Wednesday, July 20, 2016

My Bluesfest Breakdown

Not literally but there were moments it felt that way.

I saw too many bands in too short a time frame. And speaking of too short... have you seen the denim panties that pass for shorts nowadays? Yikes. It's one thing to have your pockets hanging out in the front but to have your colon practically hanging out in the back is nothing I want to see after having an order of deep fried cheese stuffed Doritos in my belly.

Over the course of 10 days I saw (reviews in brackets):

Holy Fuck (for 5 minutes... ugh)
Brad Paisley (my 1st country show)
Earl Sweatshirt (a profanity laden rapper/ranter)
Lindsey Stirling (neato violinist)
Sam Hunt (Yeah, baby)
Schoolboy Q (no)
Bryan Ferry (classy)
The Lumineers (amazing)
City and Colour (low key)
Amos the Transparent (also low key)
Duran Duran (best of the week. So much energy!)
The Zolas (80s style new music)
The Cult (they rocked but made an unfortunate statement)
leMeow (interesting but meh)
PUP (my favourite of the bands I've never heard of)
The Paper Kites (nice)
The Decemberists (I've heard of them but never saw them live. I liked them!)
AWOLNATION (good band live)
Nelly (Another one that's amazing live)
Alessia Cara (sweet Canadian act)
Billy Idol (I wanted more more more... which is something for a 61 year old geezer)
The Monkees (talk about old geezers... but they were a fun wayback group)
Future (OMG, so good!)
Joe Jackson (another low key act but he was on point)

Just looking at that list makes my stomach turn. And speaking of turning stomachs, this is what I ate over the 10 days (reviews in brackets):

Pad Thai (the only good thing I ate there, and I ended up asking for extra nuts so there's that)
Deep fried Mars bar (sweet on sweet... too chocolatey for me)
Deep fried cheese curds (what's not to like?)
Deep fried cheese stuffed Doritos (Holy crap. That is all. And the sauce? I wanted to bathe in it)
Jamaican patty (the spicier the better and so yummy)
Poutine (x2) (You expected me to stay away from my favourite dish? Twice??)
Pepperoni pizza (hello heartburn. I swear I thought I was having a heart attack. Worth it!)

So general thoughts on Bluesfest. I'll never buy another festival pass. I was seeing bands I didn't care about/know, just so I could justify the nearly $250 per ticket. I hated public transit and being squashed into a metallic tube with dozens of barely dressed teens was not conducive to sanity. I actually lost it and threw a gum filled lollipop while screaming "don't be such an asshole!". I wish I was kidding. Next time I'll just buy a one day pass and leave it at that.

TL;DR: I'm glad I went but I'm equally glad it's over.

kxx


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