LASSO 2002: A Cowboy State of Mind – Day One

The third time’s the charm, as the saying goes. It took three years for the first Country Festival in Montreal to finally open its gates. (I’ll let you guess why the long wait.) Three years ago, almost at the same dates, we re supposed to see Brad Paisley and Luke Bryan, plus many others. On August 13, 2022, Luke Bryan finally came to Montreal, but he brought Dierks Bentley with him.

A LOT of people waited anxiously those 3 years. Who could have imagined that Montreal could host a 2-days New Country Festival? Many were dreaming of it, but not many held their breath. Evenko took those 3 years to cook up a Cowboy Experience with New Country stars at its centre. 3 Stages were set up: 2 side-by-side and another one, a little further, as a playing ground for tomorrow’s stars.

Evenko planned a very diverse lineup for those two days: there were LGBTQ+ artists, African-American artists, men and women playing many styles of New Country, artists from Quebec, from Canada and, of course, from the US. I tried to see as many as I could. I had already a few favourites, but I also had a few that I was curious to see.

On Friday, I was very disappointed to have missed Mountain Daisies. I heard their first album, and it sounded extremely promising. I arrived just in time to see Lily Rose. Her set took off very rapidly. 30 minutes is a short while to present yourself to a whole new crowd, and she did it masterfully. Her very modern, pop-oriented Country was already popular amongst the fans. She left the stage with a big smile on her face, promising to come back soon. That would be the leitmotiv of the whole festival.

Next was JoJo Mason. He took the stage, all guns blazing. The Canadian was all over the stage, connecting with the crowd in a very energetic and expressive way. I had to leave his show early to see one of my favourite artists in this festival, Sara Dufour, who was playing on the Scène du Ranch. Simply put, she’s a powder keg that’s exploding for 30 minutes. Her songs are down-to-earth, day-to-day mini scenes of life in her part of the country. In my humble opinion, she deserved to be on one of the big stages.

Quickly, I made my way back to Scène de la Prairie to catch the end of Blanco Brown’s set. I hear him before I see him, and I’m a bit puzzled. Checking my notes, he’s halfway between Johnny Cash and Outkast. Yep, that’s Hip-Hop I’m hearing. There’s even a DJ on stage with him. While not quite my taste, I can’t help but notice a lot of people singing with him, and when he goes down the stairs to get neat the crowd, the singing turn into cries of delight.

James Barker Band is next. I’ve seen them in St-Agapit earlier this year, and I found the more… reserved this time. Make no mistake: they still had a lot of fun, and they sounded great. Maybe it’s the huge stage. They played their hits; name it, we heard it. During a quieter part of the show, James Barker also went into the crowd, and suddenly, there was a sea of cellphones around him; like magic. If it was not enough, JBB even invited Dierks Bentley to sing with them, to the crowd’s delight.

JBB’s neighbour and next act was Tenille Townes. She’s one of the few acts this weekend that had played in Montreal before LASSO. From the first notes of Come as You Are, the crowd followed her every move and sang along. Her huge smile never once faltered, except during the emotional songs like Jersey on the Wall. I had high expectation for her show, and she still blew me away.

Next up was Tenille’s friend, Ashley McBryde. She was also extremely happy to be there and went straight to the jugular with Martha Divine, El Dorado and American Scandal. She had cancelled a few shows in the previous weeks because she was under the weather, but she was totally fine on that stage. She even did a weird little song; I think the title was “Put Your Bra On”, all the while trying not to crack up. She barely finished before bursting laughing, holding on the mike stand with both hands.

A little bit more serious were Old Dominion. They took the stage under a thunder of applause, with Make it Sweet. They looked like they did not quite know what to expect from Montreal’s cowboys and cowgirls, but they quickly relaxed and went on playing all the favourites. They constantly traded places, even sharing a piano, and since they were second-to-last, they had quite the light show and they abundantly used the giant screen. It was a feast for the eyes and the ears. I even saw people leave after their show, which reinforced my belief that they should have been that night’s headliners.

Dierks Bentley took the stage right after, and he gave a mighty fine performance. He started with What Was I Thinking, Burning Man (I secretly wished Brothers Osborne would be there, but no luck!) and I Hold On. The music was loud and tight and Dierks was having fun. He even invited Tenille and Ashley back on stage with him. Still, in the back of my mind, Old Dominion gave a better performance.

Thus ended the first day of the first edition of the first Country Festival in Montreal. Not bad, not bad at all for a first day.

Wait! There’s more!… photos.