RBC Ottawa Bluesfest – Day 8 executive summary
Day 8: Great Big Sea day. The crowd on Friday night was decidedly older than most nights, as Great Big Sea brings out the 40+ crowd in droves.
The Gaff: Started the day watching The Gaff tweak and scratch his way through some classic soul and r&b remixes. This guy is a tremendous curator of a playlist, and played a well executed set on the decks. A small crowd, but this would be an awesome warmup DJ.
Matthew Good: Professionally loud. Matt Good has been a staple on Canadian rock radio for years now and his band executed a nicely loud set to a huge crowd. Tons of rhythm section in the mix, I had a bit of a hard time hearing any guitars, but still a well played set. Nothing progressive to report here.
Dzeko & Torres: Big room house music. Having DJ’ed a few parties in my day (nothing worth name-dropping here) I have always been a bit perplexed at what DJs are actually DOING up there. Especially 2 guys… there really isn’t that much to be done up there. I was struck at that watching these guys constantly tweaking knobs, crossing arms, and looking busy. Not a complaint – just curious…
Their set: definitely fun to watch. And as DJs, proof that these guys are excellent is that they started playing in front of about 30 people and ended up packing the place.
The Waterboys: Somewhere between The Chieftans and The Clash lie The Waterboys. Rock music played through an Irish pub band’s instruments. I knew very little about The Waterboys before this set and thought they were quite good. A perfect opening act for Great Big Sea?
Great Big Sea: We will never feature Great Big Sea’s music on our site – but in covering this festival, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention this show. Great Big Sea is the biggest band in ‘Maritime Music’, and the 40+ crowd fucking love Maritime music. Thus, the festival grounds were jammed with an older (heavy drinking!) crowd who seemed to enjoy every second of Great Big Sea’s 20th anniversary show.
Not our bag, but certainly fun to watch the crowd have fun here.
Tommy Trash: Another big room DJ – following Dzeko & Torres on The Blacksheep stage. Played quite a similar style of monster EDM tunes as D&T, but Tommy Trash’s builds were a little bit bigger, his drops were a little big dirtier, and crowd went a little bit more nuts for them.
Probably as crazy as the dancefloor has been on this stage (so far!)
