When I was 27, it was a very good year (pt 2)

Carrying on to the 2nd half of the year (2nd half breakpoint chosen arbitrarily by me as the end of the first weekend of bluesfest)

Buddy Guy - Ottawa July 9th

I had just returned from playing flag football and some friends of mine were going over to see...Final Fantasy (I think) on one of the side stages. I didn't really want to do that and was a tad annoyed I didn't get to see Buddy Guy, who I thought was on at 8, so I decided to call it a night. Just on a whim, I checked the schedule and realized he was actually on at 9. Jumped in the shower, grabbed my ticket and I was off. Got to the Flats just as Jonny Lang was finishing his set on the B-stage. So given that I walked out on his show before the encore in 2001, I believe that means I've now seen one complete Jonny Lang show. Got to the C-stage just as Buddy was coming on. (Yeah, I know. It's called "Bluesfest" and Buddy Guy was playing the C-stage. Go figure.) Anyhoo, great show as always. Mike rating: 7/10

Many many people - Ottawa, July 10th

George Clinton and the PFunk allstars, Randy Newman, Alejandro Escovedo and Los Lobos were all on the schedule on the Tuesday, which meant significant running around and no stopping for long enough to enjoy much of anything. I was a bit disappointed in what I saw of all of them, though. Biggest disappointment of the festival, aside from Dylan. Mike rating: 4/10

Steve Miller Band - Ottawa, July 11th

Damn, that was good. Played most of his hits, brought on Gordie Johnson, ex of Big Sugar, now of some other band who were in the support slot, and closed with one of my all-time favourite songs: Jet Airliner. "I didn't think he was going to play Jet Airliner, but boom, there it was, 2nd encore." Mike rating: 8/10

Blue Rodeo - Ottawa, July 12th

insert "same blue rodeo review I give every year for the last decade" here. Except they played "rain down on me"...which is nice. Mike rating: 6/10

Metric - Ottawa, July 13th

For the 2nd year in a row, I'm seeing Metric at Bluesfest, and for the 2nd year in a row, I couldn't name a Metric song if you held a gun to my head. It was...alright, I guess. Mike rating: 5.5/10

Sam Roberts etc. - Ottawa, July 15th

Last night of Bluesfest (finally) and I walk over in the afternoon to catch Steve Forbert solo in the theatre in the war museum. Not bad, I guess. Walk back over around 6, catch a band called The Deadstring Brothers, who were a surprise highlight. Kind of Black Crowes-ish (which is weird, because I don't really like the black crowes). Anyway, meet a buddy and watch a few minutes of the steve forbert band, which got a big "meh" and so we headed over to the B-stage to catch sam roberts, who, and I was as stunned realizing this as you are reading it, I was seeing for the first time. Pretty solid show. We wander back over to the d-stage to catch Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, who were ace. Great way to end it, even though we had to put up with hearing the disco idiots on the main stage as we left. Mike rating: 7/10

Mike overall rating for bluesfest: 9/10

Then for a long time, nothing happened.

Virgin Festival, Toronto September 8th 2007

I wanted to see Arctic Monkeys this year, and missed them in Montreal in May, so this was my chance. At various times, both the hives and the coral were on the bands list for day 2, but both backed out, so in the end I was only there for one day. Met my friends at a sidestage for a band I have no recollection of, went over to the dance tent to catch Princess Superstar's DJ set...and that's all it was: a DJ set. Boring. I'm off to see the Monkeys. Solid set, nothing inspiring, but nice to see them play Old Yellow Bricks, which was a contender for my favourite song of the year. Next was Interpol, who I desperately tried to get interested in beforehand, but failed miserably. Especially when I realized all their songs sound the same. Meh. Finally the day ended with Bjork, which I can safely say was the weirdest show I've ever seen. Bar none. Didn't really like it, though. Mike rating: Monkeys 7.5/10, Interpol 5/10, Bjork 4/10. Overall: 6/10

The Hives - Toronto, October 3rd

The big one. I've been waiting to see The Hives live for a long time, so when they announced their big US tour to support their new album would be....supporting Maroon 5, I almost had a stroke. I'm not paying big money to see The Hives in a hockey arena and walk out before the main act comes on. But then salvation: on their days off in between Maroon 5 shows, they were going to play full club shows in big cities for....12 bucks a ticket. Ummm...sold? And it's at the Phoenix, site of my favourite dylan show ever. Damn. We arrive early, set up shop near the stage, and wait for at least an hour. Finally, the house lights dim, the neon Hives logo lights up and Chris Dangerous walks out, starts a drum beat, Dr. Matt Destruction walks out, hits the bassline, Vigilante Caerlstrom and Nicholas Arson come out and rip into a niiiiiiice riff, and then Howlin' Pelle is greeted like a conquering hero...and away we go. New song, followed by several classics, followed by new song, followed by several classics etc. Howlin' Pelle brought his A-game, the band were awesome, just a great night. Mike rating: 10/10

Bob Dylan & Elvis Costello - Syracuse, October 8th

Much better. I didn't actually plan on going to this show, but around 2pm, I looked around my condo, realized I could either spend the day cleaning, or I could go see Boby and Nerdlinger. So I did. 3 hours later, meet some friends outside at the bar, go in just in time to see Elvis do his solo acoustic take on the angels wanna wear my red shoes. I like Elvis, but have none of his albums, so I was pleasantly surprised to recognize half of the songs he played, including Alison and Radio, Radio. Good show. And then Bob came out, opened with Leopard-skin pillbox hat, which was a song I'd always wanted to see live, played a beautiful version of Positively 4th street (my favourite dylan song), a couple of new songs I hadn't seen before, a shaky Visions of Johanna and others. He certainly seemed more into it than the last show I saw. And then he finished with a great version of Like a rolling stone. Which was a much nicer way to end things than the crap Watchtower from July. So maybe now's the right time to walk away happy. (Please don't remind of this when I see him 3 times next year and am pissed again.) Mike rating: Elvis 8/10, Bob 7/10 overall 8/10

Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band - Ottawa, October 14th

I was expecting more. It was a good show and all, and I'd probably enjoy it more *now*, since I've purchased born to run, born in the USA, and darkness on the edge of town since, so I'd actually know most of the songs...but still, it wasn't as transcendant as I'd been led to believe. Mike rating: 6.5/10

Neil Young - Toronto, November 26th 2007

Show of the year, hands down. Notwithstanding the nightmare of trying to get downtown from the airport in a (minor) snowstorm (damn Toronto). Acoustic set was remarkable in that you could hear a pin drop at times. Ambulance blues was brilliant. Electric set was pretty good, but the encore of cinnamon girl and like a hurricane was blinding. Except that I really wanted Tonight's the night. That was the only downer of the evening. Plus, I got interviewed on TV the next night. Good times. Mike rating: 10/10

Lovely year all around.

When I was 27...it was a very good year

Sinatra: he sure could phrase a sentence, couldn't he?

So I saw somewhere on the order of 20 shows this year, give or take a couple I only saw bits of at Bluesfest. Seems like a lot but the bluesfest numbers artificially inflate the numbers, I suppose. Anyhoo, didn't see any of the big 5 this year, aside from Bob Dylan, who I hesitate to even count, since I've seen him every year since 2002. But I did cross a few off my "must-see" list this year, the biggest of which were The Hives and The White Stripes. Which is nice.

Some random thoughts on the shows I saw this year (pt. 1)

The Tragically Hip - Ottawa, February 2nd

They finally played locked in the trunk of a car for me last fall in Montreal, so I didn't really care what they played this night. Me, my buddy and his girlfriend had great seats at scotiabank place, 6 rows from the stage, dead centre. Which is nice. Don't have any major memories except of it being a really good show, they played a bunch off Road Apples, including Fiddler's green (what, again?), three pistols and the unequivocal highlight: they'd been doing a different cover song in the encore every night on tour, and when they kicked it off, I turned to my buddy (also a huge dylan fan) and said: "no way! This can't be..." sure enough: "ooooooooonce upon a time, you dressed so fine, threw the bums a dime, didn't you?" Yup, Like a rolling stone. Pretty cool. Mike rating: 7.5/10

Ricky Gervais - Brighton April 4th

I was struggling to find shows to go see during my two weeks in Europe when my buddy Brian emailed to say Ricky had added shows to his "Fame" tour while I was there. The Bournemouth one would've been better for my itinerary, but Brighton ended up being a far better choice. I don't remember much beyond the "Stars in their eyes" intro and the set, but the "You're fat. Not a disease." line that was repeated over and over was ace. Mike rating: 6/10

Ocean Colour Scene - London, April 5th

And then OCS announced they were doing a charity show at the Hard Rock Cafe in London. Somehow managed to luck into a ticket, because there could not have been more than 100 people in the place. I'd always wanted to see the Scene live since Moseley Shoals came out in 1996, but they rarely come over to our side of the pond. So this was quite a treat to see them in such an intimate venue. I pretty much expected one of their shorter acoustic shows, but once they came out and Stevie C ripped into the riff of 'the riverboat song', all bets were off. A full set, all of the classics, a couple of new ones, and meeting simon and steve. Good night out. Mike rating: 8/10

Bob Dylan - Amsterdam, April 8th

I wasn't going to give in and go to a dylan show, even though he was in europe at the same time as me...I had too much else I wanted to do. But then I realized that Amsterdam was only a 3 hour drive from Vimy (The true reason I went to europe in the first place was for the ceremony of the 90th anniversary of the battle at Vimy Ridge/re-dedication of the monument on april 9th), and that a bunch of my british friends were going to the amsterdam show...I gave in. Went to amsterdam without a ticket, got drunk, managed to score a ticket, got inside the venue, got drunker---scene missing---, saw an ace it's alright ma---scene missing---COME ON, BOBBY, COME ON, BOBBY!---scene missing. Exeunt. Mike rating: I have no idea. It's alright ma gets a 9, the rest probably a 6. The night itself a 12.

Van Morrison - Ottawa Bluesfest July 4th

First night of bluesfest, not a bad way to start. Van came on at 7 sharp for some reason. The only one of the first 7 or 8 songs I recognized was Moondance, got a little bored, but then he brought out the big guns. He was...alright, I guess. Cross him off the list. Plus, he played brown-eyed girl. Mike rating: 6/10

Bob Dylan - Ottawa Bluesfest July 5th

Ugh. As it turns out, alcohol does not necessarily enhance a dylan performance. Bob totally mailed it in. Unquestionably the worst of the 16 (at the time) shows of his I've seen. And what was worse was that since this was a relatively cheap show in the town I live in, all my friends who I've been babbling about dylan to for years went to this one. So now they *really* think I'm weird. Damnit. The feeling I had walking out to the dying strains of all along the watchtower was "that's it. I'm done." Depressing. Mike rating: 2/10

The White Stripes - Ottawa Bluesfest July 8th

As it turns out, alcohol *may* enhance a stripes show. Having only seen one, it's hard to say. That said, this was an amazing show. Jack was pissed about some newspaper article that questioned their blues credentials, and so played a dozen or so blues songs in a row...opening with stop breaking down. Wow. Throw in a killer encore and you have a great night out. Contender for show of the year. Though I have no recollection of them playing Hotel Yorba. Weird. Mike rating: 9/10