Day one at Bluesfest was an excellent way to get started on 10 musical days of my summer vacation. Something that gets me excited about spending an evening at the festival is the amount of musical variety one’s stay can have.
After making my way through the hordes of festival goers, I wandered down to the River Stage to start my 2013 festival with Femi Kuti. The son of afrobeat music pioneer Fela Kuti, Femi did not fail to provide an excellent summer soundtrack to the fair-sized crowd in attendance.
Dressed in brightly coloured, traditional African clothing, Kuti danced around the stage with an energy quite impressive for a man of his age. He was backed up by an impressive band and dancers, who were quite engaged in the performance themselves. Shaking and shimmying their way around the stage, their enthusiasm definitely had an effect on the crowd, who were clapping and grooving along all throughout the show.
Following the wonderful display of afrobeat rhythms, I grabbed a beer and headed for the Bell Stage to take in The Black Keys. This year marked the return of the Akron, Ohio duo since 2011’s Bluesfest, where a powerful storm shortened their set by a few hours.
I had seen them in Montreal in early 2012, so I knew exactly what I was going to get with this show. Nothing much had changed with The Black Keys’ set since 2012, or even 2011. Opening with “Howlin’ for You,” the crowd immediately took notice to some improperly balanced sound levels leaving some instruments louder than others.
Aside from this one moment of uproar, the audience was fairly tame throughout the entire show, minus when radio hits such as “Tighten Up” and “Lonely Boy” were played. It would have been nice to see them get a little more engaged with some of the band’s older, pre-Brothers material.
With the same stage set-up, and the same setlist (minus song order, of course), there was nothing terribly different this time around with The Black Keys. That’s not to say it wasn’t an enjoyable show, but perhaps I’ve seen them a few too many times in this recent album cycle of theirs.
Looking ahead, it should be an excellent second day with Flogging Molly on my schedule!
