--taken from: missemilyjane42's flickr
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sloan @ Ottawa Westfest 06.12.10
--taken from: Snowsuit Sounds
by Maggie
Number 9...Number 9...Number 9. Why am I quoting a Beatles track that I once made a non-fanatic listen to the entirety of? Because I saw my 9th Sloan show last weekend, of course! Sloan played a free show at Westfest in Ottawa, AKA the city where my compatriots in fangirldom, Rainey and Emily, both live. It doesn't take a whole lot of work to convince me that (a) I should see these fabulous ladies or (b) I should see that fabulous band, so obviously I packed a bag and headed north for the second time in 2010.
There was a fair bit of drama getting up to Ottawa. Thanks to car trouble, what had been a perfectly sane plan to leave in the morning, drive during the day, and arrive in the late afternoon, giving Simon and I ample time to hang out with the girls on Friday night turned into a typically/wonderfully ludicrous expedition involving a rented car, a drive that began around sunset, a border crossing at 2AM (oh Quebecoise border guard, you sure thought we were up to something shifty), and an arrival in Ottawa something like 5AM. Luckily Simon found us an awesome last minute bargain at a hotel so the sleep we DID get was in an awesomely comfy bed and I was actually able to wake up in the morning feeling refreshed (or was that just adventure adrenaline? Does it matter?).
We met up with the girls, ate a breakfast that included a Herculean serving of fruit (oh, sweet Cora), and walked around Parliament for a while before getting down to business. Emily was volunteering at the event so it was obviously up to Rainey and I to procure the best spots in the house - up against the barricade, Stage Patrick as usual (that's stage right for anyone who doesn't know which Sloan stands where off the top of their head :P). We got the spots, and we also "entertained" the "crowd" with our "comedy" for the next hour as we waited for music to start. Trust me, if you haven't heard our version of Under Pressure you haven't really lived. Or something.
I believe the first 3 preliminary bands were as follows - Bloomistry, the High Dials, and the Balconies. All their music has sort of blended together in my memory, but gosh, the girl in the Balconies is one of the prettiest ladies I have ever seen. Gosh. She had purdy hair.
Sloan was preceded by Will Currie & the Country French who I was SUPER psyched to see! Endorsed by Jay Ferguson, they're one of the only non-Sloan bands whose music Murderecords has put out in forever and a day. The only song I knew by them was their collaboration with Jay, Push Pins, which I love the heck out of, because I have literally not been able to find their music anywhere (still haven't - I tried to buy their CD at the merch booth after the show, only to be told they'd sold out of them like 20 minutes after WC&tCF had left the stage). How did I like them? I LOVED them! Super melodic piano rock, like an amalgamation of Jay's songs and one of my other rock heroes, Ben Folds - particularly the Ben Folds of Reinhold Messner (think 'Your Redneck Past' more than 'Hospital Song' though) and Rockin the Suburbs. Seriously, they made one of the best first impressions ever on me. I need to track down their material here in the States so I can listen to it constantly.
The theme for this festival by the way was "Ottawa Pop Explosion." How do you get a crowd to buy into this theme, you ask? Obviously, you give away a ton of pop rocks. A TON of pop rocks. By the time Sloan hit the stage, I was on the kind of sugar rush I haven't experienced since I was attending slumber parties in the sixth grade. Between that and the fact that the front row wasn't directly in the band's faces for the first time ever for me, I wound up screaming myself hoarse early into their set. Which is another way of saying it was WICKED FUN. :D There were some sound issues, but I was way too into it to care.
They opened with Losing California & Penpals, 2 of my favorite songs ever, and also the songs they opened with the first time I saw them. They played a lot of the "greatest hits," which is to be expected from a free show, obviously. The only things that make me go like this :( :( were the fact that Jay lost his voice early in the set and that they didn't play At The Edge of the Scene, Step On It Jean, Tell Me Something I Don't Know and It Is Never (got the setlist after the show, so I was able to know what I was missing, lol). I assume this was due to a combination of Jay's voice going away and time constraints (everything seemed to be running about 15-20 minutes behind schedule, and I heard there were strict noise laws that had to be obeyed) - totally understandable, but still a bummer. Andrew's set was really great, it included Something's Wrong and Living With the Masses, the latter of which is one of my favorite songs on Never Hear The End Of It. Encore was People of the Sky, Coax Me, and a song for people who know what rock and roll is about (If It Feels Good Do It <3).
After the show, one of the Westfest staff made sure I got a setlist as a reward for the ridiculous amount of time we'd been standing there. Rainey scored a drumstick from the Country French, and Emily had her awesome volunteer pass so yay for everyone getting a souvenir! :P We chatted with Chris for a while, and then Simon (who accidentally missed the show due to an extreme nap, but still wound up talking to Chris, lol) gave Rainey, Emily and Rainy's bf a ride back to their apartment.
Another Sloan adventure was at an end, but all that really means with us is that it's time to start considering where, when and how the next one will be. So who knows where my next Sloan write-up will be describe a trip to? As of yet, nobody's positive, but I promise you one thing: It will be awesome. It will involve great music enjoyed with awesome people. It will leave me even further convinced that while it might seem a little strange on the surface, I have the greatest hobby in the world and that that is awesome. Yup. Now who wants cake? (by cake, I of course mean photos).
--taken from: Snowsuit Sounds
Saturday, June 12, 2010
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