(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.)
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)”
My (life in) music lists 