More Ottawa Bluesfest: Lord Huron, Royal Ortis and more
[More work from Ross MacDonald, Karen Coughtrey, and Melody Maloney. – AC]
Night 6 of the 2026 Edition of Ottawa Bluesfest saw 4 bands take to the RBC Mainstage. Headliners Lord Huron were supported by Lucy Dacus, Royel Otis, and Koko Love.
Montreal’s Koko Love opened the mainstage with a solid performance of alt rock with his unique mystical and spiritual flavour. The desire to connect with his audience is evident throughout the set and was a perfect welcoming evening act.
Attracting a huge early evening crowd in front of the mainstage were Australian band Royel Otis. They are an indie pop punk rock duo from Sydney with a unique flavour and energy to their sound making it a really fun listen.
They opened with ‘Hate This Tune’ and ‘Adored.’
The background graphics were simple, letting them know who was performing, giving instructions to the crowd such as “dance with the person next to you” or “wave your hands in the air” and personalised for the occasion at one point saying (and probably one of the most photographed moments of the night) “Ottawa Bluesfest You’re So Fucking Gorgeous.”
They had nothing but good things to say about Canada. “We love Canada, its kinda the best place in the fucking world,” they said at one point and also saying we’re kind of related out here (meaning as members of the commonwealth of course.)
Everyone was loving their original music (even the many for whom they were an unheard of band) but the included some covers in their set, doing a fantastic version of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s ‘Murder On The Dance Floor’ and asked the crowd to help them sing The Cranberries’ ‘Linger.’
They finished with ‘Oysters In My Pocket.’
Lucy Dacus was a welcome returnee to Ottawa Bluesfest. She performed at the festival in 2022 on a smaller side stage for a group of dedicated fans. Tonight she upgraded and was on the mainstage performing for a sizable crowd.
She still had a way to make the show feel intimate, the backdrop being an art gallery wall with frames, the art within changing for each song allowing you to feel perhaps you were catching her at a small venue show rather than a huge festival.
She also endeared the crowd by, after polling the audience early on in her set, agreeing to try her best to speak French. She did very well, her French is quite good and did her best to converse with the crowd in French for the entire rest of the show.
She performed a very similar set to the one she performed in 2022 with 7 of 13 songs being ones she played the first time. She even started the set with the same two songs ‘First Time’ and ‘Hot & Heavy.’ The vibes were different though and were less rainbows and slightly more moody and serious. The swelling orchestrals provided by the piano and violin in her backing band add a layer of beauty and mystique and momentousness to her beautiful voice and rock guitar.
That’s not to say there was no thought put into the setlist. She recognised this as a bluesfest and shared that she and her team had tried to come up with the bluesiest song in their repertoire and although they haven’t played it as a full band in years, special for Ottawa she performed ‘Yours & Mine.’
She also of course included newer music and played her newest song, ‘Planting Tomatoes’ and songs off her 2025 album Forever Is A Feeling including the title track (on which she came down from the stage to walk the barricade), ‘Ankles’ and ‘Best Guess.’
She had the crowd singing along with her as she ended with her most well known song ‘Night Shift.’
Lord Huron took their crowd on a journey through time and space opening with tracks off their newest album The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1 ‘Who Laughs Last’ and “Bag Of Bones’ before taking the crowd right back to the beginning (to let the crowd escape this strange territory and ease their mind) with more familiar tunes ‘Ends Of The Earth’ and ‘The Ghost On The Shore.’
The new album leans into the spacier sounds of their music and the stage set up had a sort of twilight zone feel about it with lead singer Ben Schneider occasionally singing into the telephone of an old phone booth and at one point receiving an ominous message from that same phone. There was also a cosmic jukebox on the stage.
They leaned into the 50’s subvibe of that album saying they were tickled pink to be back in this part of the world and that means the world to be so far from home and see so many people. Although this isn’t their first time in Ottawa, they performed at Jazz fest in 2023, from when the band asked who had seen them before it was clear there were a lot of people just discovering the exceptional live show experience from this LA based indie rock band.
The set covered songs from across their discography but in large part consisted of songs from their 2015 album Strange Trails including ‘La Belle Fleur Sauvage,’ ‘Frozen Pines,’ and ‘Meet Me In The Woods.’
In a highlight of the night keyboardist Misty Boyce moved to the front of the stage to add her beautiful resounding vocals to ‘I Lied.’ She would join them again on the mainset ender, the hauntingly beautiful, emotionally moving, heartstring pulling ‘The Night We Met.’
The night ended with a toast to the crowd and two song encore of ‘The World Ender’ and ‘Not Dead Yet.’
Lord Huron
Ben Schneider – guitar, vocals, harmonica
Mark Barry – drums, percussion, vocals
Miguel Briseño – bass, keyboards, percussion, theremin
Tom Renaud – guitar, vocals
Brandon Walters – guitar, vocals
Misty Boyce – keyboards, vocals
Waylon Rector – guitar, vocals
Lucy Dacus
Lucy Dacus – vocals, guitar
Dominic Angelella – bass and backing vocals
Sarah Goldstone – keyboards, violin, and backing vocals
Jacob Blizard – guitar
Royel Otis
Otis Pavlovic – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, piano
Royel Maddell – lead guitar, backing vocals, bass, synthesizer
Tim Ayre – keyboards, synthesizer, backing vocals
Tim Commandeur – drums
