Bluesfest: Day 5 Jonathan Migneault

Bluesfest's fifth day has come and gone. Once again, I brought my camera and snapped a few pictures -- a few of which turned out alright. By now, it has almost become routine for me to head straight to the Blacksheep stage. That was exactly what I did last night and, as usual, I (mostly) did not regret the choice. First up was: Mark Kozelek Kozelek may be familiar to many of you as the frontman of Sun Kil Moon and Red House Painters. Last night it was just him and one other guitarist on the stage. His most famous solo effort was arguably his album of AC/DC covers, What's Next to the Moon, in which he radically altered the originals. His original work has rested on highly personal themes of loss, despair, memory and geography. Regrettably, none of those themes really shone through when he played last night. He was just going through the motions. There was no sense of urgency or even agency in his set. In what I hope was an off night his disinterest was reflected onto the audience. Most people chatted away and did not pay close attention to his music. The experience was summed up when Kozelek left the stage early. A full hour, in fact, before the next band was supposed to take the stage. A veteran musician, Kozelek knew he was not playing to his usual standards (I hope) and ended it. This turned out to be a positive because the headliners were able to play a longer set. That next band was: Son Volt Son Volt was that other band that resulted from Uncle Tupelo's split in the mid-90s. When the seminal alt-country band broke up its two founders, Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy, started their own seperate groups that have continued to redifine alternative country. Those two bands were, of course, Son Volt and Wilco. After the former's Bluesfest performance, I was amazed that they had never achieved Wilco's level of popularity. The crowd's reaction to Son Volt was in stark contrast to the passivity that Kozelek had received. Everyone was involved in their amazing performance. Son Volt combined the best elements of country, hard rock and folk music with scientific precision. Great ballads and guitar onslaughts abounded their set; and neither seemed out of place or awkward. In the encore, Farrar played a solo singer/songwriter song that put Kozelek and Ani DiFranco to shame. Everyone was captivated by his words. His bandmates joined him for the next two songs and they finished with a bang. My friend Candice later commented that: "They owned that stage." I couldn't have agreed more. Download: Son Volt - Too Early Wilco - Hummingbird Mark Kozelek - Bad Boy Boogie Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio Buy: Son Volt - Trace Mark Kozelek - What's Next to the Moon