsite and parked our bikes we were confronted with the longest line I’ve ever seen entering this festival, and that’s saying something. The line looped and snaked it’s way all the way to the side of the War Museum. There had to be another way, so we marched right past it to investigate.
And just as we arrived near the front gate-ish area there was a surge of people stepping up off of the sidewalk and onto the plaza. In no time we found ourselves being ushered into a gatemaze that was surprisingly cordoned off so that we didn’t have to wind through the whole thing, just up and down one single aisle and we strolled through the non-functioning metal detectors and past the non-working security personnel. We had made it into the festival in about three minutes flat.
(An article in the paper the next day revealed the miracle of our perfect entrance was all down to timing. The burgeoning crowd had forced someone to make the decision to open up the gatemaze and shut down all security getting through the gates, and we just happened to arrive exactly there the precise moment that call had been made.)
Then Greta Van Whatever played and sounded/looked just like Led Zeppelin. Or maybe Kingdom Come, I’m not sure.
After an hour or so changeover the Foo Fighters walked onstage already playing their instruments, Dave Grohl prowling the boards with his big blue Gibson, clearly geared up for an energetic performance. After a couple of songs Chris and Amy left our realm for roomier climes near the back of the field. She isn’t so great with crowds and man, was there a lot of people there!
There’s a reason why the Fooeys garnered the biggest crowd Bluesfest has ever seen: they are a true, hardworking no-BS rock and roll band in an era littered with smirky, talent-entitled Van Fleets.
(Don’t get me too wrong, I think the Gretas rock in their own way – there are certainly worse bands to sound like than Led Zeppelin – but nobody could describe them as “no-BS”.)
Anyway, Dave Grohl and his fellow Foos were freakin’ fantastic, easily earning every massive cheer that came their way, which were many. Special standouts were the covers (especially for a guy like me who knows almost none of their material). They did a mashup singing the lyrics to Jump by Van Halen – in its entirety – over the music of John Lennon’s Imagine. I sang along to every word. They did a killer version of Under Pressure with late drummer Taylor Hawkins (1972-2022) on vocals and Dave Grohl on (gasp!) drums. And they played a rockin’ Blitzkrieg Bop that sparked an intense high-five relationship between me and a random shirtless dude with an oversized belly next to me.
Of course their originals were great too.
Especially notable was the gloriously long set, starting just after 8pm and playing straight through until closing time. No seventy-five minute festival set from the likes of the Foo Fighters, that’s for sure. Good on ‘em.
We beat the crowd on the way out by leaving during the encore and randomly met up with Chris and Amy back at the bicycle valet. We got our bikes, mounted up, and capped our evening with a slow cycle home past some of Ottawa’s most iconic real estate.
Todd Man Out 