Review: Harper pours on the blues, Roots lift them away
Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen
REVIEW
Ben Harper, Roots, Bedouin Soundclash
MBNA Stage at Bluefest on Wednesday, July 6.
OTTAWA — In his third Bluesfest appearance over the last 10 years or so, Ben Harper showed that his heart was in the right musical place, despite some technical difficulties at the beginning of his set. The musician who wanders between folk, gospel, rock, reggae and blues chose to pour on the blues with his hard-rocking band, Relentless 7.
Dressed casually in jeans, the California-based musician kicked off the concert by sitting down and playing a bluesy slide guitar that was stretched across his lap. Walk Away and Number With No Name benefited from the gritty slide, although his vocals were muddy.
The problem was solved by the time Harper switched to electric guitar and got to Lay Down and Hate Me, a song that contains the debatable nugget of advice: “Never trust a woman who loves the blues.” Fortunately, the soulful vibe of Diamonds on the Inside, played next, kept any female blues fans from being miffed.
Harper seemed happy to be back at the festival, and praised organizers for supporting the blues. “There’s no better night for music,” he said, gazing at the stars. “Not that I’ve been underneath anyway.”
Bluesfest beats first day congestion
Chris Cobb, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Bluesfest executive director Mark Monahan accepted that “some poor decisions” might have been made ahead of Tuesday’s opening night and he pledged Wednesday morning to fix the problems that saw thousands of fans waiting in lineups for an hour or more.
And he delivered. The congestion of opening night was not in evidence Wednesday evening. Eight of the 12 ticket booths assigned to dole out tickets and youth bracelets were open Tuesday. Wednesday evening, all 12 were manned.
“We are making changes,” said the Bluesfest boss Wednesday.
“We aren’t going to have these long lines again.
“Maybe there were some poor decisions made on our part but we’re going to fix them. That’s all we can do.”
The original plan was to have just one entrance — first point of entry — into the park for this year’s festival but that plan quickly fell apart Tuesday.
We’ll do better tonight: Bluesfest boss
Chris Cobb, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Bluesfest executive director Mark Monahan is promising concertgoers that there will be no repetition of Tuesday’s long lineups.
Thousands of frustrated ticket buyers waited for more than an hour to pick up tickets or youth bracelets on the festival’s opening night.
Eight of the 12 ticket booths were open. All 12 will be open tonight.
“We are making changes,” he said Wednesday morning. “We aren’t going to have these long lines again. Maybe there were some poor decisions made on our part but we’re going to fix them. That’s all we can do.”
The original plan was to have just one entrance — first point of entry — into the park for this year’s festival but that plan quickly fell apart Tuesday.
As an emergency measure, Monahan and his logistics crew opened another entrance opposite the main entrance to the Canadian War Museum.
Citizen experts’ festival picks to click
The Ottawa Citizen
Lynn Saxberg’s Picks:
Girl Talk
8 p.m. July 7, Claridge Homes Stage
Girl Talk is the stage name of Gregg Gillis, an electronic music artist from Pittsburgh who stitches together samples of other songs to make his own unique mashup. What’s more, he doesn’t just sit there and click his mouse on stage. Girl Talk makes crowds go wild, as we saw at Bluesfest two years ago.
Rise Against
8 p.m. July 8, Claridge Homes Stage
The Chicago rockers have been calling for change for years, delivering their social activism with a mix of aggressive punk rock and melodic vocals. It’s a formula that strikes a chord with the kids, serving to both stir up the mosh pit and get them thinking about the world.
Pop sampler: Girl Talk is no ordinary DJ. His masterful mashups and glitzy stage show are guaranteed to make crowds go wild
Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen
Gsirl Talk’s Gregg Gillis doesn’t consider himself a DJ. He thinks of a DJ as someone spinning music from a booth at the side of the dance floor.
What he does, on the other hand, is create a spectacle. He remixes popular songs into new compositions and presents them on stage in a way that engages a crowd and frequently makes them go bonkers. Dazzling lights, confetti guns and rolls of toilet paper are some of his performance tricks.
“I’ve never really considered myself a DJ,” says the 29-year-old from his home in Pittsburgh. “I’ve always geared myself towards being a producer, mainly because of the scene I came out of. I never really played with people spinning records, I never really played dance clubs. It was always something where I wanted it to be entirely based on other people’s music, but ideally remixed in such a way that it has new context and is something that’s considered original.”
Beat of funk high priest Bootsy Collins impossible to resist
Chris Cobb, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Ottawa got all funked up and loved it.
One of the bigger crowds ever to grace the hill facing what is now the Hard Rock Café stage jumped and gyrated to one of the greatest high priests of funk Bootsy Collins.
The show hugely entertaining show was a surreal mix of psychedelic dream sequence, Broadway musical and, of course, the pumping rhythms of the ‘F’ word — the religion at whose altar Bootsy and his merry band ply their trade.
“Are you ready to get funked up Ottawa?” they shouted during the time-honoured showbiz tradition of big build up for the main man.
“We want Bootsy. We want Bootsy,” shouted the crowd with no small measure of help from the stage.
The beat was impossible to resist and when Bootsy finally appeared resplendent in his glittering all-purple outfit and equally glittering top hat, the band and the crowd was in full swing.
Read more on the Ottawa Citizen website: Beat of funk high priest Bootsy Collins impossible to resist
Measuring Bluesfest’s mass appeal
As Ottawa’s largest annual music festival gets under way, numbers published by Bluesfest organizers show its broad popularity among local residents.
Elizabeth Howell, The Ottawa Business Journal
During the last five years, 55 per cent of Ottawa’s population has attended Bluesfest.
This year alone, more than one-fifth of Ottawa households will make the trek to LeBreton Flats, according to projections published by Harris/Decima based on surveys of visitors.
Bluesfest brings in 250,000 vistors on average and last year attracted more than 350,000. It brings in $60 million in visitor spending every year.
This year’s edition will bring a big physical change to the venue, as the main stage will now be parallel to the width of the festival site at LeBreton Flats.
Organizers say this will make it easier for patrons to view the stage, which previously was placed in a narrow corridor at the extreme east edge of the field.
Read more on the OBJ website: Measuring Bluesfest’s mass appeal
Review: Tasteful Relationship Show comedy act gets the laughs
Chris Cobb, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — So Bluesfest comedy, which didn’t work especially well under canvass last year, is back — this time abbreviated and in the relatively modest confines of the Barney Danson theatre.
Montreal’s renowned brand Just for Laughs will stage three themes shows in the 230-seat theatre during the festival, each running three nights.
The Relationship Show opened last evening and will be followed by The Nasty Show (adults only) on Friday and The Canadian Show opening July 15.
American comics Robert Kelly and Alonzo Bodden handle the Relationship Show.
They have different styles: Bodden, a laid back black guy who plays copiously off his race and Kelly, Boston Irish and significantly more frenetic.
Read more on the Ottawa Citizen website: Review: Tasteful Relationship Show comedy act gets the laughs
Bluesfest opens Tuesday with redesigned site
Tony Lofaro, The Ottawa Citizen
Two Ottawa Bluesfest stages are being repositioned in a newly-configured layout of the festival site that will give concert-goers a better view, more room to move around and provide better safety, said the festival’s executive director Monday.
The MBNA Stage and the Claridge Stage are now side-by-side at the west end of LeBreton Flats, facing toward the Canadian War Museum. The MBNA Stage, which features the festival’s headliners, was previously located at the east end of the park, while the Claridge Stage is also being flipped to the west side of the park.
The repositioning means concert-goers will now be able enjoy the full width of the park and won’t be jammed into a narrow area in front of the main stage, said executive director Mark Monahan.
Full story at the Ottawa Citizen online: Bluesfest opens Tuesday with redesigned site
Bluesfest Essential Info
The Ottawa Citizen has listed essential information for Bluesfest which includes:
TWEET your thoughts about the festival using the hashtag #bluesfest (and follow @ottawabluesfest)
FIND our reviewers’ and videographers’ daily reviews, videos and profiles of Bluesfest performers at ottawacitizen.com/bluesfest
READ a blog by music fan Evelyn DuBerry at www.ottawacitizen.com/bluesfest
SUBMIT your Bluesfest photos by going to www.ottawacitizen.com/mypics for our daily Bluesfest photo gallery
Get the full list at OttawaCitizen.com: Bluesfest Essential Info
