Bluesfest Day 3: Neko Case, Zed’s Dead, Sharon Van Etten and more
~ RBC Bluesfest Press Images PHOTO/Mark Horton
With the rain nowhere in sight and the heat blaring, day three belonged to the ladies, well mostly. I was busy on Saturday, making it to nine different acts.
First up was Cold Specks. Opening with the whole band on stage, Al Spx sang the first song with not an instrument playing but her magical voice. Her booming voice was center stage of all songs, with all the instruments turned way down. I really liked the song “Blank Maps,” and a new song they played that she introduced as “this song is new, it doesn’t have a name yet. It is fucking loud.”
Off to the River Stage I went to catch up with Steve Earl’s son, Justin Towne Earl. He plays some sweet folky rock, perfect for fans of his father and Jason Collett. He made my day by covering The Replacement’s “Can’t Hardly Wait.” He also played some pretty nice originals like “Single Mother” and “Black Eyed Suzy.”
Needing to take a shade break, I sauntered over to the Black Sheep Stage for some jams by Adrian Lux. Not my favourite style of EDM, but it was good background sound for a little relax and a beer.
Re-energized and ready to go, it was time to see some blues. Yes, I saw blues two days in a row at Bluesfest, I am impressed. Nick Waterhouse, was delivering smooth blues rock with some beautiful backup singers. His grooving guitar playing on “You Been On My Mind,” made me glad I stopped by to check him out.
It was then time to completely change speeds and see the super dancy styling of Fitz and the Tantrums. They have some pretty sweet ska reggae undertones that force you to move around. And if somehow you could hold back, they covered “Sweet Dreams” which had every age group into it. Fun stuff but I had to leave before the end of the set to go get close for the one and only Neko Case.
She won my heart when I was younger thanks to The New Pornographers, and her voice still always made me melt. What could make seeing Neko Case any better? Having my old friend Amelia and new friend Elsie in front of me going nuts for every song. “I love this song!, “Oh my god no way!” could be heard as the first chord of every song was played. Neko is hilarious between songs and amazing during. She played a handful of good songs off the new album which is not released yet and several of my favourites, including “People Got A Lot of Nerve,” “I Wish I Was the Moon” and “Hold On.” The latter is when Amelia and Elsie really lost their minds.
Unfortunately the sound man had some trouble with the mic and laid some feedback on us every once in a while, and I was insulted by the amount of stubborn party poopers with their lawn chairs all set up. By the looks of it they were all camping out for Dixies Chicks over two hours in advance, and taking away space from the Neko fans. At least they got to hear some amazing music from Neko, but I am not sure they deserved it though.
Once again I desired a change of pace and headed back to the Black Sheep Stage for Toronto’s Dubstep, Drum and Base and all around awesome, Zed’s Dead. I don’t care how most feel about dubstep, don’t care if it can be predictable at times, for me it is punk rock techno. The crowd was in an absolute frenzy from start to finish. Hands in the air, dancing, crowd surfing and hollering, someone even threw some panties on stage. The duo sampled Prodigy’s “Breath,” Jay-Z’s “Dirt Off Your Shouder” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” They have grown a lot since the days of seeing them at Babylon with 100 other people. In that time they have also evolved to not get corned into being just full of womp womp and drops. Their integration of old school reggae sounds and new dance creates a great atmosphere. They closed out with some of my favourites from their older stuff, playing their remix of Blue Fountain’s “Eyes on Fire” and then Massive Attack’s “Paradise Circus.” Zed’s Dead Baby!
On my way to Sharon Van Etten I decided to give the Dixie Chicks a chance for a few songs. I have to admit I don’t give them the credit they deserve as musicians. They have an excellent band with them, and the girls hold their own on their instruments. It’s just really not my thing.
So with that experiment done I could go catch the smooth soulful rock of Sharon Van Etten. The very cute and so overly thankful Sharon and her band played some wonderful tunes. Her song “Serpents” really caught my attention, lyrically and musically. Check it out. As they prepared to finish their set, she said “This is our last song,” which the crowd responded to with boos and unrest. “Let’s see what happens,” she responded with her cute little voice and a smile. They then launched into “I’m Wrong,” which was absolutely beautiful, especially with the bass player using a bow on his bass. They did return for an encore and that spelled the end of my evening.
Saturday was a lot of fun, and I can not wait for Sunday. Let the madness continue and the good times roll.