The dirty blues

It's just a few days to Bluesfest; since I just tagged their collection If You Don't Already Have a Look as my album of the week (it's a double-CD, which makes up for the fact that I forgot to name one last week, right?), I figured that was all the excuse I need to post a picture of my favourite show from last year's Bluesfest. The Dirtbombs had a lot of competition from such worthies as Dead Moon, The Cool Jerks, Asteroid No. 4 and The Bellrays but, as in the previous year, their fest-ending blowout was a killer. No Birdman Stage this year, which stinks, but there are still a few acts worth checking out ...

Mick gets his kicks in, Pat Pantano on the drums.



Ko Shih on fuzzy riffs.



Troy Gregory on bass, and a fine solo artist in his own right. He's also the lead singer in excellent Detroit band The Witches.



Ben Blackwell on drums and trouble.



Pantano close up.



Mick snuggles up to Ko ...



... and faces off with Troy.



Ko takes a smoke break.



Due to some bass troubles, Troy was forced to borrow a hollowbody from The Greenhornes' Jack Lawrence. Then he couldn't get the strap on, so as Lawrence struggled with it Troy resorted to a beer-bottle solo.



At their first Bluesfest appearance, Blackwell climbed up in the stage's rafters ... they were too high to reach this time, so this time around he decided to wreak havoc instead.



I hear on the radio they plan to return to Ottawa "real soon." Coolness!