Tag: Live music

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Live music galleries

Live music galleries: The Cure [2013]

(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. Until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts page.)

The Cure live at Osheaga 2013

Artist: The Cure
When: August 2nd, 2013
Where: River stage, Osheaga, Jean Drapeau Park, Montreal
Context: I was doing this thing in the spring and early summer this year, posting pics from some of the great sets* I caught at Montreal’s Osheaga music festival back in 2013: a sort of ten year anniversary celebration of a great weekend spent with music and friends. However, I never got around to what was possibly my favourite set of the whole weekend, something I’ve decided to remedy before this year was up.

I had seen The Cure once before back in 2000 for their Bloodflowers tour but this time, it was ultimately more satisfying because the setlist was so wonderfully mixed. The night was cool and pleasant and Robert Smith was at the top of his game, sounding as he did in his prime, but perhaps performing with more joy than he ever had back then. It was a wondrous two hour set, playing everything any fans would ever want to hear. It seemed like it could, and would, go on forever. In fact, festival organizers had to cut the sound just near the end of “Boy’s don’t cry” after the band had gone on way past curfew.
Point of reference song: “Boys don’t cry”

Robert Smith from far away
Reeves Gabrels and Jasson Cooper
Roger O’Donnell
Reeves Gabrels and Robert Smith
Robert Smith closeup

*Past galleries from this festival weekend have included the following:

Categories
Live music galleries

Live music galleries: Fleet Foxes [2023]

(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. Until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts page.)

Fleet Foxes at Ottawa Bluesfest 2023

Artist: Fleet Foxes
When: July 14th, 2023
Where: River stage, Ottawa Bluesfest, Lebreton Flats Park, Ottawa
Context: Well that’s it folks! Last night ended off another successful Ottawa Bluesfest – the local, annual marathon of live music. Out of a possible nine nights, I managed to attend seven and in that time, witnessed a great many sets. There were no disappointments and plenty of pleasant surprises. For me, it was hard to pick a favourite but wanting to do one post to signal my general satisfaction with another return to the festival, I’ve selected Friday’s night side-stage headlining set by Seattle’s indie folk heroes, Fleet Foxes. This selection has as much to do with the fact that this here was one of the few bands on the bill that I wanted to see and hadn’t yet seen before. I’d been following the group for a near fifteen years already and their set list did a great job representing all of their releases, including the recent collaboration they did with Big Red Machine (see below song). It wasn’t a very showy set, low on theatrics and pyrotechnics but huge on groove and ambience. I was so completely into the feels and lost in the tunes that very little else mattered but that moment. I later read that it seemed that the Foxes had drawn a larger crowd to the festival’s smallest stage than had the pop-singing headliner on the main stage but I didn’t even notice. It all felt so warm and intimate and well, great.
Point of reference song: “Phoenix (with Big Red Machine)”

Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes
Christian Wargo and Christopher Icasiano of Fleet Foxes
Casey Wescott of Fleet Foxes
Skyler Skjelset of Fleet Foxes
Christian and Robin
Morgan Henderson of Fleet Foxes
Robin all acoustic and quiet like
Categories
Live music galleries

Live music galleries: Wild Nothing [2013]

(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. Until I get around to the next one, I invite you to peruse my ever-growing list of concerts page.)

Wild Nothing @ Osheaga 2013

Artist: Wild Nothing
When: August 3rd, 2013
Where: Green stage, Osheaga, Jean Drapeau Park, Montreal
Context: Ten years ago this summer, I attended Montreal’s Osheaga arts and music festival with my good friends Tim and Mark. It was an unforgettable weekend and we saw countless amazing performances over the festival’s three days. I’ve already posted photos* from some of the weekend’s sets and plan to share a few more of these in the months leading up to this year’s edition, which I will sadly not be attending. Some of these posts will have fewer photos than my normal galleries, including today’s, but this should not be taken to be indicative of the quality of the performances, but of the difficulty of obtaining quality pics while being so completely in the moment.

After a good night’s sleep and a filling brunch of Montreal smoked meat at Schwartz’s deli, my friends and I got back to the festival grounds early to catch a few bands we’d had our eyes on. Tim excused himself to the next stage over to catch Canadian country singer Corb Lund and Mark and I went to the Green stage to take in hyped up indie rockers, Wild Nothing. The shimmering guitars and washes and soft soothing vocals put me right back into the shadows of 90s shoegaze. The band blasted through their set of delicious and syrupy sweet guitar pop to get to as many of his songs as possible in their short, early set. It was a nice warmup for what would turn out to be another great day for live music.
Point of reference song: “Paradise”

Jack Tatum of Wild Nothing
Nathan Goodman on guitar
Jeremiah Johnson on drums
Kevin Knight, Jeff Haley, Jeremiah Johns, and Jack Tatum

*Past galleries from this festival weekend have included the following: