Concerts

Photos and a review of the Foo Fighters at Ottawa Bluesfest

[Another report from Ottawa correspondents Ross MacDonald (photos) and Karen Coughtrey (text). – AC]

There was no question what the hot ticket in town was Wednesday night in Ottawa. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone in the city who didn’t know at least someone heading to Lebreton Flats to Bluesfest for the 5th night of the festival. The city had anticipated this night for months, and it was finally here. Foo Fighters night in Ottawa. And fittingly the self-proclaimed “World’s Best American Band” White Reaper opened for them in the main bowl and a great night was had by all.

There is something raw and real about White Reaper, and the american punk band got right to rocking with ‘Bozo’ a track off their latest album Asking For a Ride released earlier this year.

White Reaper Ottawa Bluesfest

They played a short set but many wouldn’t notice as they packed it full of rock and rage and “a little bit of blues” they proclaimed after the title track of the aforementioned album ‘Asking For A Ride.’

White Reaper Ottawa Bluesfest

They encouraged the crowd to let loose as they took them on a ride through their discography with the songs ‘Real Long Time,’ ‘I Don’t Think She Cares,’ ‘Pink Slip’ and ‘Make Me Wanna Die.’ The audience also became noticeably more animated on ‘Pages’, a single currently receiving lots of local radio airplay.

White Reaper Ottawa Bluesfest

White Reaper is, of course, made up of a talented group of musicians and Ryan’s expertise on the keys was featured in the intro to their breakthrough hit single ‘Might Be Right,’ while Nick showed the crowd how to give it on the drums during ‘Ring.’

White Reaper Ottawa Bluesfest

Although their songs might have a touch of anger to the sound, they wanted to make sure the crowd was remaining even-keeled and stopped to check-in on a portion of the crowd and thanked security, after their song ‘Fog Machine’ another single from the latest album.

White Reaper Ottawa Bluesfest

They played 12 songs all together for the Ottawa audience and the only complaint was that they didn’t play more. You could hear exclaims of surprise and disappointment that the set was over when the band left the stage.

Foo Fighters  Ottawa Bluesfest

You could feel the anticipation in the air in the hour between acts on the main stage. As the crew got the stage set up, the main bowl rapidly filled up until there was barely any room to move. No one would complain about the lack of space or breathing room as the Foo Fighters took the stage right on time and the next two hours would pass in the most delirious hard rocking blur of positivity; and one could go on and on about all the acts of kindness that occurred as the crowd helped those in need to find breathing room or a space to sit down when needed.

Foo Fighters  Ottawa Bluesfest

The Foo Fighters opened with ‘All My Life’ and ‘The Pretender’ stopping only to tell the crowd it would be a long night and did they want to sing some songs together before moving directly into ‘Walk.’ Josh had a long drum solo to loud cheers on ‘No Son of Mine’ before the crowd really moved it to the next level on the popular hit ‘Learn to Fly.’

Foo Fighters  Ottawa Bluesfest

Something that really made the night feel special was how much, and how many times Dave expressed he liked to see the crowd. A move like that really makes the fans feel important and his special shout out to those all the way in the back was surely well received.

Foo Fighters  Ottawa Bluesfest

Dave also knew that those in Ottawa would know they were getting a shorter show but would not want to feel like they were missing out on anything offered to those in larger centres, getting longer shows, and so he told the crowd they would squeeze as many songs in as possible by taking as few breaks as possible. Later in the night he would also promise the crowd to play until they kicked them off the stage, but it turned out that was shortly after 11, as expected.

As with many alt-rock concerts, there were several crowd surfers. But what was unique at the Foos concert in Ottawa was a young man crowd surfing in his wheelchair. Kyle Humphrey said “I’m just another guy in the crowd.”

Foo Fighters  Ottawa Bluesfest

They managed to fit in 20 songs over the two hours including ‘Times Like These,’ ‘My Hero’, ‘La Dee Da’, ‘This is a Call’, and ‘Monkey Wrench.’ “I thought this was a Blues festival” Dave exclaimed at one point before asking who had the blues, and declaring they were there to take their blues away. There’s no question it was a mission accomplished in that regard.

Foo Fighters  Ottawa Bluesfest

The band might joke but they were already familiar with our out-of-genre musical festival and reminisced about playing the festival before, in 2018, when a young band: Greta Van Fleet had opened for them.

Foo Fighters  Ottawa Bluesfest

This is a 26th anniversary tour for the band and they were clearly in the mood to celebrate themselves and their exquisite talents, and the band introductions were one of the most fun (it was all fun) parts of the night. They introduced Chris Shifflet on guitar and Nate Mandel on bass before playing (a sadly abbreviated due to time constraints) version of ‘Sabotage’ by the Beastie Boys.

Foo Fighters  Ottawa Bluesfest

Next introductions were Rami Jaffee on keys and Pat Smear on guitar and they played part of Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’.

Last but certainly not least was the introduction of drummer Josh Freese, who they joked has been in 195 bands (These include The Offspring making him the band member to have most recently visited Ottawa.) As a tribute to his long time membership in the band Devo they played a snippet of ‘Whip It’ and then also ‘March Of The Pigs’ from Nine Inch Nails. Likely surprising to some they also played Michael Bublé’s ‘Haven’t Met You Yet’ as Freese is featured on that and other tracks from Bublé’s Crazy Love album.

Foo Fighters  Ottawa Bluesfest

The band was true to its quest to squeeze as many songs as possible into their short two-hour set but as Dave explained, sometimes when rocking so hard so fast you need to bring it down a bit. This introduced a lovely more mellow part of the night. Dave explained that although he loves singing along with the crowds, but there is one person he loves singing with more and then introduced his daughter Violet Grohl to join them on stage. She joined them on ‘Shame Shame’ and her beautiful voice garnered huge cheers from the audience. Violet stuck around for a second song and joined her father on ‘Show Me How’ a song off the band’s latest record that Dave wrote for his mother.

Foo Fighters  Ottawa Bluesfest

Although the show was great and everyone was thrilled to be seeing this awesome and legendary band; it was not forgotten that something was missing. That of course is former drummer Taylor Hawkins, whom the world lost last year. No one, of course, misses him more than his former bandmates. They played ‘Aurora’, Taylor’s favourite of their songs, in his honour. ‘I dream about him at least once a week.” Dave said, “We talk about him everyday and play this song every night.” And those with keen eyes would notice a very special, albeit subtle, tribute to Taylor. On both of Josh’s bass drums, just above his iconic poodle pics, was a stylized outstretched hawk that is Taylor Hawkins symbol.

This brought us to the end of the night and the evening would end on a high note with ‘Best of You,’ and of course no Foo Fighters show is complete without ‘Everlong’. And although time was running short they didn’t disappoint and went over the noise curfew just a little in order to squeeze it in for the ecstatic Ottawa crowd who were of course not ready for the night to end.

Foo Fighters  Ottawa Bluesfest

White Reaper
Tony Esposito – guitar, vocals
Ryan Hater – keyboards, backing vocals
Hunter Thompson – guitar, backing vocals
Nick Wilkerson – drums
Sam Wilkerson – bass, backing vocals

Foo Fighters
Dave Grohl – lead vocals, guitar
Nate Mendel – bass, backing vocals
Pat Smear – guitar, backing vocals
Chris Shiflett – guitar, backing vocals
Rami Jaffee – keyboards, piano
Josh Freese – drums
Violet Grohl – guest backing vocals

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

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2 thoughts on “Photos and a review of the Foo Fighters at Ottawa Bluesfest

  • Thanks – I was at the Ottawa concert & appreciated the review reminding me of all that transpired. The standing area was PACKED – I’ve never been so grateful for deodorant as I was surrounded by people taller than me who often lifted their arms to clap above their heads. Luckily they have great huge screens at Bluesfest, so even if you can’t see much of the stage, it’s protected well (I could only see Josh’s head occasionally poking through the sea of tall people).

    Dave was as energetic & friendly as usual & it was great to see the band enjoying themselves again. I find he is one of the best singers I’ve seen when it comes to connecting with the audience. And I cant help but smile when ever the camera pans to Pat Smear’s face, as he always looks like he is so joyful just to be making music with these guys; I guess the stage is his happy place.

    As for White Reaper, I enjoyed their music, but only the keyboardist seemed happy to be there. At the end of their set, one person said they’d play one more tune, but then another said that was it, and off they went, leaving us puzzled. It was only 7:50pm & Foos we’re scheduled for 9pm, leaving us standing very close to tons of others (barely able to move) for over an hour. I’m getting too old for this s***… But I so enjoy the Foos’ concerts that it’s all worth it: so happy to be singing along, with tons of strangers & Dave, swaying & bopping to the songs we love.

    Hey – I enjoyed it so much that I’ll be travelling to Louisville to see them again. Hope I’m not too spoiled by Canadian audiences (“Sorry… sorry… excuse me… sorry…”)

    Reply
  • “This is a 26th anniversary tour for the band and they were clearly in the mood to celebrate themselves”

    26th? The Foo Fighters began touring in 1995 – 28 years ago.

    Reply

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