Bluesfest 2009, Day 12
Date: July 19, 2009 Heads Will Roll The Ottawa Bluesfest organizers tend to design eclectic schedules, to the degree where it doesn't seem odd to see Ludacris slated as the main stage lead-in to Lynyrd Skynyrd. This works out well for attendees with broad tastes and those with full passes who are interested in sampling what they find on any given day, although it also magnifies the typical festival truth that a significant portion of any crowd isn't especially interested in the band currently playing in front of them. For the final day of the festival, though, this pattern was broken, as the main stages were given over to the indie rock set, drawing a less diverse but perhaps more enthusiastic group of fans. With some concert fatigue setting in, I timed my arrival to catch the last four main stage acts, starting with Deer Tick. I wasn't familiar with the Providence-based four-piece; and their lackluster performance did little to leave an impression. Frontman John McCauley referenced a late arrival that had the band miss their sound check, so it may well be that they were having an off night. Regardless, they played decently but had a tough time standing out at the tail end of a twelve-day music festival. Switching to the larger main stage, I finally caught a full set from Handsome Furs, who I had previously seen only a couple of songs from in concert. Dan Boeckner, of Wolf Parade, and his wife, Alexei Perry, were dwarfed by the festival's largest stage but they did their best to own the space. Boeckner prowled the area with his guitar; and while Perry was anchored to her electronics, she made her playing as engaging as possible, with constant hopping and high kicking. Indeed, the duo seemed determined to triumph in the challenging environment through sheer energy; and judging by the majority of the large crowd, they succeeded. From my perspective, though, the electronics-based songs simply failed to connect, leaving me respecting the players but not feeling the music. Jumping back to the other main stage, anticipation was high for The Dead Weather, the newly-formed project from Jack White, Alison Mosshart, Jack Lawrence, and Dean Fertita. With the group having only a few shows to its name and an album that dropped less than a week before this concert, there was a definite air of being in on something new and exciting. For most of those in the large crowd, the appeal was undoubtedly Jack White. Given the amazing performance that he delivered at Bluesfest in 2007 with the White Stripes, and his excellent body of work, there was no denying his draw. Even while waiting for the show to begin, seeing the roadies dressed in matching black suits and hats was another sign of White's style-conscious influence, as was the group's own black-and-white theme. When the music began, though, it wasn't long before the night belonged to Alison Mosshart. The Kills singer was a dynamic frontwoman, sexy and smouldering, spending more time hanging over the stage and perched on the monitors than she did with her feet planted. Lawrence and Fertita were less showy, although they sounded fine on their matching Gretsch guitar and bass, which in keeping with the colour scheme, were white with gold hardware. Mosshart later added some six-string work of her own, picking up a rectangular Gretsch of the Bo Diddley mold, naturally in white and gold, while Fertita contributed on keyboards as much as he did with his axe. The most notable arrangement changes, though, came when White stepped out from behind his kit, first clutching his sticks at his side while he offered lead vocals on a cover of Them's "You Just Can't Win" and later taking up the guitar on "Will There Be Enough Water?" Naturally, the band represented its only album strongly; from what I recall, "3 Birds" was the only Horehound track missing on a night that also included the covers "A Child of a Few Hours is Burning to Death" (The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band) and "Forever My Queen" (Pentagram). All told, this was an excellent set from a band whose music retains the rough edges that you would expect from a hasty collaboration and whose commanding live presence lives up to the pedigree of the performers. From one dominant rock and roll frontwoman to another, the festival closed with a headlining set from Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But before I get ahead of myself, I have to set the stage by saying that I was on the stage for this one. Yes, this marked the third year in the past four that I ended up winning a charity auction to see a Bluesfest set from a seat high above the stage--or more precisely, from the floor in front of that seat, since this wasn't the kind of show to leave you sitting still. It didn't take long to conclude that this was going to be Karen O's night. The singer came to the front of the giant stage with her face in a mask and wrapped in a spiral of lights, while sporting a colourful outfit and patterned pantyhose. "Heads Will Roll" was both the opening number and a promise of things to come. Behind her, guitarist Nick Zinner, drummer Brian Chase, and touring guitarist/keyboardist David Pajo were generally out of the spotlight, literally, but the music never sagged. Although the band opened with a song from its latest release, It's Blitz!, a followup of the ragged older song, "Black Tongue," and the swaggering Cramps cover "Human Fly" indicated the range that would be found in the setlist. Yeah Yeah Yeahs made their mark with some blazingly raw early output, and they still do those songs very well. However, I am a huge fan of the vastly more slick, It's Blitz!, ranking it as perhaps my favourite album of the year to date, making "Dull Life" a welcome treat, whose uptempo bounce belies its title. Regardless of the source material, Karen O was a force, rolling around the floor, kicking off confetti cannons, swinging her mic, gesturing to the enthusiastic crowd, and fully owning a stage that had seemed dauntingly huge from my new vantage point. "Gold Lion" saw her drape a dangling necklace of gold medallions around her neck, before "Miles Away" made a nod to their debut EP. The group slowed it down for the sparse and tender "Skeletons," proving that Karen O could excel without the bombast of the full band, and remained cool on "Soft Shock" and "Down Boy." If the crowd was ready to kick back into high gear, they got their wish with the jittery build-up and explosive release of "Zero." True to the lyrics' call to "get your leather on," Karen wore a leather jacked with KO spelled out in studs, jumping around the stage in glee during the joyous chorus. The band's stage backdrop, which featured a huge eyeball, was made interactive when roadies rolled a giant inflatable eyeball onto the packed crowd. This prop made the rounds and Karen broke her rock-star cool by having to stifle a giggle whenever it would lumber back her way in mid-vocal. This performance was one of those perfectly carefree, caught-in-the-moment slices of music that you look for in a festival setting on a beautiful summer night. Yeah Yeah Yeahs rolled to the end of their performance with another exercise in dynamics, moving from the fast stomp of "Honeybear" to a simply beautiful rendition of "Maps" that quieted the song to a hush, with the drums expunged and Karen's vulnerable and aching voice hanging in the night air. Under a dizzying attack of stage lights, the group closed out their fantastic set with an extended "Y Control" and a buzz saw "Date With the Night." After that full-on assault, the slow encore of "Poor Song" was like a long exhale at the end of a pounding workout, which really couldn't have been more fitting as the swan song of a twelve-day musical marathon. Karen paused her singing at the line "All I see is what's in front of me," as she was drowned out with an outpouring of ovation from the audience, telling me that I wasn't the only one to love this set and ensuring that I walked away with one more memorable festival moment. The 2009 edition of the Ottawa Bluesfest went down in my books as another huge success; and it was fitting for its final night to be one of my favourites. The one-two punch of The Dead Weather and Yeah Yeah Yeahs made for an excellent experience to exit with. Now let's see what they can pull off for 2010. Yeah Yeah Yeahs setlist 
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