… so I need to organise myself properly. Quite an impossible task, for many have tried and all have failed.
To start with, here’s a photo of my pitch at the Mactaquac Provincial Park. I’m sheltered by bushes and trees on two sides, which means of course that the wind is coming from the other two sides, as you might expect.
And it was cold during the night. Really cold. I went to bed fully-clothed, and that was uncomfortable when I had a bad attack of cramp at about 04:00.
And it was even colder at 07:00 when I was up and about. I almost went to look for a jumper but a hot coffee followed by an even-hotter shower did the business.
Strawberry Moose had some visitors too – presumably collecting maintenance payments from last year, I shouldn’t be surprised.
Having read the news recently, His Nibs is quite keen to play his part in diversifying the species – in fact, any species that he can. It’s why he’s so insistent upon coming here with me.
Mind you, if his friends don’t learn to move off the road quicker than they do at the moment, they might need all of the help that he can give them in that respect.
I had quite a few things to do this morning, and then I went off for lunch at the boat-launching ramp across the Saint John River from Fredericton. The view from here across to the city is quite phenomenal, especially in the magnificent weather that we were having at the time.
And having dealt with that, I went off for an explore around until the early evening when the Festival is supposed to get under way.
But there’s something that isn’t quite right here this year. The headline act, Blues Traveler, aren’t opening at the Playhouse Theatre, as most of the other headlining bands have donein the recent past. The Hoodoo House isn’t erected yet and won’t be opening tonight, and the Barracks Square tent isn’t open either. Furthermore, it’s been turned 90° so that it’s only half the size and instead of being on the hardstanding, it’s on the grass lawn. That will be interesting if we have a heavy downpour of rain at any time.
First band up on stage were the Wood Brothers in the Blues Tent. Apart from a bassist, Chris Wood, who spent a great deal of his time dancing with his instrument, I’m not quite sure what to say about them.
I made a note that they were more folk-country-rock than blues but that wasn’t necessarily the case. They chopped and changed styles and like most people who try to be something to everyone, they ended up being nothing to anyone – or at least, to me. Technically they were excellent, there’s no doubt about that, but their diversity didn’t appeal to me.
At the Mojo Tent I missed Gypsophilia – they were walking offstage as I arrived.
Next up was a group called Thus Owls, or something like that. They consisted of a guitarist, a drummer, and a woman playing keyboards and “things”, singing and using her voice for sound effects.
I wasn’t sure what to make of them. They were something like a Sigur Ros but singing in English, not Icelandic, and I’m not sure exactly where they were supposed to fit in at the festival because whatever they were, it was neither blues nor jazz, and this experimental avant-garde chamber music isn’t really for me. I’m not able to comment on the technical ability as it isn’t easy to understand what it is that they were really trying to do.
Back at the Blues Tent, we had Matty Andersen and the Mellotones, a name sounding like something out of the Blues Brothers. He’s from New Brunswick and his claim to fame is that he won the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2010.
He wasn’t alone either. He had four brass musicians (they were also playing horns and the like too), three guitarists including himself, a bassist, a keyboard player and a drummer, and probably a partridge in a pear tree too somewhere.
Mark Knopfler said something about not giving “a damn about any trumpet-playing band. It ain’t what they call rock and roll” and I’m afraid that I have to agree. His performance, which I have to say was quite competent by anyone’s standards, didn’t need half of these musicians on the stage. It’s just, in my opinion, unnecessary clutter and it tends to distract from the music.
Godd though it may have been, it wasn’t my cup of tea. I put my camera away and prepared to leave for the Mojo Tent.
It was at this moment that we had one of these priceless occasions that happens only once in a lifetime. As I was standing by the door putting the Nikon away, a “Security” guard came running over.
“I saw that!” he shouted accusingly, pointing to my camera bag (generally speaking, DSLRs are forbidden at the Festival)).
“Did you see this?” I said, thrusting my Media Pass under his nose.
One rather red-faced security guard beat a hasty retreat.
On the way back to the Mojo Tent, I was harassed by yet another beggar (there are a few of these about) and while he was busy trying to cadge half a dollar, his mobile phone rang. And it was a much-better smartphone than I could ever afford. And so I told him what I thought about it all, in no uncertain terms.
This is the kind of thing that annoys me intensely.
Final act onstage for tonight was Bahamas, not bananas – at the Mojo Tent.
They consisted of a singer-guitarist, another guitarist, a drummer, a backing vocalist and – shock, horror – not a bassist in sight. What a sacrilege! I can’t think why any blues or jazz band would ever want to play without a bassist, and how it would even be possible. That is just the kind of thing that would have me on the back foot before we even start.
I didn’t make a single note or comment about the group’s music so they clearly made no impression at all on me. I’ll have to give them a rather neutral mark.
As a Media representative (Radio Anglais does have some benefits after all) I’m allowed to photograph the first three numbers and then I can stay and watch the rest of the act. But I ended up leaving and going back home for an early night.
I have to say that on Day One, I’ve seen nothing that has grabbed my attention. In fact, to be honest, I’ve been rather disappointed with the music that I’ve seen so far. I hope that things pick up considerably for Day Two.