Beck and Sturgill Simpson impress on Friday night at RBC Bluesfest

As a full festival pass holder for the past 8 years, I go to the festival to have a great time, see a lot of my faves, a few I was not a fan of before, that I am a fan of now, old acts, new acts and discover new artists/bands I’ve never heard of before and are amazing. There is no other feeling in the world, like the way seeing that artist right there in front of my face, singing along with them live and not through headphones or YouTube etc, or catching their attention if only for a second. Maybe you get a chance to be able to touch them quick as they pass right by you, and how it makes me feel the music even deeper inside my soul then I already do!! I have had goosebumps every at least 30 seconds every day at this festival this year, and pretty much cried while watching some shows every night for the first 5 days!!! I’m that emotional kind of fan lol!!

I don’t need to know everything there is to know about the artists I am a fan of, or every member of the band. I know what I need to know and I spend the rest of my time listening to the music, because hey…at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about at a 10 day outdoor music festival no… The music!!!???

So I’m going to go about this a little differently and not give you book facts or history facts or a mini bio on the artists I watched perform this evening. I’m just going to tell you from my point of view and my opinion on how I seen the show and how awesome every one was that I did partake in watching if only for a few minutes.

It is Day 8, I’ve been at the fest every day early, usually the first one there for the most part before the gates even open for hours. I’m also on holidays so you can imagine how my first 7 days went lol! I’m tired and getting burnt out and fought with myself all day about going down today or not. I finally decided I would wait til the absolute last minute and show up at like 9. Lo and behold I arrived at about 7pm, as I got a little push start from a friend, which brings me to panicking about writing this for hours and reading others and googling how and I’m like the heck with it, I’ll try it my way lol!! I babble sometimes too so my apologies.

Unfortunately for me I had missed Black Irish but I was able to catch a bit of the Texas Horns over at the Claridge Home stage.
MIND BLOWING!!!! Totally and completely amazing!!! If you love the horns (like the actual instrumentas) much as I do, I highly recommend looking up The Texas Horns then and checking them out like asap!!! Simply perfection!! I shot a video clip and I think I showed up at the exact right time because man alive the ol’ boys can definitely toot their own horns!!! I wish I would have gotten there earlier, so I could have stayed to watch more of the set, but I’m a front row rider and had to be front row as always for Beck!! To me there’s nowhere else to watch a show then right in the front as close as they will possibly let us get!!

Ok so back at City Stage front row are Beck, a handsome gentleman with some cool ink and a sick guitar came out and started his set.
Sturgill Simpson. I had never heard of him until tonight and I had heard he was kind of country, so I wasn’t sure how I would like him…I’m not much into the country music these days. Once he started playing I quickly realized he was a different twist this lad. He sounded almost like country rock/bluegrassy/funkish. Bottom line…he put on a good show. Check out Sturgill Simpson online n give him a listen, I’d be surprised if you didn’t enjoy him. Oh and he can rip those cords pretty good too!!!

Finally, finally, finally!! The moment we have waited months for!!! Hoping the lil rain driblettes don’t turn into a storm and we have a repeat of Live. Beck has never been here and for me to think that I actually entertained the idea of staying home in my jammies and just relaxing…well what was I thinking.

This dude sounded exactly the same as he did on CD back in the day!! There were a few tunes I forgot he even did so that was freaking cool!!!
It’s sad that I stopped listening to him as I got older. I forgot how great he was. His band too, wow!!! The drummer so sick soooo sick and the bass player was right on point, the B-53’s were a nice mix to the group, cute n quirky. Last but not least, the keyboards…was a sweet performance on keys definitely!! I think it’s time to switch up my playlist a little bit and add some new old stuff!! Beck’s just like his own dude, doin his own thing, he’s such an individual and a fantastic performer!! We would definitely welcome him back again and look forward to another show!

All in all Day 8 was a success, the rain held off and I made it to see Beck!!! Let’s see what the second last day aka Day 9 has in store for us!!

Gates open at 3pm today! For a full lineup and last minute tickets visit www.ottawabluesfest.ca

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