Alexisonfire and The Offspring bring rock to RBC Bluesfest

It was another hot night at RBC Bluesfest and July 12 was a night that, for me, had the most acts in the lineup that I was keen to check out.

I made a point to arrive on site early that night to take in as many of the acts that I had wanted to see. I arrived just on time to catch the Dirty Nil rockin’ out on the City Stage. I’ve been familiar with these guys for some time now but, to date, my only experience with them performing live was at an afterparty at the JUNO Awards back when they were in Ottawa a few years ago. Ever since that night they’ve been on my list of acts to try and catch live.

That opportunity finally came last night and I wasn’t disappointed. I loved the sound and was simply blown away by their stage presence. The energy these guys bring to the stage is infectious and addicting, so much so that I overstayed my allotted time and completely missed catching up with Area Resident on another stage, not for lack of trying though.

The Offspring hit the stage next. This was another band I had grown up listening to but have never had the opportunity to see live, so to say I was looking forward to their set was an understatement. Unfortunately when they took to the stage I felt myself get a bit disappointed. The whole shtick came off like more of a cheesy cover band than the band that I remember from my college years. As the set went on I found myself warming up to it, I guess my old ears just had to adjust a bit. Was it the most memorable show of the festival? Not even close but it wasn’t a total loss either. It was good to hear some of my old favourites from 25 years ago performed live.

I’ll admit that I haven’t really paid much attention to the rock scene over the last decade or so so I knew very little about Alexisonfire, aside from the fact that I’ve seen Dallas Green a few times live both as Dallas Green and as City and Colour (which oddly enough is just Dallas Green as well).

I don’t know what I’d called Alexisonfire…part of the band would be a metal band while the other, the Dallas Green part, was more of a singer-songwriter / indie band. Dallas would sing a melodic tune and then George Pettitt would scream something at the top of his lungs into the microphone and the crowd would go wild. The band describes themselves as the sound of two Catholic high-school girls in mid-knife-fight…that’s not too far off from the truth. I guess Dallas would play the part of the good girl and George the bad influence, something like that anyway.

But again the energy they bring to the stage is unparalleled. It was incredibly hot on Friday night and it didn’t phase them one bit and the crowd loved it. They sang, screamed and body surfed the night away.

At first I had no interest in this show but much like the Offspring the performance drew me in as it went on. Is it a band that I would seek out and go out of my way to see again? Probably not but if another festival opportunity came along with them on the bill I could be persuaded to see them again.

The other act that I was really looking forward to on Friday night was T-Pain but unfortunately by the time we made our way to the Videotron Stage the crowd was so packed we could barely get close enough to see anything and with my young sidekick in tow I erred on the side of caution and returned to the Alexisonfire show for the rest of the night!