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Even though July 15th, 2017 was a Saturday I didn’t bother getting to the Ottawa Bluesfest much before 7 or 7:30 despite the music starting at 3pm. It’s too bad too, for glancing through the program I see that I missed sets by Wide Mouth Mason, Thornetta Davis, and The Jivewires, which I’m sure would have made for a fine afternoon. But after years of astounding Bluesfest lineups we Ottawa live music fans had become quite spoiled, and the schedule for the day in question suggested that things had changed. Clearly we weren’t being spoiled anymore.
Leafing through the calendar I see that the lineup was pretty muted overall that year, with a few glaring exceptions. Gary Clark Jr. was stellar and Tom Petty’s set to close out the ten-day affair will remain legend for some time but really, when one of the festival highlights is an Allman Brothers tribute act you know things have taken a big step backwards.
When I did arrive onsite on this Saturday evening it was to bounce between Delicate Steve on the main stage and the Campbell Brothers over by the river and while both offered high-quality playing in a style all their own the heavy presence of pedal steel guitar kept me leaning heavily on the river side.
And you know, the big names might have been largely absent but I gotta say I still had a raucous good time during the 8-9pm slot over at the Blacksheep Stage with Montreal hip-jazz-hop congregation Busty & The Bass, who ushered in the darkness with a steady danceable groove and a whole lot of deep rhythmic pockets. Swirling B3, crispy guitar, and easy-listening vocals locked in with Chicago-esque horn lines and kept me locked in place for the only time of the night.
I closed out the night mostly with Xavier Rudd and his tried-and-true Aussie surfer acoustic didge-rock after a curious glance at Muse, the highly paid Nine-Inch-Nails-lite alt-rock darlings who were caretaking the mainstage for the headlining slot. I thought they were rather meh, but I hadn’t seen Xavier in over a decade so I was happy to bail on the mainstage and join the packed lawn back at the river stage to see him again. It turns out I could have saved myself the trip to check out Muse as we could hear their songs pouring out of the mainstage speakers just fine from Xavier’s decidedly quieter side-stage set. It was like a twofer that nobody wanted.
As of this writing I’ve not seen Xavier Rudd since, which surprises me a little. It seems like I used to see him – or at least have the opportunity to see him – all the time. But like I say, times have changed.
Todd Man Out 