Trois-Rivières en Blues 

2018 - 10th Anniversary Edition

For the tenth edition of this festival, my wife and I had tickets in the front row of the Amphitheatre, which was a first for me, anywhere. Will I do that again? Read on to see.

We also, for the first time, rented a place through AirBnB, and went as a group with two of our single friends, renting a full apartment, with four bedrooms. Upon arrival there on the Thursday afternoon, we were quite happy to discover we were in a very comfortable, and big, apartment that was nicely furnished and equipped, even having a second TV in the only bedroom equipped with a double bed instead of a queen. That ended up being mine, as it was also the one furthest away from the rest of the group, and I can sometimes be a loud snorer, especially when coming in at three or four every morning. The total cost of the apartment was actually a few dollars less than the total cost of a hotel for the same time period, but we saved a lot by having a kitchen, and bringing a lot of our food for the weekend, and also splitting the cost with two others. Certainly will be considering doing this again, even getting the same place, as it is only three blocks from where the main outdoor stage is, and my wife and friends really liked it, which is very important! It is a good twenty minute walk to the Amphitheatre for those shows, but exercise is good for you.

While on the subject of the walk to the Amphitheatre, a nice change was implemented this year by the festival. There used to be rickshaw type shuttles, pulled by healthy young folks, that could carry two passengers each to the Amphitheatre from the downtown core. But they were one direction only, and a limited quantity. For this year, there was a fleet of electric open-sided (with a roof) mini-buses that carried around 12 or 14 people at a time, and they were going in both directions. Obviously there were lineups outside the Amphitheatre after shows, as everybody was leaving at the same time, but there were two pick-up points, and the lines moved quickly. I opted to always walk, as I really need the exercise.

Thursday Aug 23

After doing our “load-in”, and then cooking and eating our first, (and it turns out, my last) supper as a group, we went to the first shows of the weekend, at the Amphitheatre. It should be mentioned that another new idea they tried this year is to have some shows going on in the downtown area, in bars and on the main stage, while the Amphitheatre shows were happening, for those folks that did not have tickets, or wanted to skip a show there. Obviously, one cannot be in two places at once, but from what I heard, this idea was a success.

The tailgate show, a smaller show held outside the Amphitheatre as a warm-up to the featured shows inside, showed off another improvement made by the organizers, the setup outside for the drink and food services. There were also better seating arrangements for staying in the area without blocking folks that want to pass through. Works fine until the big crowds start showing up, and stopping in the walking lane on their way in to listen to the tailgate artist, and then blocking everybody behind them. This may have been designed like this on purpose. 

The first tailgate featured Montreal’s own Pat Loiselle, the Montreal Blues Society solo/duo representative at the 2017 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Pat plays a lot of old school type of blues, a few covers and quite a bit of original, and is very good at it. He usually also has excellent musicians with him, and did not disappoint at this show. As the show was going on, I was seeing a lot of folks I know, for the first time of the weekend, and spent time saying hello to them. One of those was Brian Slack, who was talking to a gentleman wearing a Big Blues Bender shirt. As I get close, Brian says “this is Jimmy Carpenter” to introduce me, in a tone that implied to me that I should know the name, and the first thing in my head was “where do I know that name from?”. Of course, I did not want to embarrass myself with my brain fart, so I said nothing. Boy, was I in for a reminder, during most of the weekend.

Finally, we go inside to see our seats. Front row, slightly off center, to the right when looking at the stage. Stage is about 5 feet from us, with a fence separating an aisle for the cameraman that moves across the front of the stage, shooting for the three giant screens in the Amphitheatre, one on each side, plus one right above where we were sitting. I am liking this, plenty of room for my legs in front, easy to get in and out.

First artist up is Samantha Fish, from Kansas City, and the first of this year’s festival that is on my Bucket List. She and her excellent band put on a spectacular show, and since they were first, they had been set up quite far forward on the stage, making them extremely close to us. This lady is worth going to see anytime you get a chance. Great chops on the guitar, good voice, and a dynamic stage presence. Could not have asked for a better opening to the Amphitheatre show series, as far as I was concerned. I recorded two videos of her show, and both became, by far, the most watched videos I have ever posted on Facebook, each getting over 10,000 views. Most of that came from somebody sharing the videos to the Samantha Fish Fan page.

During the break between shows, we get a chance to talk to our friends, and this is the first of many times over the weekend that we hear “hey we saw you on the big screens!” The cameraman in the aisle in front of the stage occasionally turns around to shoot the audience, and then the rest of the place gets to see the faces of those in the first few rows. I am not an audience participation type, I generally listen intently, while watching the techniques of the various musicians. So it probably looks like I am not into it, when the opposite is actually closer to the truth.

At the start of the second show, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, I immediately realized what was going to be the “worst” part of being in the front row. When the different acts did their sound checks, the crew set them up as one behind the other. So during the performance, when the previous band finished, the next band was not moved forward on the stage. I understand the reasoning for this, but when the artists are further back, the front rows see much less of them. If you are a fan of the blues, you know that the shoes are important to some of the musicians, and when you can’t see them, that is not good. 

Having said that, George made up for it, by moving around the stage a lot, to the front, center and both sides. This is about the tenth time I have seen him, and he was George. Playing all his hits, while ad-libbing to the crowd, who were loving it. The man is a true performer. During the show, every time he looked my way, I felt like he was looking directly into my eyes. Later, my wife, along with a lot of my friends said they felt exactly the same thing. His band was a fantastic collection of musicians, the second guitar player really impressing me. Near the end, when he typically throws guitar picks out to the audience, my wife caught the first of two she would get during the weekend. After the show, with all the lights up and folks slowly trickling out, he came out on the stage, right to the front, to take bows and shake hands or high five with the fans still in front. There were quite a few of us up there, because the exits are far away, and there are big lines to get to them.

The evening was capped off by going to one of the bars hosting bands for the weekend, Bar l'Embuscade, where Dwane Dixon was playing with his band. They were just finishing up their show when a bunch of us showed up, and since he knew most of us, it was easy to convince them to keep playing for a while. The place has a nice outdoor terrace in the back, where most of us ended up, sitting and talking till Dwane finished, at which point he and his bandmates joined us, and we stayed for a while longer. A great first night of my favorite festival.

 

Friday Aug 24

No shows scheduled until 18:00, so we slept in (for me that means till about 7:30), and stayed in the apartment for most of the day, setting everything up for all our devices to work on the Wi-Fi, familiarizing ourselves with the TV setups, doing a bit of cooking and food preparation in advance, for what we knew was going to be a busy Saturday and Sunday, and generally lounging around.

The walk to the Amphitheatre takes you through a part of the old Trois-Rivieres, filled with beautiful old architecture, including a church, Église St-James, where there was a show scheduled, for the first time, at 18:30. I wanted to see this, my good friend from British Columbia Harpdog Brown was the star attraction for this show. So I left the apartment early, and was to meet my wife and friends there. When I got there, the doors were not yet opened, and there was a lineup. After speaking with one of the fans in the line, I knew I would not be comfortable in there, there is no AC, and it was an extremely hot day. A small enclosed space with no AC on a hot day is not good for a claustrophobic guy that has trouble with extreme heat as well. There was also the fact that I would be seeing Harpdog the next day on the free outdoor stage in the town center. So I kept going to the Amphitheatre, where I could catch the day 2 tailgate show, and get a cold drink or two while being seated outdoors in the shade. It appears they will be using this venue more often for shows, as I have seen some advertised for the venue since. From what I heard from my wife and friends later that evening, because they had gone to the show, I made the right decision, for me. It was a great show, but very hot.

The tailgate show for this day was Spencer Mackenzie, a young gun from Toronto that I have had the pleasure of seeing many times starting with when he won the Maple Blues award for “New Artist of the Year” in 2017. When I got to the site, I saw his mom, Sandra, whom I had met with his dad Richard at Tremblant earlier this year, at the side of the stage, and immediately went to say hello. Spencer is a pretty cool cat, and meeting his parents gave me a pretty good idea of why.

Once again, Spencer impressed me. Every time I see him, he is better than the last time, like a lot of other young musicians I know. That said, I am really looking forward to when he gets his “mature” voice.

The scheduled shows for the Amphitheatre started with the second act that would be crossed off my bucket list during this festival, Roomful of Blues. This band has existed for fifty years, and has had many lineup changes. But I had never seen them until this show. And what a show. This is a band that sounds like their albums when you see them live. Great vocals and great musicianship from every member of the 8 piece band. Again, being the first band of the night they were up at the front of the stage, and we could see all of them and all of their shoes, except for the drummer. Phil Pemberton on vocals particularly stood out for me, but I had expected that, so I was quite happy to have seen this show.

The second act for the night at the Amphitheatre was none other than Randy Bachman, of Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive fame. His band included his son, Tal Bachman, also playing guitar, and standing beside his father on stage. Another show that went way beyond my expectations, every song they played from the Guess Who and BTO days, my wife would say to me “I know this song, who did it?” He also played some songs from his latest album, “By George”, a tribute to George Harrison, which were pretty good. They even did a cover of Tal Bachman’s 1999 hit “"She's So High". One of the highlights of this show was when Steve Strongman joined them to do “Ain’t Seen Nothin Yet”, a song Steve covered, with Randy guesting, on his “No Time Like Now” album. From talking to friends afterward, it seems like a lot of folks really enjoyed this show.

To finish off the evening, Steve Strongman was scheduled to be performing the later (23:00) show at the bar Le Trèfle, so I headed there with friends that were still ready to keep going. The terrace is where I ended up at first, sitting with Phil Brisse enjoying adult beverages, because the place was packed solid. We spotted Laura Carbone sitting at a table on the other end with Phil Pemberton, singer for Roomful of Blues. A few minutes later, they came over, where Laura introduced us, which was cool, because I got a chance to tell him how much I enjoy his voice with this band.

As I said, the place was packed. However, the bar beside it, La Maison de Débauche par le Carlito, is connected at the back, right behind where the band was set up. So after talking with Phil for a while, when he decided to call it a night, we went to the back section of that place, hoping to get in that way. We discovered a table at the back of La Maison de Débauche par le Carlito where the places are joined, occupied by a bunch of our friends, including Steve Strongman himself, having a quick break during a jam session. Music was still being played next door, so I took a quick look inside where the band was playing, and saw a group of musicians jamming. Big flash, there was Jimmy Carpenter wailing away on his saxophone, and all of a sudden I knew where I knew him from. So we spent the rest of the night here, listing to whomever was performing on the other side, while having some cool conversations with some cool friends.

Saturday Aug 25

The weekend days at the festival are always full of shows, starting with the main downtown stage. This year, the starting time for both days on the Scène Rue Badeaux was 12:30, with the last evening of shows at the Amphitheatre scheduled to start at 19:00 on Saturday.

The day started with the group from Montreal made up of music students that met at their university, and is fronted by three (!!!) saxophones, Fuel Junkie. They put on their usual great show, a highlight of which is that they play very few, if any, covers. This is rare for a young band like this, but these guys have some good original material already, and will just keep getting better, so they can pull this off.

This was followed by the artist I missed the evening before, Harpdog Brown. One of my favorite Canadian performers to talk to when I see him. He once told one of the reasons he got into the business was for the travel, and having seen him a few times here since the first time he come to Quebec last year, I can see how much he does enjoy the travel. Great harmonica player, of old school blues, and always has great musicians with him.

Next up was Spencer Mackenzie Band, who gave us another great set of mostly original music. Get out to see these guys if they are ever in your neighborhood, you will not regret it. Watching Spencer will convince you, better than just listening to him, that he really does have the Blues in his heart and soul.

Backtrack Blues Band, from Florida was a band I was looking forward to seeing, having reviewed their latest album, and they did not disappoint. Sonny Charles, lead singer and founder of the band, named the group after a Little Walter instrumental "Backtrack." He is also one of the main writers for the band, and an accomplished harmonica player. The lead guitar of the band is a Canadian, Kid Royal, who grew up in London, Ontario, and has played a lot of bars, clubs and festivals in Canada before moving south. A fun band to watch and listen to.

Last band on the main stage for the day, at 17:00, was Ghost Blues Band, a band I have seen more than a dozen times now. Never get tired of seeing these guys. This time, they had a new keyboard player that I had not met, Cedric Taylor. Earlier in the day, I had seen them walking around after arriving, so I introduced myself to Cedric and had a cool talk with him. Turns out he got keenly interested in music because of the soundtracks on video games that he used to play. He told me he actually used to find cool tunes on levels of the game to get to, and stop there so he could listen to the tune while doing his homework. Learned how to play a number of instruments before finally settling on the piano. During their show, I was actually helping out in the tent of the Montreal Blues Society, and while selling their CDs toward the end of their set, somebody asked me to point out my favorite, as he could only afford to buy one. After telling him what I thought, I pointed out that if he waited a few minutes, he could get it signed by the group. He then asked me if I could sign it for him! No I didn’t sign it.

Tailgate party for the evening at the Amphitheatre was Fuel Junkie, playing their second great set of the day. Between the two shows of the day, I heard a lot of great comments about the band from folks that had never seen them before. Let’s hope the support is there for them in the future too, these guys have a lot of potential.

This is the last night of Amphitheatre shows, and there are three scheduled. First up is Steve Strongman, and with Steve just off to my left on the stage, the microphone set up directly in front of me was for Jimmy Carpenter, playing saxophone with Steve and his band for the whole set. This being the first of three shows by three different groups, the band was set up almost as far forward as possible, so there was absolutely no issues with the view for this one. Jimmy is an incredible sax player, I could actually feel and see his passion from my vantage point as he played. I have seen Steve countless times, and this was one of his best shows ever. I hope I am not the only one that can sense when an artist’s adrenaline is flowing because they are “feeling it”. It was certainly evident with Steve and his band with Jimmy here. A highlight was when the keyboard player for Buddy Guy came out and joined in for a few tunes.

A recent project in the US, called Chicago Plays the Blues, had a list of Blues all-stars playing and recording Rolling Stones songs in Chicago Blues style. For the second show in the Amphitheatre on this evening, two of those all-stars, Billy Branch and Ronnie Baker Brooks, played the first touring version of the recording, accompanied by a sold group of musicians. Billy and Ronnie both had music stands in front of them, showing just how new this touring project was. Too bad they blocked a bit of the view, especially when the musicians moved back a bit to play solos. This only affected those in the first three or four rows, from what I could see. I considered this to be a bucket list satisfier for me, because I had never seen either of these two before, and both were on my list as individuals. They lived up to their reputation skill wise, and I thought their interpretations of all the songs were superb, and very tastefully done. Very happy I saw this show, even with the slight blocking of view.

Last show of the Amphitheatre series is the one and only Buddy Guy. What can I say? This is at least the sixth time I have seen him, but this time he is 82 years old. Brings an amazing group with him and puts on a real crowd pleasing show. Does his usual storytelling, especially when it comes to the history of the Blues, and even spends a good 15 minutes walking around the venue amongst the crowd. At 82 years old! Being in the front row, we couldn’t see him as he ventured out there, but I did catch a photo of Ronnie Baker Brooks coming out from back stage to show Buddy on his Facebook page as a live video. Certainly a fantastic ending to a great series of shows.

The after shows party continued on this evening at the bar where we were sitting the night before, La maison de débauche par le Carlito, with Chris Cain providing the WOW factor for the festival, at least for me and a few of my friends. We could barely see them, because the place is really dark, but we could sure hear them. This was my “discovery” of the festival. Had only heard a little bit about him before, but learned more, especially on Sunday when I actually met him. This guy is a very good guitar player, and his band are top notch as well.

 

Sunday Aug 26

Shows start once again at 12:30 on the main Scène Rue Badeaux stage, with The Soulsisters. Weather is not looking good, but organizers are announcing all outdoor shows will go on unless it gets too bad. Schedule calls for seven shows on main stage, and then the closer at the newly opened Memphis Cabaret in town, just around the corner from the stage. Unfortunately, because of some issues, I missed the first show completely, and a bit of the second show.

Second show is Mitch Woods and Friends. Those friends included Quebec’s own Mike Goudreau on guitar and Dany Roy on sax, and we also find Jimmy Carpenter once more with his sax. Another great show while the weather was starting to turn for the worse. They got the crowd rolling with an audience participation tune not very well known way up here in the north. No I do not know it either.

Third band scheduled is Justin Saladino Band. This young guy from Montreal is already a veteran of the business, even though he is only in his early 20’s. He and his band always deliver a very good show, and this time he had a newly released album full of original material to show off. And again, no disappointments here, this is another one of those young guys I keep hearing get better and better every time I hear them.

During this show, I met Chris Cain and his band walking around. I told him how much I liked his show the night before, and he asked me if I had ever seen the Allman Brothers live, because of the t-shirt I was wearing, and when I replied yes, but had found Barry Oakley more interesting than Duane, for that one time I did see them as the original six, it started a great conversation about that band. Eventually, the conversation turned to me asking about his history, and that is when he told me about being born and raised in California, but hearing all kinds of stories from his dad, who grew up in Memphis. Chris told me that one of the highlights of his life was when, in his early thirties if my memory is good, he went to Memphis for the first time. When he walked down Beale Street, he was reminded of his dad’s stories with every sign that he saw for all the venues there.

The Mike Goudreau Band, another well-established Quebec band, had the bad luck to be scheduled at the time the skies opened up and the rains came pouring down. The band finished their set, but most fans disappeared during the downpour. Too bad, because Mike with his full band like that are amongst the best you will hear.

At this point, organizers announced that all the remaining shows would move into the Memphis Cabaret, but there would be a delay because of all the equipment that had to be moved over there. The rain was really coming down hard now, and there was hardly anybody still left watching.

For the move, two of the MBS directors, myself and another, went into the Cabaret, and reserved one of the better tables, with a big bench, looking over the heads of everybody on the floor to the elevated stage, for all of our friends. Turns out to be a great move, because it was a perfect place to see the shows with no blocking of the view.

This venue is nice, except for the lighting, on this particular night, I hope. Given that the place has just opened, we give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

First act to play once everything is settled in is Dawn Tyler Watson and the Ben Racine Band. Of course, Ben had his regular horn section there, but guess who joined them? Yeah, Jimmy Carpenter joins in with another band at this festival. He really made me regret not knowing him on the first night. The show was the usual great show that Dawn and Ben and the band put on, highlighted by Jimmy doing a dueling duet with his sax against Dawn’s “mouth trumpet”.

Next show was the incredible and badass Chris Cain. Man, this guy can play!! Seeing the band in at least some light was so much better. He has some badass musicians playing with him too. If he is ever in your area, go see him, no matter what. And go say hi to him afterwards too, a sweet kind soul that plays kickass guitar, and loves to talk to folks about music. I am looking forward to him coming back to Quebec, whenever that will be, and I am sure he will be back.

Next up, the one and only Victor Wainwright and the Train, from Memphis. Victor has won the Blues Foundation Pinetop Perkins Keyboard player of the year a number of times, including this year, and he and his band are a real tour de force to see. Once again, even though he had to cut his show short because of the time constraints now manifesting themselves from the earlier weather, he and his band put on a great show.

Last show of the festival is Ghost Town Blues Band, also from Memphis. I have now seen these guys more than any other band, ever, and do not see that trend ending anytime soon. They did a 21+ minute version of Whipping Post, which had guitarist Pat Harrington from Victor Wainwright’s Train join in a few minutes into the song. Pat broke one of his strings on the third note he played, but kept playing as if nothing had happened, and finished like that. I recorded a video of this performance, which you can find on my Facebook timeline if you are interested.

No after show party in any bars on this final night, but I did hang around after to eat pizza and talk for a while with Pat Harrington and Terrence Grayson from Victor’s band, at one of the tables in front of the stage.

So, will I buy front row seats again? Maybe. Depends on the selection available when I try to buy. I am looking at moving back 3 or four rows, but then I lose all that great legroom in front. We will see next spring when the tickets go on sale. One thing that is for sure, this festival continues to be my favorite of the year.