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July 19th was the final day of the 2015 Ottawa Bluesfest and of course I was onsite. “Of course you were,” you’re thinking, “otherwise I would be looking at a blank screen right now.” Well, yes, I suppose that’s true, but that’s not why I say “of course” I was at the festival. “Ah,” begins your follow-up, “Of course you were onsite because you’re pretty much always there, and “Weird Al” Yankovik was playing!”
Well yes, again both of those things were true, and The Tea Party was playing as well, but that’s not it either, respondeth I.
No, I add, cutting you off before you give up and start reading something vastly more interesting. No, the reason I was onsite was because it was my teachers gig day (of course), the day when I would join a half-dozen of my fellow Be In The Band instructors for a fifty-minute set of guitar-laden cover songs, a pleasant chore that paid actual cash-money in addition to a free festival pass taboot, besides being a whole pile of fun (with a full backline).
But first up was “Weird Al”, an act I was pretty anxious to see. Aside from hearing one of my students rave about his live show, my lifelong penchant for novelty music and my long-standing appreciation of much of Yankovic’s work had me standing in the field steep in anticipation well before the quirky accordionist hit the stage. Heck, I was even there before the show started.
Which is to say, the show started not with the performer, but with one of his iconic videos being projected onto the big screen, which was pretty fun. When “Weird” did come out he was dressed in the exact costume from the iconic video he had released for that song. Then after the first live number he left the stage while another iconic video played. Then back out he came, again costumed up just like the iconic video, then another iconic video…
…as soon as the pattern became clear – which was pretty darn soon – it became tiresome. Yankovik literally leapfrogged song-video-song-video for the entire show; I suppose the videos played to give him time to don the surgeon costume, his fat suit, or to dress up as Kurt Cobain. And while I’m sure this shtick played well with several demographics (that student of mine among them) I found it sad and disappointing…it felt like a concert tribute to the Mini-Pops. The only really bright light from his set was the one song he played that he wrote himself, a wonderful novelty song called One More Minute that strongly benefitted on this night by not having an iconic video (while the song does have a video, it’s hardly iconic).
I could simply follow this up by describing The Tea Party’s set as a “Weird Al” Yankovic-like pastiche-of-one-band band, but that would both be too easy and somewhat inaccurate. Though The Tea Party owes an undeniable debt to The Doors in a nearly Greta Van Zeppelin sort of way they somehow landed upon a sound that is somehow original while remaining entirely reminiscent. I caught a little bit of their set and quite liked it. I’d like to say I wish I saw the whole set but as much as I like watching music I like playing it more.
Sure, the BITB Instructors Band is just a once-per-year throw-together three-rehearsal cover band but I generally quite enjoy the gig. As one who has played some of the lowest gigs on the totem pole I especially very much appreciate how well the musicians are taken care of at the Bluesfest. There is a trailer with couches and drinks, a large backstage area, great meals are provided, they set up the amps for you and there’s even someone onstage to personally hand you the business end of a patchcord…it’s great! Then we do some Allman Brothers, Stevie Wonder (with the Texas Horns sitting in!), some Motown, and other perennial classics, each heavily punctuated with rehearsal-lessening solo after rehearsal-lessening solo and follow it all up with buckets of free icy-cold beers while professional roadies strike the whole stage and, well like I say, I really enjoy the gig.
Of course.
Todd Man Out 