Tyler, The Creator
After a year that included a ban from New Zealand and encouraging fans to crash the gate at SXSW in March, it was a risky decision to book California alt-rapper Tyler, The Creator at Ottawa Bluesfest. But the festival’s executive director, Mark Monaghan, knew this when he added hip hop’s enfant terrible to the lineup.
Was it worth it? Apparently so. There was a noticeable crowd waiting for Tyler, who excitedly put their hands up in their universal Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All hand sign (but you can just call them Odd Future, or OFWGKTA).
Odd Future regular Taco Bennett was the first to grace the stage, amping the crowd up with recent-ish rap tracks like Drake and Soulja Boy’s “We Made It,” until Tyler himself bounced on stage like a hyperactive teenager.
Starting his set with “Jamba” from his most recent album, 2013’s Wolf, you could feel the bass in your throat. Mere seconds after finishing the song, Tyler casually yelled “‘Sup, assholes?!” He then verified that he pronounced Ottawa correctly, after saying he wanted to get it right.
“I’ve never been here, this place is pretty sick, man,” he mused. “Weird weather but, you can see the sky,” he joked.
“There’s a couple black people here,” he added. Not one to avoid controversy in any shape or form, he then dropped the n-word about four times.
“I’ma randomly say that throughout the show,” he said.
He then began the extremely violent track “Tron Cat” from his second album, Goblin. Following this, we heard “Sam (Is Dead),” and “Bitch Suck Dick.” Yes, that is the title of the song.
When Tyler sings about extreme objectification, he goes to the extreme, which is seemingly an effort at satirization. But does their audience understand that? Probably not. Does Odd Future understand that? Maybe.
After performing “Bimmer,” which originally featured fellow Odd Future member Frank Ocean on Wolf, Tyler spotted a crying fan.
“She keeps crying!” he shouted. “Why you so sad!?” he asked with obvious sincerity.
“I want everyone happy,” he said, after climbing back on stage once he visited the crying fan in the crowd.
“Since you’re crying, I’m going to play one of my sad, depressed songs about me having my heart broken.”
Sensing his pain, a fan threw their bra at Tyler, which he held onto longer than I thought he would, staring at it in bemusement.
In the middle of the set, someone had also thrown a full pack of bacon onstage. Tyler said he appreciated it, but questioned the logic behind this gesture, telling the audience that he didn’t have a microwave or oven onstage.
After performing “IFHY,” “Domo23,” “PartyIsntOver,” “Yonkers,” “48,” and “Oldie,” Tyler told the audience how he felt about the nation’s capitals denizens.
“You guys are awesome. I’m kinda mad I never came before.”
Holy Ghost!
They don’t believe in computers, and once claimed that people who play their music on computers all sound the same. And it pays off, in the quality of their unique sound and ability to attract guest vocalists from the likes of The Doobie Brothers’ Michael McDonald to Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo.
But the members of Holy Ghost! weren’t as interactive as Tyler, The Creator, who had just played on the Claridge Stage across the field. Maybe the Bell Stage was too big for the born and bred New York twopiece who had the support of various musicians who all resembled the perfect Williamsburgian archetype.
The duo began their set with “It’s Not Over” from their eponymous 2011 album and followed with “Okay” from their second album, 2013’s Dynamics, hailed as in sync with the disco shift of 2013 (see Arcade Fire, Skream, et al.).
The worst part of the set, incidentally, was the lacklustre crowd. It was very embarrassing. Here we have a band under the DFA label, and hardly anyone seems to care. The band played everything live, and yet, the acts who played music from their MacBooks had more of a turnout. Perhaps it’s marketing, but it was slightly depressing.
Although main vocalist Alex Frankel did not seem to agree with my qualm.
“You guys are a lovely crowd,” he said.
The common aesthetic theme was a doomsday electrogroove, like “It Gets Dark” and the indie famous “I Will Come Back,” a 2011 classic that has been remixed countless times, and could be the soundtrack of a cybertechno film where two lovers are attempting to escape a society where social engineering has become an empirical reality.
And I hope they do come back, because these guys were easily the coolest band at Bluesfest.
The Killers
Who knew that one of the most successful post-2000 bands would come out of a city of washed-up crooners and $100 per entry rooftop pool parties full of terrible people? Well, The Killers did, and whether you think they are massively overrated, they revitalized post-punk and dreamy synths while the rest of us were memorizing the lyrics to Green Day.
Seemingly blessed with the inability to age, Brandon Flowers ran across the stage, pointing at the crowd at particular times during songs for emotional emphasis.
The Las Vegas band wisely opened with “Mr. Brightside,” the band’s 2003 debut single from Hot Fuss, allegedly inspired by an ex-girlfriend who was unfaithful to Flowers.
With his hand on his heart, Flowers sang “Spaceman” from their third album, 2008’s Day & Age, an album that was a reaction to the bad press and criticism of their second effort, 2006’s Sam’s Town. Flowers has admitted in the past that criticism towards this album stung, but we know it was just a reaction to the game changer that was Hot Fuss, because Sam’s Town is a brilliant, exceptionally written album. And maybe Flowers is over the hurt the reviews caused, since he played a beautiful rendition of “Read My Mind” and “For Reasons Unknown,” two classics from Sam’s Town.
Known for their unusual covers, they didn’t play the Joy Division banger “Shadowplay,” but they did include a cover of Blondie’s “Dreaming” and Tiffany (originally Tommy James & the Shondells’) “I Think We’re Alone Now,” showing that even at Flowers’ age of 33, you’re never too old to be too kistch.
