Bluesfest: Days Seven and Eight

This should be a fairly short recap for a change. These were the two days of the festival where there was very little I had on my must-see list, and I was starting to get a bit of Bluesfest burnout, having been there every day for a week.


The only thing I wanted to check out on Wednesday was Cat Power, who were on the Rogers Stage. When I arrived, Grady were playing on the main stage, and it was painful to walk in to the main area. I might sound old here, but they had the PA going so hot that I couldn't hear anybody without them shouting, and I was halfway between the two main stages. And, being in a band, you'd think I'd be used to loud volumes by now. (After 15 minutes or so of this, however, I was able to hear people around me normally again, so I suspect they turned it down a little). Next up was Cat Power, who I really like, but I think that they're one of those bands that I'd be just as happy to listen to on CD as to see live. Finally, I'm not personally a huge Steve Miller fan, but I'm really surprised at how many people actually are. The place was packed when he started playing (opening with a 12-minute rendition of Fly Like an Eagle). I had heard that there was a "throat singer" on the Black Sheep stage, which sounded kind of interesting so we thought we'd check it out.

And, well, it was definitely pretty interesting, at least for a while. Part of it sounded really demonic. in fact if she was able to spin her head around 360°, I'd swear I was in The Exorcist. I don't really have any other words for this one. I headed back towards the main stage, and after noticing how many people were there (and how well beer sales seemed to be doing), I decided to leave early and head home.

On to Thursday, then. I was primarily going to see Xavier Rudd, since I keep hearing how great a show he does, and I've never actually seen (or heard) any of his stuff. It was a little hard to see (which is my main beef about the River stage), but it sounded pretty cool, although not as folky as I expected it to be. I'd wouldn't mind check it out in a non-festival environment sometime. B and I also caught some of Blue Rodeo, of whom I'm not an enormous fan, but it was cool hearing some songs that a) I hadn't heard in a while and b) didn't even realize were Blue Rodeo songs. And that just about wraps up the night.

Ok, so that wasn't quite as short as I thought it would be. But just to add a little variety to the mix, here's an online quiz. The question is:

Discontinued Ben & Jerry's Flavor
or
Band I Found on MySpace

I failed miserably, scoring only 2/10. Apparently I don't like ice cream or MySpace. Anyway, have fun!