Bluesfest Byward: Basia Bulat and Great Lake Swimmers

Last night I didn’t go to the actual festival in Bluesfest where Gym Class Heroes and Stone Temple Pilots were playing.
Decided to head up to Mavericks to see Basia Bulat and Great Lake Swimmers.
It was a wonderful mellow and fun show that I got to attend since I’ve been a big fan of Basia Bulat since 2008
First time to see Polaris Prize shortlist nominee Great Lake Swimmers.

Surprised that even on a Monday (which I find is the death of having a show on that night) alot of people attended this show.
Also it was a pretty late show but I wasn’t complaining.
Basia’s fanbase is growing or that people were also here to see Great Lake Swimmers.
Basia came on the stage and she had two members of Great Lake Swimmers backing her up and of course Allison on violin and Bobby on the drums.
First song was I Was A Daugther and alot of people started doing the clapping.
Loved when the audience participate in the song.
Basia loved every minute of it.
She previewed some of the new songs which I’ve already heard before when she played at the Blacksheep Inn back in February.
Loved Gold Rush, Canyon and Go On.
It was sad that she didn’t get to play the autoharp for In The Night.
Love that she told the story on how sometimes her and autoharp don’t get along.
So she decided to play the guitar for the rest of her set.
The singing is what counts for me.
Played the guitar for Before I Knew which the audience did the clapping too.
The final song was Snakes and Ladders and I loved it.
Basia mentioned that she will be back in Ottawa for the fall.
Which in time the second album will be out.

Then Great Lake Swimmers came up and started with a acoustic track “I Saw You In The Wild”
It was wow just hearing the lead singer play with just the guitar.
Then the band came up with Allison doing the violin.
Their whole set was all nice and mellow indie folk-rock.
I was happy to hear Pulling On A Line live.
Surprised that Serena Ryder came up as a special guest to sing some tracks with the band.
Serena sang Your Rocky Spine and others.
I really loved hearing Everything Is Moving.
Overall the band sang 16 songs.
People did hold on to the long night to see their set.

This being my first time seeing them live, I was very happy that I did.
Would be a surprise if they win the Polaris Music Prize.

A great Monday night show.

If you want a signed poster of Great Lake Swimmers.
Well minus Julie Fader and the long hair beared guy that are on the poster.
Comment on here saying you want one and I will randomly choose a winner.
This will end on July 24th so better hurry up.