(I got the idea for this series while sifting through the ‘piles’ of digital photos on my laptop. It occurred to me to share some of these great pics from some of my favourite concert sets from time to time. Like my ‘Vinyl love’ series, these posts will be more photos than words but that doesn’t mean I won’t welcome your thoughts and comments. And of course, until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts of page.)
Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats in 2017
Artist: Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats When: September 14th, 2017 Where: Main stage, CityFolk festival, Lansdowne Park, Ottawa Context: So Ottawa’s CityFolk festival starts tonight, the music fest that unofficially draws the summer to a close every year. I’ve been attending it pretty regularly for the last three years. This year, though, marks the first time in the same period that I didn’t purchase a full festival pass in advance. But that’s only because I wasn’t sure I’d be in town. Have no fear. I’ll be attending two of the four nights and hopefully, get some great weather to catch some great music. The pics here are from a headline performance by Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats from two years ago at CityFolk. I had stumbled across the song below on YouTube late one night and since that serendipitous introduction, had fallen in love with Mr. Rateliff’s revivalist soul. His powerful lungs and very talented backing band had us dancing into the night. Point of reference song: “S.O.B.”
Nathaniel RateliffAndy Wild and Jeff Dazey of The Night SweatsNathaniel Rateliff banging the tambourineNathaniel Rateliff and Patrick MeeseScott Frock, Mark Shusterman, Andy Wild and Jeff DazeyNathaniel Rateliff on guitarNathaniel Rateliff telling us a tale
(I got the idea for this series while sifting through the ‘piles’ of digital photos on my laptop. It occurred to me to share some of these great pics from some of my favourite concert sets from time to time. Like my ‘Vinyl love’ series, these posts will be more photos than words but that doesn’t mean I won’t welcome your thoughts and comments. And of course, until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts of page.)
Sloan!!!!
Artist: Sloan When: August 24th, 2019 Where: Hopped and Confused Festival, Mill Street Brewery, Ottawa Context: While writing up yesterday’s words and putting together the photos summing up my experiences at this past weekend’s Hopped and Confused festival, I made the decision to give these guys their own post and gallery because… well… as our fellow blogger Aaron over at KMA would say, SLOAN!!! It’s actually unbelievable, even to me that, after over twenty five years of listening to this Canadian alternative rock band, I had yet to see them live. I had many chances*, of course, and the reasons are varied as to why I never took one of them. One such reason was that I wasn’t always a big fan. In fact, I hated them (strong word, I know, but I was young) with their first album and single, “Underwhelmed”, but they ended up winning me over with their next two records, still my favourites. Over the years since, I’ve alternated between loving their tunes and just enjoying them when heard on the radio. However, in the weeks leading up to this festival, I’ve been revisiting and getting more and more excited, the more I realized how many of their tunes I loved. And yes, they were very excellent live. They played a mix representing all the albums of their catalogue, hitting pretty much all the songs I would’ve wanted to hear, save one (a personal fave called, “Unkind”). Also, after so many years of listening to them, it’s been easy to take for granted how talented they are, but watching them live, as each of the four main members took their turns (Chris Murphy took care of the drums when Andrew Scott came to the front to lead his songs) singing the songs they contributed to the band’s body of work, was something else entirely. And man, doesn’t Chris Murphy look like he’s still having the time of his life up there! Point of reference song: “The good in everyone”
Chris Murphy of SloanJay Ferguson of SloanAndrew Scott of SloanPatrick Pentland of SloanJay Ferguson of SloanChris Murphy of SloanPatrick Pentland and Jay Ferguson of SloanSloan
* One of these was to attend the filming of the video for “The lines you amend”, which happened at one of the large lecture halls at York university, the school I was attending at the time. However, it meant getting up super early, as I recall, and on the morning after a pub night. I wasn’t a morning person in those days so…
(I got the idea for this series while sifting through the ‘piles’ of digital photos on my laptop. It occurred to me to share some of these great pics from some of my favourite concert sets from time to time. Like my ‘Vinyl love’ series, these posts will be more photos than words but that doesn’t mean I won’t welcome your thoughts and comments. And of course, until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts of page.)
The Hopped and Confused stage
Artists: Nobro, Alexandria Maillot, Weaves, July Talk, Taylor Knox, Cleopatrick, Born Ruffians, … When: August 23rd and 24th, 2019 Where: Mill Street Brewery, Ottawa Some words: If you’ve scrolled through any of my feeds on the various social media sites and apps out there, you may have noticed that, as well as being a fool for music (and vinyl collecting), I am also a card carrying Beer Enthusiast. So when you pair the two and call it a festival, as the good folks at Mill Street Brewery have done, you can bet that I would be interested. In fact, it is only by mere chance, and by chance I mean bad luck*, that it took until its fourth year running that I would finally get out to experience the Hopped and Confused festival.
With two excellent headliners this year, I took advantage of the two-day pass for an affordable $65 and was treated to an almost flawlessly run festival, mostly sunny skies, delicious beers, between set entertainment provided by local alternative radio station Live 88.5, and eight excellent and varied Canadian indie rock acts.
It all kicked off with Nobro, a Montreal-based four-piece punk rock act, or as frontwoman Kathryn McCaughey called them, “chicks who like to shred”. They were followed by a lovely set by singer/songwriter Alexandria Maillot and then, art-popsters, Weaves. The first evening was capped by the push/pull, he said/she said, Toronto rockers, July Talk, and the crowed they drew was quite eye-opening to me. Good for them indeed.
Day two started off with the power pop indie rock of Taylor Knox. Coburg, Ontario’s Cleopatrick then knocked everyone’s socks off with a blistering set that seemed way more gigantic than two people should be able to produce. Then, well, Born Ruffians were once again so excellent live, I had myself wondering why I didn’t have more of their albums.
I’m stopping there but if you’ve been counting, you might have noticed that there’s one act missing. I’m saving that one for tomorrow… Oh, and apologies for the blurriness of some of the photos but it was also a beer festival after all.
Point of reference song: “Paper girl” by July Talk
Kathryn McCaughey, Sarah Dion, and Lisandre Bourdages of NobroKarolane Carbonneau of NobroAlexandria MaillotJasmyn Burke and Spencer Cole of WeavesDJ Noel of Live 88.5 keeping the crowd pumped between setsThe Mills Street Brewpub on day two, before all the crowds descendedTaylor KnoxLuke Gruntz and Ian Fraser of CleopatrickBorn RuffiansSteve Hamelin of Born RuffiansLuke Lalonde and Mitch Derosier of Born RuffiansPeter Dreimanis and Leah Fay of July TalkPeter Dreimanis and Leah Fay of July TalkJuly Talk
* I even had tickets to last year’s event but came down with a wicked case of the man cold the day of the event.
