The second day of CityFolk granted warm weather, high spirits and powerful music to its small but mighty crowd.
Anticipation was heavy as the early-bird fans came to Lansdowne sitting on blankets, eating poutine and having drinks while waiting for the acts to take centre stage.
The Command Sisters opened the night with an acoustic setlist of their own original upbeat songs, including their biggest hit, Feel Good, and a new single they released during the pandemic, I Can Do What I Want To.
The band, made up of two sisters with the last name Command, came from Toronto to play in Ottawa for the first time and appeared to enjoy every minute of it.
Singing with ease and engaging with the crowd, the Command Sisters got families up on their feet and clapping along to energy-filled covers of Outkast’s Hey Ya! and Cage the Elephant’s Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked.
By the end of their act, a larger crowd filed in and took up the rest of the grass seating. Then, as stage hands appeared for sound checks, audience members stood up and took their place closer to the stage in preparation for the next acts.
Moist, returning to a stage for the first time in 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were welcomed with hoots and hollers from the growing crowd. The four-time Juno winner and lead singer of the band, David Usher, jumped around the stage with high-energy and big smiles, making it easy for everyone to sing along to the band’s classic hits, Silver, Breathe and Resurrection.
With help from the spirited keyboardist, dynamic guitar melodies and bass and the powerful drum solo in Black Roses, everyone in the crowd was jumping up and down to their fast-paced, rock beats.
Usher even let loose at one point saying, “You know how fun it is to be up here and not give a fuck?” which garnered a big cheer from the already hooked audience.
The band appeared genuinely happy as the crowd swayed along to their new song Ammunition, a track on their first new album since 2014.
Moist closed with arguably one of their most popular songs, Push, leaving the crowd wanting more and ready for the next band of the night.
Finally, the highly anticipated band Our Lady Peace walked onto the stage with massive waves of cheers and clapping from the audience. They wasted no time and got straight to it, starting with many of their hits including, Superman’s Dead, One Man Army and Innocent.
Raine Maida, the lead singer of Our Lady Peace, took out his megaphone to make his voice sound just like it does on the radio and filled his performances with passion and raw emotion.
The band mentioned how the last time they had performed live before COVID-19 was also in Ottawa during the 2019 CityFolk festival and they were happy to be back in the nation’s capital to perform songs from their new sequel record, Spiritual Machines 2.
The guitars were ringing through the speakers, the drum beats were flowing through the audience and everyone was cheering heavily as they danced to one of the band’s new singles, Stop Making Stupid People Famous.
The band waved goodbye and the guitarists threw picks into the audience as they ended the show. But after a three-minute chant of “OLP!” from the audience, they were called back on stage for a three-song encore.
The audience crowded together as they jumped high and sang along to the band’s closing song, Starseed. Their performance seemed to leave the crowd satisfied and marked the end of a successful, dynamic day two of CityFolk.
Featured image by Spencer Colby.
