Photos and a review of night #2 of Ottawa Bluesfest

[Photographer Ross MacDonald and reviewer Karen Coughtrey were once again on the case. – AC]

Although the forecast was for another wet one, the predicted evening thunder showers would not materialise and Ottawa Bluesfest Night 2 was a scorcher, with a humidex in the high 30s. It would only get hotter with acts like headliner Nickelback and supporting acts including Jaclyn Kenyon and Mia Kelly burning up the stages.

Burlington Ontario born Jaclyn Kenyon would get the night off to a great start with her hard rocking country performance.

In a sparkly black bustier, shorts, and ankle boots she looked every inch the part of a true country rock star. She has incredible stage presence, her voice did not disappoint, and she had no trouble attracting and maintaining the attention of the small but growing early evening crowd.

Jaclyn performed a packed set of over 10 songs and she sang about the themes you’d expect a young female singer to write about: friendship, love, and heartbreak and gave the crowd the life advice to “roll with it, slow with it, go with the flow of it” which not coincidentally is the hook of her 2024 single ‘C’est La Vie’ which she would then perform.

She would introduce a few of her songs by sneakily sharing the lyrics, as was the case after telling the crowd about her favourite heartbreak and after declaring that the summer sun was not the only thing that was hot tonight.

The extreme heat did take a toll and mid-set, after she sang a cover of her favourite song, the rock version of Demi Lovato’s ‘Heart Attack’, she thanked the fans for filling in the lines when she was struggling to breathe. She had no troubling recovering and all in all it was an excellent kick off to the night.

By contrast, over on the River Stage (second stage, and yes it is situated beside the Ottawa River) local folk-rock artist Mia Kelly was keeping things cool. There are a number of artists in Canada that are bilingual; however, one would be hard-pressed to find a singer who flows so effortlessly between English and French.

And although Mia’s performance wasn’t turned up to 11 like the artists on the main stage, Mia’s singing was full of passion and pent up energy. She definitely stirred up a lot of emotion for the sizable crowd lucky enough to catch her show.

Next thing one knew it was almost time for the main event and the festival pumped up the massive crowd with the trailer from the Nickelback documentary film, streaming now on Netflix: Hate to Love: Nickelback (coincidently the opening of the trailer is narrated by our very own Alan Cross).

The audience knew it was actually time to rock when Pantera’s ‘Walk’ began to blast through the speakers and wanted posters for the band members appeared on the screens followed by an animated clip of a camper van breaking through a wall and being chased by police.

The animated road trip would continue throughout their set and although it matched the cover art of their 2022 album Get Rollin’ they would only play ‘San Quentin’ from that album, which is what they opened with. The set consisted mostly of songs from their early albums including ‘Far Away’, ‘Animals’, and ‘Figured You Out’.

It was a pyro-heavy performance with the stage appearing to be on fire for most of it, and those uncomfortable with sudden loud noises would not have enjoyed the loud bangs of the pyrotechnic flames that punctuated many songs.

Although the stage looked like a rocking good time was happening, some complaints about the sound could be heard early on as it appeared that maybe the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, or the sound techs were prioritising the bass over the vocals and other mid level and treble tones of the music, making it difficult to hear. This did however, thankfully, seem to correct itself as the night went on.

Chad might be up on stage, but he wanted the crowd to know he was at a rock show too and wanted to party, and the audience might remember this show for his beration of the bartender “Brad” who he gave a failing grade for being cheap with the shots, something he requested several times before asking for the bottle.

The band was also actively promoting Treana Peake’s (Ryan’s wife) charity. She is the founder of the Obakki foundation https://obakkifoundation.org/ , an organisation involved in a variety of humanitarian ventures for over 20 years. It should’ve come as no surprise to anyone in attendance that the band played a video highlighting the work of the foundation during their song ‘When We Stand Together’.

The band would invite their guitar tech Rob Dawson to partake in performing ‘Savin’ Me’, Ryan Peake would take on the lead vocals on ‘Worthy to Say’, and they would invite Warren Zeiders https://www.warrenzeiders.com/ (the country artist who opened for them) to join them for their mega hit ‘Rockstar’.

The later part of the set was packed full of their biggest hits as they played ‘Hero’, ‘Photograph’, ‘Rockstar’, and ‘How You Remind Me’ back-to-back to end the main set.

They would close the night with an encore consisting of ‘Gotta Be Somebody’ and then ‘Burn It To The Ground’ which of course featured a plethora of flames, and as the song ended the night was capped off with fireworks. In a very Canadian touch the screens changed to a thank you message (it read: “thank you so f*ing much”) from the band as the large crowd began the long slow process of dispersing into the warm Ottawa night.

Nickelback
Chad Kroeger – lead vocals, lead guitar
Ryan Peake – rhythm guitar, backing vocals, keyboards
Mike Kroeger – bass
Daniel Adair – drums, percussion, backing vocals