Ottawa Bluesfest 2016 Review

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Zeds Dead

This year's Bluesfest concluded this past Sunday after a nine day jammed packed schedule featuring acts from all sorts of genres. From the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Duran Duran, country music stars, and more - this year's Bluesfest catered to a wide audience. The 2016 edition was light on electronic acts booked, but the ones that got onto the lineup all produced solid shows. Below are a few thoughts on what each one of these artists showed in front of the Ottawa crowd. 

Cashmere Cat (Best set of the festival)

Cashmere Cat

By far the most enthusiastic crowd came at the hands of the young Norwegian producer known as Cashmere Cat. Fans knew the lyrics, chanted his name,  and his whole set was bananas. Cashmere cat shown off some crazy dance moves, and the crowd ate it up. The slow build ups led to crazy dancing all throughout the night. Best set of the night hands down. 

Madeon

Madeon

Bluesfest kicked off with Madeon as the first electronic artist booked for the festival. His set was warm, full of his hits, great crowd interaction and an amazing DJ booth set up. With his launchpad and mixer on full display, Madeon made full use of it all thanks to his well honed technique behind the deck. Madeon first came to Ottawa back when he was 18 years old and just burgeoning onto the scene. Back then his DJ set was unrefined and short, but now he shows remarkable maturity for a 22 year old as he showcased up tempo tracks filled with energy and optimism. 

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Did his thing, his way. This set was a showcase of his tracks, and if you are a fan of his work, then watching him do it live was a real treat. 

Destructo

Destructo

Rain did little to remove the enthusiasm that the crowd had for Destructo's set. G House never sounded so good and fresh as it does in 2016 and Destructo is one of its main proponents. Fans just loved the deep and more vibe oriented beats, and went even more crazy as this L.A. renaissance man dropped the heavier stuff as well. His background graphic game was tight, and this set was definitely one of the highlights of the festival.  

Zeds Dead
 

Zeds Dead

Zeds Dead are Bluesfest veterans as they've been coming to Ottawa every summer for the festival for the past 3 years. Armed with an elaborate DJ booth, heavy smoke, and tons of confetti, this Toronto duo put on quite a show. Along with several classic Zeds Dead tracks, they also played a few new tracks from their upcoming album, while sprinkling in throwbacks like Nirvana and the Eurythmics added in. 

The scene's future is bright as fresh faces like Cashmere Cat can hype a crowd like he did at Bluesfest. He didn't do it by blasting orders on the mic asking people to jump, but through his music and talent alone. Bluesfest is an Ottawa tradition for tens of thousands of music lovers every summer, and it will remain that way for a long time to come. 

The first stop of the Full Flex Express at Ottawa's Bluesfest was a massive success

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The return of the Full Flex Express in 2015 was easily one of the most anticipated summer events on the Canadian calendar. The fact that Skrillex and the rest of his crew managed to organize such a huge tour on a train is no easy feat, and just shows the kind of commitment they had to their Canadian fans. Fortunately the commitment goes both ways as they were awarded with a huge turnout of approximately 25,000 in attendance for their first tour stop in Ottawa. 

This year's Full Flex lineup offered a little something for everyone, ranging from in your face style and great fan interaction from A$AP Ferg on the hip hop side, Kiesza with her smooth vocals and dance moves,  Anna Lunoe/Mija with some Future House, and the live acts of Tycho and Hundred Waters. But things went up a notch (or two) when the two main headliners, Toronto's own Zeds Dead, and Jack Ü brought the bass in a very big way to Ottawa on Wednesday night. 

Zeds Dead is known for their penetrating bass tunes, but lately they have diversified with their break out hit "Lost You" which generated significant radio play in 2015. The question I asked myself was what kind of Zeds Dead performance would Ottawa be getting? The bass/dubstep style that we are familiar with, or will they double down on their "Lost You" success and give us a more future house vibe? The answer came quickly as 2 minutes into the set Zeds Dead was already busy testing the bass limits of the festival speakers. 

Known for putting together memorable mixes online, Zeds Dead can also craft a mean live set. Mixing in ZD originals like "Wit Me Dub", their latest release with Megalodon, they also dropped a few key tracks from other artists like Flux Pavilion's "International Anthem" or Grandtheft's "Let Me Tell You Something". We were even given an ID early in the set, which sounds very promising. Zeds Dead hit their set out of the park. 

Jack Ü's Canadian debut is a long time coming, but they made sure that Canada felt their presence by laying down a perfect performance that set the tone for the rest of the Full Flex Express Tour. Fresh off a brand new album released earlier this year, Skrillex and Diplo have brought their Jack Ü act to the biggest festival stages across the world.

The Jack Ü project between Skrillex and Diplo is a union of two styles that blend well when they come together to play live. Their set started off with a bang as they brought Calgary's Kiesza on stage to perform their hit "Take Ü There". Besides playing Jack U originals as expected, both artists managed to showcase their own tracks as Skrillex played his remixes of "Bad Man", "Ragga Bomb", and even his old remix of "Levels". Diplo dropped "Roll The Bass" fresh from his latest album with Major Lazer, his 2013 hit "Revolution" and even gave us a few surprises like adding in Kanye West's 2010 hit "Power" into the mix. 

Both artists are well known curators and heads of their respective labels, and they both played some of the hottest tracks of the summer including Flosstradamus remix of "Bitch Better Have My Money", Ookay's Lit bootleg of "Lean On", and Dillon Francis's take on "Runaway (U & I)". 

The highlight of the night came towards the end when Skrillex took the mic to sing his part of the lyrics of "Mind". Another highlight was when they showed beautiful night time shots of Ottawa on the back screen while playing their 'Get Free/Cinema" VIP. "Where Are Ü Now" featuring the vocals of Justin Bieber ended their set on a high note. 

The kick off of the Full Flex Express Tour in Ottawa was a major success to say the least and provides great momentum as they make their way across Canada. If you're on the fence about Full Flex, don't be, because this is one show that you do not want to miss. 

Here are the first pictures from the 2015 Full Flex Express Tour

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Last night the first tour stop of the Full Flex Express Tour kicked off in Ottawa as part of Ottawa's Bluesfest. Bluesfest usually offers 4 stages with a full lineup compliment for fans, but for the opening night of the festival, only the mainstage was active as the Full Flex Express cadre took over.

Ottawa fans showed up in droves as an estimated 25,000 came to see the show. For a Wednesday night, this is quite an impressive feat. For those that can't wait to check out the Full Flex Express Tour when it arrives at a Canadian city near you, feast your eyes on some of the very first pictures of the tour below:

(Click to zoom)

Tycho

Kiesza

A$AP Ferg

Zeds Dead

Jack Ü

Full event review coming soon, stay tuned!

Skrillex and his crew are back this summer with the Full Flex Express Tour!

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Skrillex made good on his promise to bring back the Full Flex Express tour to Canada. The tour will stop at 8 locations across Canada starting in Ottawa on July 8th as part of Bluesfest, and conclude on July 19th for the Pemberton Music Festival in B.C. Here's the trailer: 

The first Full Flex Tour brought Diplo, Pretty Lights, Grimes, Tokimonsta, Koan Sound - who will Skrillex bring this year? The likelihood of Diplo joining the tour is very high as Jack U is heavily rumoured to be on the Ottawa Bluesfest lineup. The official lineup is not out yet but you can expect a full reveal soon. 

The last time the Full Flex Express Tour came through Canada it became one of the most memorable experiences for bass fans, and this year could top it. 

Are you ready for Ottawa's Bluesfest?

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Starting this Thursday is the first day of the annual 2-week long Ottawa Bluesfest which will be taking place at Lebreton Flats. Traditionally a festival that features a wide array of talent across many genres of music, Ottawa's Bluesfest has increasingly made more space for electronic dance music acts to appear over the years to great success. One of the biggest turnouts for last year's Bluesfest was Skrillex' led Full Flex Express and this year's promise of having Dog Blood (Skrillex and Boys Noize) featured on the main stage should be an exciting prospect for those looking for their OWSLA/Boys Noize Records fix.

This year's Bluesfest offers a diverse selection of EDM performers, check out the full selection:  

Ottawa's Bluesfest

The festival kicks off this Thursday with the Montreal duo Adventure Club with support from DVBBS. This Saturday will headline Zeds Dead, another duo from Canada that has taken the world by storm, with support from the talented Keys N Krates, and Adrian Lux. Monday, July 8th will probably go down as the biggest EDM night in Ottawa's history with Baauer & RL Grime going B2B with Thugli providing warm up duties. Next Wednesday will feature the hometown trio A Tribe Called Red, who has been longlisted for this year's Polaris Prize.

On July 12th you'll get your rage on with Tommy Trash and up and comers Dzeko & Torres which has epic night written all over it. On the last night of Bluesfest Dog Blood will be the final headlining act on the main stage to cap off the festivities. If you want to check out how nutty it was the last time Skrillex visited Ottawa, click here to read my review from last year.

If the above didn't get you riled up enough, check out Bluesfest's special video preview of their EDM lineup:  

For all ticket information, click here.