Bluesfest 2009, Day 1
Date: July 8, 2008 Calling On You Everyday 2009 promised to be another excellent year for the Ottawa Bluesfest; and my excitement started with opening day. With Amos the Transparent representing a familiar local act hitting the big stage, The Black Keys giving me a much-anticipated first look at a major band, and Sergent Garcia filling the role of stumbled-upon act, the day fully represented my typical Bluesfest experience. The evenings's formerly grey skies broke open into some beautiful sunshine just as Amos the Transparent got started, which was a promising sign for the experience to follow. The band was certainly fresh in my mind, as I had seen them play just five days earlier. My new-found familiarity of the songs was a bonus, as I really appreciated hearing the six-piece launch into tunes such as "The Stale Scent of Old Beer," "Title Track," "(Here's To) New Beginnings," and "This Town." The whole band sounded great, whether it was Jonathan Chandler and Kate Cooke sharing vocals on "Up, Up and Away" or guitarist Dan Hay breaking out the bow late in the set. In terms of translating their act to the huge main stage at Bluesfest, though, I would say that the group's biggest asset was bassist James Nicol, who prowled the spacious environment and played up to the crowd with his dynamic playing, forceful screaming, and direct calls to action. At the conclusion of the group's set, a breakdown section saw Nicol come off the stage to walk the barricade amidst the crowd, getting everyone in sight to clap along. It was great to see such an enthusiastic audience response to the band's playing; and Nicol certainly did his part to earn that reaction throughout the hour-long set. Amos the Transparent made the most of their Bluesfest slot, with "I'm on Trial" capping a fine performance that ended only a couple of minutes before the focus shifted to the alternate main stage. That tight scheduling left me scrambling to secure a position for The Black Keys, settling for a spot far off-centre but against the railing. This gave me a great view of drummer Patrick Carney but a poor sight line for the band's other half, guitarist Dan Auerbach. It also left me standing directly in front of a speaker stack, so I can attest that the duo has no trouble kicking out a lot of noise. Seeing the force with which they attacked their instruments, that volume was well-earned. The Black Keys clearly favour power over precision, resulting in more of a musical carpet bombing than a surgical strike. At times, it seemed that the distortion may have been more than the band would have wanted but the overall effect worked well for their brand of bluesy garage rock. If nothing else, the racket probably led to a few people drifting away early, which helped my view improve as the night went on. In the midst of the sonic chaos, the performers seemed to be in lock-step, rattling off songs at a fantastic pace, with only a couple of brief verbal exchanges in a set that reached an hour and twenty minutes by the time that the encore was done. Highlights in that span included the swaggering "Thickfreakness" and "Girl is on My Mind," the rapid-fire "Set You Free," the laid-back "Psychotic Girl," the joyous "Have Love Will Travel," and the slow burn of "Stack Shot Billy" and "Everywhere You Go." With the balance of the night not taken up by any acts on my must-see list, I employed my usual Bluesfest fallback plan of hitting the Blacksheep Stage. Sergent Garcia's bio sounded interesting: a multilingual, Paris-based artist with punk roots, crafting songs with Cuban and African influences. This naturally brought to mind Manu Chao, whose visit to Bluesfest two years prior was one of the most notable performances of that year. As it turned out, the bio and the comparison were apt, as Garcia and his talented band put on a very fun and energetic show. In contrast to the stripped-down sound of The Black Keys, Sergent Garcia was overflowing with sounds, with guitars, bass, drums, percussion, keyboards, horns, flute, accordion, rapping, and vocals all around. The music jumped styles, sometimes switching from rock to salsa to hip hop to reggae to ska; but more often incorporating a stew of many ingredients at once. The end effect was the kind of expansive musical experience that thrives in the open-air setting; and Garcia kept a sizable crowd hopping to the end of day one. From the familiar to the anticipated to the haphazard, the opening salvo of Bluesfest covered a range of experiences; but the common thread was that each was a lot of fun, setting the tone for another fantastic festival. Amos the Transparent setlist 
The Black Keys setlist (courtesy the cooperation of a guy at the front) 
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