It’s safe to say that day five of Ottawa Bluesfest was the night a lot of people had been waiting for. With people standing in line since the morning to score the best spot in front of the City Stage, performances by Greta Van Fleet, Machine Gun Kelly, and the Foo Fighters did not disappoint.
Greta Van Fleet is an up-and-coming American rock foursome from Michigan made up of brothers Josh, Jake and Sam Kiszka (vocals, guitar, and bass respectively), as well as drummer Danny Wagner. They kicked off the night with heavy guitar riffs, complimented by Josh’s husky and howling vocals.
The band started the show off with fan favorites “Highway Tune,” “Edge of Darkness,” and “Flower Power.” When the band jammed to their last song, “Safari Song,” Josh had the whole crowd singing the lyrics with a giant grin on his face.
With flawless guitar solos and Josh’s famously Robert Plant-like vocals, Greta Van Fleet held the crowd in awe.
Between their 70s rock band style, and enthusiastic stage presence, fans young and old flocked to hear their Led Zeppelin-esque melodies. Despite their recent formation in 2012, they’ve been gaining notoriety across the rock and roll scene, with some fans travelling from as far as the East Coast to see them play.
“When we heard Greta and the Foo Fighters were going to be here, we had to see them play,” Megan Kean, a longtime fan from Halifax, said. “They sounded exactly how I expected.”
Ryan Nolan, another long-time Greta Van Fleet fan, said he’s excited to see such a young band bringing back an older style of rock and roll.
Although the crowd was applauding and singing along to Greta Van Fleet’s songs, when the Foo Fighters hit the stage with “All my Life,” that’s when people began to roar.
Followed by “Learn to Fly” and “Pretender,” Dave Grohl, the lead singer and founder of the Foo Fighters, commanded the audience the entire night.
Although the band hasn’t played in Ottawa since 2008, they made up for the time away with a three-hour show of non-stop energy, upbeat tempo, and harmony. Acknowledging how long it had been since their last show in Ottawa, Grohl vowed to play a song from every record they’d ever made.
By the third song, crowd-surfers were waving through the sea of hands, and heads were banging along to the beat of Taylor Hawkins’ impressive drum skills. The band barely stopped to break between sets, dragging out each song with solo battles between Grohl and Hawkins, and dropping some bluesy riffs as an ode to the festival’s history.
The show was filled with homages to artists like Queen, John Lennon, and the Ramones, with multiple special shout outs to Alanis Morissette, an Ottawa musician and a long-time friend of the Foo Fighters. A sweet highlight of the show was when Grohl’s 12-year-old daughter Violet joined him on stage to sing back-up vocals for their new song “Dirty Water.”
The band had the crowd screaming the lyrics of every song, old and new, including “My Hero,” and “The Sky is a Neighbourhood.”
At one point, Grohl shut off all the stage lights, and had the audience illuminate the festival with their phones and lighters.
“The entire time, they just make you feel like part of it,” Nolan said. “It was really well done. Today was the day.”
In their third encore, the Foo Fighters played their finale song “Everlong,” as the crowd swayed their arms in the air, and a vacuum of quiet filled the space. The whole audience stood entranced before breaking into one final chorus.
According to Lisa Davis, a fan of Greta Van Fleet and the Foo Fighters who attended the shows, both bands “blew it out of the water.”
However, the fifth day of Bluesfest was perhaps best described by Grohl himself: “Ladies and gentlemen, what a beautiful fucking night for a rock concert.”
Photo by Aaron Hemens
