What more fitting place to begin the day than on Parliament Hill. Unfortunately this is where absolutely everyone else wanted to be too - something to do with a couple that are famous for being born and marrying someone who was born. But I digress..
Jenn Grant was upbeat and perky as always early in the show with Getchya Good. The best part of her shows is usually the awkward yet amusing banter however under the circumstances she didn't have much of a chance for this.
Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans stayed patriotic (and likely sweltering in their black long sleeved cowboy get up) with a fun rendition of Long Gone to Saskatchewan.
Dan Mangan in all his bearded glory looked tickled to be playing this show. Dropping a percussion section altogether he went big brass alongside his acoustic guitar for a mighty fine take on Sold. Upright bass plucking and a strong clapalong rounded out the tune, bringing us to the next act - Harper and the Economics.
Ohbijou have come a long way from Casey's solo beginnings as not only was she joined by her violin playing sister but also had a bodyless, seated, standup bass player, plus bass, drum and guitar. The songs are primarily pretty and lush with a focus on her soft voice but at times during this show they pulled out some stronger instrumentation (even an effect pedal on the up and down new closer). Black Ice and St. Francis remain favourites and were taken in by members of The Acorn as well. Another highlight was the Nathan Lawr cover mixed into this pleasant, sunny afternoon set.
Coeur de Pirate was on the Jazz festival's mainstage and had a captive audience seated in the grass. He set was remarkably similar to last Friday's FrancoFete show in Toronto, right down to the half Armistice song during the encore. Beatrice may have spoken even less English but still managed to get us all on our feet for the Commes Des Enfants finale.
The second Parliament Hill show of the day had a much looser vibe than the first and saw Dan Mangan climb out into the crowd to encourage the "very serious, for Canada" singalong to the chorus of Robots (while backed by a few lovely female violinists). This time around I also caught Mr. Sam Roberts though with the muffled sound from my vantage point I only recognized Brother Down despite this not seeming like the place to pull out two new songs from the very recently released new album.
All in all it was a splendid day topped off with the dependably awe inspiring fireworks display. Logistic of moving around, and being trapped on the wrong side of the road for a couple hours in order to wait for some nobodies to wave out the window of a Suburban at us prevented more musical intake (two hours traffic, grumble*) but altogether it was still pretty great. And topped off in a patriotic fashion with beers at Sir John A's place.
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