It had to happen eventually: Rain dampened the spirit of festival-goers yesterday. This wasn't the gig-cancelling lightning threat of last year's Bluesfest, just on-and-off showers that left things damp, gloomy and miserable. I stuck it out until around 9 p.m. for a bevy of Canadians acts (mostly local), but as things began to get heavy I packed up and left - I'll catch Blackie and the Rodeo Kings on some other occasion. Things were overcast when I arrived. As I chained up my bicycle I could hear The Empiricals nimbly navigating their penultimate tune. I snapped the picture below as they wrapped things up.
You may ask, "Why is Paul Hogan blue?" I must have hit the white balance switch taking my camera out. I could probably tinker it back to normal, but since this is Bluesfest I decided to leave it as is.
The show I had really arrived in time to see was up next. Amos the Transparent impressed me a great deal at the last (and first)
show by them I saw; they sounded just as good this time around. While they didn't have matching shirts, they did have Ana Miura on hand. They also had their new album with them; it will see official release Aug. 28.
John Mooney and Blueisiana were supposed to play next, but Mr. Mooney fell ill and had to stay home. Amanda Rheaume and her band played in his stead and did a good job. Unfortunately the rain arrived about the time they got on stage.
I had planned to see a bit of gospel this Bluesfest, so I went over to the Black Sheep Stage hoping that Geoff Moore might sound something like, say, Bill Withers. He did not. I left.
The other option available at the time was Patrick Watson, who was just about to start up on the Rogers Stage. He has a charming, somewhat goofball stage presence and uses a delay pedal on his voice with interesting results. His band has some fun with odd musical doodads as well.
Following a singalong finale which saw Watson making his way into the crowd, I went back to the River Stage where I caught the end of Danny Michel's show. I'll probably see more of him today with his rock band. He came back for an encore, which is why he's wearing a satchel.
My final show of the evening was local fave Jim Bryson, who played a rollicking set which included a blues guitar duel with Jake Bryce.
That seemed a good way to the end of night, particularly with the wet and cold starting to seep through my Converse sneakers in a serious way. It really started pouring as I biked on home - I hope conditions didn't get too miserable back at the Flats.
