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The light rain that fell during the afternoon of July 9th, 2010 wasn’t enough to keep me away from the opening of the Bluesfest’s 2nd annual free outdoor downtown concerts*, most particularly because the opening act was the Mighty Popo and his seven-piece band of Rwandan afro-reggae-pop slippery groovesters. Heck, Popo and his band could make it feel sunny no matter what the weather has to say and they did on this early evening, smiling their way through a fabulous upbeat set in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Popo even got everyone singing along to his closing number, after which I hopped on my bike and raced to the actual festival site at LeBreton Flats like a man on a mission.
Which, I suppose, I was.
I arrived, checked my bike with the valet and bee-lined towards Gord Downie’s solo set on the Subway Stage. Nothing was going to stop me from catching the beginning of Downie’s set and then all of a sudden a delicious slide guitar pouring out of the mainstage speakers stopped me dead in my tracks. It was The John Butler Trio onstage, and I must say they are a captivating collection of musicians, particularly bandleader and multi-instrumentalist John Butler. He’s a wonderful player no matter what sort of stringbox is in his hands and it was everything I could do to tear myself away to continue on my mission, but I had to.
I made it for almost the entirety of Gord’s set and I’m so glad I did. He was obviously having a blast onstage with his alternative ensemble, The Country Of Miracles. The band seemed maybe a little under-rehearsed, or perhaps they were just intentionally loose. Either way the homey, comfortable sound of the band lent some extra authenticity to Gord’s stark, honest songwriting. And ever the entertainer, Downie made sure the audience was never left behind, holding court with a set that was almost as much clever banter as it was good music.
By the time Gord Downie (1964-2017) was done the sun had poked a hole through the clouds and revealed the beginnings of a lovely evening. I should have just sat down by the river and taken in this country of miracles but no, I just had to go see stupid Courtney Love and her stupid Hole band. Thank ye gawds I only saw about ten minutes of her sorry excuse for a set.
Not only do I really, really not like the band, I managed to come across a rather icky Courtney Love story related to this set: It seems a co-worker of mine was hired as a vocal warmup coach for the day and he was told to be in her trailer by a certain hour that afternoon. When he arrived Ms. Love refused to do any of the vocal exercises my buddy suggested.. Instead she made him stick around for the full hour while she had a half-dozen female strippers come in from a local club to dance while she nibbled on her deli tray.
It’s hard to imagine a sadder life.
Fortunately my musical palette was cleansed by the headlining act of the evening, Joan Jett who – along with her band The Blackhearts – showed Courtney Love and everyone else a thing or two about how a lady can totally, absolutely rock and still have some class.
Jett started with her hit Bad Reputation and it was clear from the outset that she was not there to simply skate through the set. The band was kickin’ too, especially her guitar player. By the second song (Cherry Bomb) they had already reached back to Joan’s old band The Runaway’s (they actually played several Runaway’s tunes) and for the third song it was Springsteen’s Light of Day, the title track from Jett’s film debut alongside Michael J. Fox.
After a great set they turned their set-closing double shot of I Love Rock & Roll and Crimson & Clover into a triple shot by adding I Hate Myself For Loving You onto the end. So there we all were scratching our heads wondering what she could possibly have left in the tank for the encore and it turned out she had nothing. Never one to shy away from a good cover song**, Joan Jett and her band returned to the stage and sent us on our way with a rousing rendition of Sly & the Family Stone’s Everyday People.
Ah, it was such a good, solid, rockin’ show…it was definitely above all expectations.
Hole, not so much. Courtney Love would’ve desecrated Sly Stone if she’d tried to sing Everyday People. But then, Joan Jett probably warms up.
*For the first year the downtown component was called “Bluesfest In The Byward”, which made a lot of sense. This second year the Bluesfest stage in the Byward Market was called the Pop Life Stage which sounds silly, but it was tying in with the summer-long Pop Life exhibit at the art gallery, which featured some cool Andy Warhol’s and some other modern weirdnesses, notably including a giant inflatable version of Jeff Koon’s Rabbit. You know, the piece that sold for $91 million? I can’t see how the Bluesfest was tied into the exhibition but they must have been. It was a cool exhibit though. They had a stuffed unicorn and some dirty pictures too. Gotta love art.
**Betcha didn’t know that I Love Rock & Roll was not written by Joan Jett. Nope, it’s a cover song. It was originally written by a short-lived British band called The Arrows. If you give it a listen you’ll find that The Blackheart’s version is basically a note-for-note copy of the OG, right down to the guitar harmony riffs.
Todd Man Out 