Ben Harper blew us all away last night, and that’s just about all there is to say about Day 2. Oh, except that Metric FUCKING ROCKED, proving that they deserved the upgrade to the bigger stage this year, and Holy Fuck was just, well, holy fuck they were good – I loved the garage sale of instuments they work with.
I’ve never seen Ben Harper play live before, and to be honest, I never really even knew much of his stuff. I’ve known OF him for years of course, and I know some of his songs, but I just never really spent much time with his music. Well, with last night as an introduction, that’s sure to change. What a great performer – he laid it all out for us, and the crowd loved him and he was so appreciative and obviously loving every minute up there. Highlight of my night was the cover of Queen’s Under Pressure, one of my favourite songs.
Emily Haines of Metric was in a super-chatty-good mood last night and was interacting a lot with the crowd. I only caught a bit of their show last year, but I think they benefited from the bigger stage and the bigger crowd due to the exposure from the recent release of their album, Fantasies. If nothing else (and there’s lots to love about the “church of” Metric live show), Emily is a lot of fun to watch, frolicking around the stage in an aerobic display of stage antics that takes the wind out of you just watching.
Missed a few things I’d hoped to see – I got down to the site a bit later than expected, so I didn’t get a chance to catch my friend Marie-Josee Houle, and there was just too much overlap of good shows to catch my other good friend Ana Miura, or Iron & Wine. I also didn’t make it down to see RJD2 as I’d hoped – was just too tired and couldn’t find a companion to join me for the show and wasn’t feeling like drinking alone.
Tonight will be spent running back-and-forth between venues: The Stills at LeBreton, then The Proclaimers and Arrested Development at York Street, then back to LeBreton for DeVotchKa, Jackson Browne, and maybe a bit of Steve Earle and King Sunny Ade. Then if all goes well, back down to Mavericks for Peter Murphy. Phew!
Included below is a video of Ben Harper and Relentless7 playing an amazing cover of Queen’s Under Pressure – I know, the video is piss-poor quality and really shakey and has terrible sound, but well, that’s what you get.