Bluesfest blog: day eight

By: Colin Harris
   Wed, 14/07/2010 - 12:36pm

There were really three headlining bands tonight. St. Catharines, Ont. post-punk group Alexisonfire started the main events at 9 p.m., while Montreal indie giants The Arcade Fire began just before 9:30 p.m. – with Melbourne's The Cat Empire set to begin at the other end of the festival.

Alexisonfire opened their set with the lead single off their latest LP, the song “Young Cardinals,” leaving out a few of the vocal lines for fans to eagerly sing in place. Alexisonfire is all about the energy, and they went all out – playing a five song encore.

I was most excited for The Arcade Fire tonight. I've been wanting to see them live since I saw the video for “Rebellion (Lies)” on some MuchMusic show.

Their show was big. No, huge. Their indie orchestra filled the giant MBNA stage, and with thousands of concert-goers watching there must have been quite a few people who only know The Arcade Fire because they opened for U2. Which meant they had to deliver something easily digestible – and they're great at doing that.

What I love about The Arcade Fire is how widely liked their “indie” music is. Pretence aside, they create really good music with their seemingly arbitrary instrumentation. The new stuff was interesting; I'll need to hear more to pass judgement.

They did, however, sound like they were trying really hard to top their other records, Funeral and Neon Bible – two albums that have become staples in any indie music collection.

Even though I only made it for the last twenty minutes, The Cat Empire was the best show I saw tonight. The Aggrolites warmed up the crowd at the Hard Rock stage with their dirty reggae, but The Cat Empire had a kind of exuberant joy in playing that gave them the energy to push things as far as they can go. Anyone unfamiliar with the band should give Two Shoes a listen.

Regardless of whether you think Bluesfest isn’t strict enough with their rule enforcement, after a day like this one you have to love that we have this inappropriately-named festival.
 

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