Spotlight Ottawa

While the awful security line overshadowed the opening day of Bluesfest 2018, the cooler weather seemed to calm the crowd on Day 2, allowing everyone to enjoy what these two weeks are all about, the music.

Local artist Kelsey Hayes opened up the new Claridge Home Stage. Bluesfest adopted the “tent-over-the-audience model” many bigger festivals use for their smaller stages. The crowd was thin for the beginning of her first song but filled out throughout her set – and rightfully so. Hayes’ voice is commanding in the best sense of the word and justifies her fan page’s biographical statement that she writes “from a position of strength and independence”. Just as those Amy Winehouse vibes started resonating with the crowd, she gifted the audience with a cover of the late Winehouse’s “Valerie”. Hayes’ cover injected set also consisted of original music from her first and second EPs. Any wanderers stopping by the Claridge Homes stage would not have left disappointed by the Ottawa Artist.

The War On Drugs played the 7:30pm slot on the main stage. A deservingly large crowd piled in to see the pristine songwriting that has earned The War On Drugs the following they have today. Lead singer Adam Granduciel went 6:6 on the song to different guitar ratio mixing up the sounds of acoustic, electric, and 12-string guitars into music. There is a rawness in these songs that exposes a vulnerability that resonated well with the quickly-filling mainstage audience. Behind the steady beats was a voice that has expierenced the emotions the music is conveying, resulting in a truly genuine show.