At last, the closing day of Bluesfest had arrived, signaling an end to an excellent two weeks of concert-going. It was a big night for Canadian acts, as I was looking forward to seeing K’Naan, The Weeknd, and Metric all within the span of a few hours.
Running half an hour late due to some trouble with his flight to Ottawa, K’Naan finally took to the main stage looking a little flustered at first (apparently he had only 10 minutes in his trailer upon arriving here), but he gradually settled in as the evening went along.
Aside from a fair-sized group of fans in the middle of the crowd, most of the onlookers seemed unfazed and unengaged by the rapper’s enthusiasm and energy. Despite playing a rushed set, K’Naan and his backing band still managed to put on an enjoyable performance, and I feel it would be excellent to see what they could do with a complete set time.
Next up was The Weeknd (that’s right, without the third ‘e’), an up-and-coming R&B artist from Toronto who has made waves in the music community with his three critically-acclaimed mixtapes. Stepping onstage before an audience largely made up of female fans, Abel Tesfaye launched into his song “High for This”, while the masses cheered and even shed a few tears.
Accompanied by a three-piece band, Tesfaye showcased his incredible vocal range, a perfect performance with regards to pitch and lyricism. Pausing to thank his audience every once in a while sent the masses into a frenzy. I was a little disappointed by the end of it all, as he opted not to play the dark and brooding “What You Need” (probably my favourite track of his), but still an excellent performance nonetheless.
My last concert of this 2012 edition of Bluesfest was Metric, who finally got themselves a spot on the main stage after playing smaller stages at the festival for years. Touring in support of their new record Synthetica, the draw for the show was quite large, yet the crowd never really seemed to take interest in the music being played before them.
Metric presented a lot of new material, which I found to differ drastically from the standard fare everyone knows and loves. A lot of the pieces were dense, moody, and largely electronic. I enjoyed this newer style they had brought to the table, but the few moments the crowd got really excited and loud were during classic songs “Help I’m Alive” and “Dead Disco”. During an encore, singer Emily Haines and guitarist James Shaw led the crowd in an acoustic sing-along to “Gimme Sympathy”, a very cool end to the festival.
I am now going through a bad case of concert withdrawal since Bluesfest ended, and feel a little bit naked without my bracelet on (gave me a gnarly bracelet tan on my wrist though). Next year will be the festival’s 20th anniversary, so for now, I’ll be dreaming about what lineup they will bring in to commemorate the occasion. Until next year!
