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Day 1 of the Ottawa Bluesfest

I was late arriving for day 1 because I managed to miss my bus by seconds :/

I finally arrived just in time to catch the last song by the Secret Machines on the main Bank of America stage. I’ve seen them a couple of times before back in Glasgow but I wasn’t aware that they’d undergone a line-up change. Still a three piece, still no bass guitar (even after seemingly taking on board my drunken advice in nice & sleazys last year) and still pounding out some good stuff. The sound quality was a bit poor compared to everything else I saw that night, I think it may be down to the sheer volume generate from that enormous bass drum. Anyway, I’ll reserve judgment because I didn’t see enough of their show.

After that I took a wonder around to see the rest of the site and caught a little bit of this and that but not enough to comment on. The site itself is excellent. At the main stage end you really feel like you’re in the heart of the city while the rest of the site you could be forgiven for thinking you were way out in the midst of the country somewhere.

Next up was Taj Mahal on the River Stage.

That boy can rally play the blues! Not much happening on stage, but it’s all about the blues man. I like the river stage, it’s cozy, the crowds are their for the music rather than to see their band and it makes for a beautiful setting with the sun setting behind you. There’s also less of a queue for the beer tent, the food stalls and the toilet

After watching most of Taj’s show I wondered over to the Roots stage to catch The Blind Boys of Alabama.

First thing that struck was… most of them really are blind! A real soulful bunch with a touch of gospel and a whole heap of funk. I caught maybe the last four songs and they were excellent, I wish I’d seen more of them. Again the roots stage is another great setting, on a slope overlooking the river this time with the sun setting in front of you. One small niggle is there was quite a lot of noise interference from the river stage. If you were down near the front it wasn’t an issue, but further ack was a bit of a pain.

Somehow I managed to miss the Black Sheep stage on the first night, I don’t know how cos it’s just around the corner from the Roots stage :/

I finally ended up watching The Tragically Hip.

I’d missed a large chunk of the show and by the time I made my way over there it seemed the whole of Ottawa had turned out to see them and it was going to take a major effort to get anywhere near the front. But I tried my damnedest and ended up a lot closer than I first though I would. Again, not a band I’d ever payed any attention to but they seem to be huge in their home of Canada. They certainly know how to put on a show and have obviously played these large venues before. At first I had them down as Canadian REM wannabees but began to realise there was more to them than that and came away thinking I’d definitely have to look in to them some more.

All in all a pretty good first day and I went away positively looking forward to Day 2, which is definitely a good thing because I was in half a mind to skip day 2 initially. Feist doesn’t do it for me and there wasn’t rally anything else that caught my eye.

Full line up from Day 1