Invasion of the DJs at Ottawa Bluesfest

Whew.

Almost halfway thru Bluesfest, and now im going to stop and catch my breath. Despite the fact that this is no Bonnaroo or moe.down, and isnt even as intense as a weekend of Phish at SPAC (thank you, Jam On, for that live cast), Ottawa Bluesfest is a 12-day long musical exposition that defies categorization (the name "Bluesfest" notwithstanding) and has always catered to the 9-to-5, hi-tech/government crowd that tends to inhabit Ottawa.

Not this year. Although it remains to be seen how high the receipts will be, it appears as though the baton has been firmly passed to a younger generation of festival goers, namely the young people and students that inhabit Ottawa's many colleges and universities, and the increasingly young population living across the border in Gatineau (what used to be Hull, where we went to drink when we were underage).

Like this kid.

Exhibit A: The theme for this year's fest is "Electro-fied," and the Electro Stage has been consistently occupied with DJs and packed with pill-popping revelers. Just from walking around this year, i have smelled much less smoke and seen much more wild-fist-pound-dancing, so the scene has certainly shifted.

For the jam fans like your truly, i had only a few shows circled on my schedule and, truth be told, had i not gotten a volunteer gig i would have been hard pressed to commit the $250 to a festival pass. As it is, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals on night 1 were phenomenal, with new-goddess-of-rock Grace exuding sexual energy all over the stage and whipping the mostly male crowd into a frenzy with her antics and energy - plus i managed to snag the setlist to add to my collection, which i love. Their cover of White Rabbit was great, Keep on Rocking at the end was even better, and Grace's interactions with the crowd definitely spoke to a familiarity with Ottawa - telling stories about buying records at local shops here, waving a Canada flag on stage - helped to build her a new audience north of the border.

Exhibit B: Invasion of the DJs. Tiesto on night one, LMFAO (not technically DJs but with a similar style of a-melodic party "music"), Tommy Lee pretending to DJ while his partner did all the work, Canadian duo MSTRKRFT, Paul Oakenfold and Chromeo have all drawn huge, exuberant crowds so far. Still on tap are outfits like Wolfgang Gartner and Felix Cartel. However, i use the term "on tap" loosely because, according to the rumblings im hearing from long-time volunteers and festival goers, the beer tents have not been nearly as busy this year as in summers past. Thus, the experiment with catering to a younger generation at the expense of the baby boomers will be interesting to watch unfold, from a bottom line standpoint.

Back to the music ive seen - I would be remiss if i didnt mention a great performance by a Canadian band called the Arkells, from beautiful Hamilton, Ontario, who have a simple, hard rocking formula that they execute very well and rarely disappoint once they get on stage. ive seen them several times and knew what to expect, but i heard many people talking about how awesome they were on the River Stage Friday night.

Another Canadian mainstay, City and Colour, had the opposite impression - in a word, BORING. Before all the Dallas Green fans jump down my throat, ill just state for the record that he is a very talented songwriter and musician, but hey, how about a little energy in your show? The same melody of folk song for an hour and a half gets a little old, and with the great cover of Neil Young's Like A Hurricane they pulled out to close the show, it was obvious that their incredibly boring set could have been so much better.

The biggest surprise of the fest me, so far, has been the Bright Light Social Hour. Not knowing anything about them, i wandered into the crowd last night and was instantly sucked in by their hard driving, Zeppelin-style guitar licks and really heavy, yet evocative bass. Also, i was taking mental bets on whether/when the keyboardist would smash his instrument, pass out or fall off the stage, he was jumping around so much. The Texas quartet has a whole Canadian tour that has just begun, so check out the link above and catch them if you can.

 He went with Devil, and played with his teeth.

After coming over from Lukas Nelson and his band, Promise of the Real, who performed a really tight and crash-tastic (is that a word?) set on the small Electro stage (there were maybe 100 people there too, i was a little embarrassed for Willy Nelson's son to have such a lackluster crowd), Bright Light's energy was just what i wanted to keep my heart pounding. Back to Nelson - one of my most anticipated shows of the fest didnt disappoint, as Lukas showcased some incredible guitar skills, including Jimmy-Hendrix-style teeth jamming during a killer version of Sympathy for the Devil. The band also teased Pink Floyd and Lukas solo-ed a heartfelt electric version of Amazing Grace.

While they did not play Wasted (the song i really wanted to hear and title track of their latest album), Lukas did jump down into the gap after the show, chatting with the sparse crowd that stayed and thanking them for their support. Plus, he gave me a guitar pick and signed the setlist for me - did i mention i love setlists? - and was a real man-of-the-people, so thanks again Lukas. He'll be back in Canada in the fall for a tour with John Fogerty and ill be there, for sure.

So that's the update from Bluesfest, six days in. Quick shout out to the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars, some of the best reggae ive heard in a while (Ziggy Marley, eat your heart out). Tonight will be a nostalgic moment for me as I Mother Earth takes the stage, cuz IME was one of the first bands i ever saw live back when i was 15 or so, shows both before and after Edwin left the band. And, if beer sales were in fact flagging, tonight's headliners, Nickelback, will probably bring in the type of crowd who will do something about that. Enjoy the show!