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THE OFFSPRING, SILVERSTEIN, CANCR BATS At Ottawa Bluesfest In Ottawa, Canada By Andrew Depedro, Ottawa Corespondent Friday, August 9, 2024 @ 10:15 AM
There were plenty of notable Pure Rock moments which comprised just the first week alone of the 2024 edition of the Ottawa Bluesfest on its 30th anniversary as well as my own 15th anniversary of volunteering with the festival itself. From the Elsa-looking backing singer/keyboardist in MOTHER MOTHER who was spotted wearing a RAINBOW T-shirt during the indie band's performance on the first night to homegrown pop troubadour TALK aka the "Run Away To Mars" guy professing his love for Guitar Hero by following up with an admittedly decent cover of DRAGONFORCE's "Through The Fire And Flames" to NICKELBACK's performance consisting of more unnecessary pyro and ballads than rock songs even all the way to a surprise appearance by rising nu-country hitmakers Jelly Roll and Shaboozey, this year's Ottawa Bluesfest had it all.
Except, that is, for the initially scheduled appearance of headliners NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE.
The legendary musician and his backing band had a series of festival dates lined up for their Love Earth tour across North America including Bluesfest before they were struck down by a sudden flu midway during the tour following a show in Detroit, forcing the cancellation of many of those same dates; his immune system having been compromised since contracting polio as a young child during the last major outbreak of the disease in the early 50's, it's understandable that with his own experience of living through a global pandemic back in the day that he'd comply with doctor's orders and stay home and rest. Fortunately, the show cancellation announcement had taken place about a week or so before the festival was set to start, allowing for organizers to secure a suitable replacement in time.
Yet, for the 60's crowd who paid for this but were given that, there's still enough hard rock entertainment value for one to say "hey, hey, my, my" despite skipping a few generations here and there.
https://www.cancerbats.com/
Post-hardcore upstarts SILVERSTEIN tend to musically lean more towards the emo scene as of late in their quarter century of existence, but skinny jeans, body piercings, parted hair and Converse sneakers aside, the Burlington, Ontario-based quintet's brand of emo has just the right amount of pure rock in its bloodstream. Opening with "Bankrupt", the band, comprised of Shane Told (vocals), Paul Marc Rousseau (lead guitar), Billy Hamilton (bass), Josh Bradford (rhythm guitar) and Paul Koehler (drums), the band rile up the crowd nice and good. The momentum continued throughout most of the show as the band worked their way through their catalogue to the delight of the burgeoning mosh pit above them. "Infinite", "Smashed Into Pieces", "Vices", "Ultraviolet", "Retrogade", "It's Over" and beyond....the band were amazingly unstoppable throughout their performance. Incidentally, resisting the urge to cover a NEIL YOUNG song in his absence, SILVERSTEIN instead included a cover by another missing frontman as they dedicated their admittedly decent performance of LINKIN PARK's "One Step Closer" in honor of the 7th anniversary of the late Chester Bennington. Overall, one could say that SILVERSTEIN put their own shine on the festival grounds that day.
https://silversteinmusic.com/
Finally, closing out with their best-known track "Self-Esteem", THE OFFSPRING had managed to accomplish the unthinkable by converting at least a good amount of Woodstock-era boomers over to the punk era that evening, closing that chasm-sized generation gap during a time when everything else would, well, keep 'em separated.
Setlist:
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OC punk, emo and a bit of metal would be reigning supreme during NEIL YOUNG's unplanned sick day as Hogtown hardcore heroes CANCER BATS first took the stage opening as their doom metal alter egos BAT SABBATH with a crushing rendition of "Into The Void". Fronted by vocalist Liam Cornier and featuring its current lineup of Mike Peters (drums), Jaye R. Schwarzer (bass) and Jackson Landry (guitar), the band were also celebrating a 20-year milestone themselves this year, for which they acknowledged much of their humble beginnings having played at Club SAW ("We still haven't fixed those holes in the wall!" Liam had joked), the quartet put on an energetic performance with their own originals such as "Bricks & Mortar", "True Zero" and "Radiate". And aware that they'd been chosen to fill the gaping void within the Bluesfest itinerary left by the elder statesman of the 60's counterculture, the band did a quick rehearsed rendition of "Cinnamon Girl" which went over well with the mud-covered body-pierced and ripped shirt punters in the crowd - perhaps mostly because it was something other than "Rockin' In The Free World" from his catalogue for a change. And to keep the momentum ongoing, CANCER BATS even brought on a guest vocalist for their song "Hammering On" by the name of up-and-coming Toronto-based indie folk artist Brooklyn Doran. An odd musical pairing of sorts at first glance (but then again, CANCER BATS were already replacing one established folk artist anyway), but Brooklyn showed her aggressive side as well while matched up alongside Liam's punk vocals. By the end of the set, the quartet have closed out their performance with a thrashy garage punk rendition of the BEASTIE BOYS' "Sabotage" and their best-known track "Hail Destroyer" to the masses - and many a punk/metal fan both old and new left the show completely redeemed while the CANCER BATS fully earn their wings after a good two decades in the cave.
Officially marking their return to Bluesfest for the first time as headliners in celebration of their breakthrough - and technically, their third - album Smash turning 30 this year, THE OFFSPRING come out and play their opening number....er, "Come Out And Play". Frontman/guitarist Dexter Holland greeted and thanked the crowd for braving the mostly mud-soaked elements to come and see their show - including the children of the first revolution who, obviously having known by now that the original headliner wouldn't be available that night to perform - and, along with long-time guitarist Noodles, bassist Todd Morse, rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Jonah Nimoy and drummer Brandon Pertzborn, launched into some of their other lesser-known tracks, starting with the breakneck stomp of "All I Want" and culminating with the sharp groove of a new song they'd debuted titled "Make It All Right" from their upcoming 11th release Supercharged. And while Smash had been the album to put THE OFFSPRING on the musical map, Dexter had also reminded the audience that the band had in fact been around since their inception in 1984 and releasing their self-titled debut in 1989 on their own Black Label record company. Their influences, he'd revealed in his gratitude speech, were far beyond their own local punk heroes such as SOCIAL DISTORTION and BLACK FLAG, but also particularly in classic hard rock/metal such as BLACK SABBATH (as their teaser intro of "Iron Man" had suggested) and, yes, NEIL YOUNG (and, yes, they did indeed play "Rockin' In The Free World"). And living up to his given stage name, Noodles tried out an improvised solo which resulted in playing "In The Hall Of The Mountain King" (obviously the swooping classical piece by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg rather than the power metal number by SAVATAGE, which, thankfully, neither him not Dexter would need to have pointed out to the crowd) and closing with a fairly decent cover of the RAMONES' "Blitzkrieg Bop". Resuming their original numbers with the erstwhile goofy synth-laden number "Hit That", THE OFFSPRING continued to rile up the mosh pit even further with more of their popular bangin' numbers including the dark groove-laden romp of "Gotta Get Away" and the bleak power thrash of "The Kids Aren't Alright" alongside the more light-hearted upbeat tracks such as "Why Don't You Get A Job?" and "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)". And while their stage set was otherwise spacious yet modest, featuring a backdrop of their famous skull logo, the band did let loose with some confetti pyro during "Pretty Fly" as their music would be speaking more volumes than any amount of flashy M-80's could do.
