A couple of Sunday's ago Janis, Erin and I attended the last day of the annual Interstellar Rodeo Festival here in Edmonton at the Hawrelak Park Amphitheatre. This was the second year in a row where I only attended the last day of the festival. I'm just finding that the line ups haven't been as good as previous years and the ticket prices keep going up. I love this festival as it's very laid back, interesting and eclectic bands and a great crowd. So I pick what I think will be the best day, and this year's Sunday looked like a good line up and the weather was decent.
The first band of the day was a band I had never heard of before called Southern Avenue from Memphis, Tennessee. They are a five piece blues/soul band led by Tierinii Jackson on vocals. The lady had lots of energy and a great voice for this kind of music. I enjoyed their set and it was a great way to start the day.
Southern Avenue.
Next up was Saul Williams a musician/actor from New York. His performance was a mix of rap, hip hop, spoken word, poetry, with all of this seeming to have something to do with politics. I was not a fan of this whatsoever. I watched and listened to as much as could stand, it was time to go out for a smoke and beer.
Saul Williams.
Lucius was up next, they are an indie pop band formed in New York led by two ladies on vocals by the names of Jesse Wolf and Holly Laessig. These two women have backed up everyone from Jackson Browne, John Prine, Sheryl Crow, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and most recently Roger Waters, having toured with Waters over the past three years on the Us + Them Tour. With Jesse and Holly wearing matching orange outfits and sharing a microphone the harmonizing from these two were incredible. I wish I knew their material better even so, it was a great hour long set.
Lucius.
The next band up was one of the bands that really interested me in the Sunday line up. A band based out of Austin, Texas and has been around for fifty years. I'm talking about Asleep at the Wheel. What a treat it was to see this group perform live. Led by Ray Benson on guitar and vocals, with Katie Shore on fiddle, Cindy Cashdollar on steel guitar, David Sanger on drums plus a few more musicians that I am not sure of their names. Asleep at the Wheel's music is a western country swing style of music mixed with Americana. They were amazing and so much fun. At times it reminded me of Dr. Hook. Some of the songs I recognized were "Hot Rod Lincoln", "Milk Cow Blues", "Route 66" and ending their hour long set with "Happy Trails". This was such a fun set, Ray and his band looked to be having a blast up there as were all those watching and listening. I heard a lot of people talking about how much they enjoyed Asleep at the Wheel. Certainly the highlight for me out of all the bands I saw.
Asleep at the Wheel.
Next was Whitehorse a band based out of Hamilton, the two main members are the husband and wife couple Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland. This would be my fourth time seeing the band live. When I first saw them in concert was at Interstellar in 2012, back then it was just the two of them, now they have a full band, which sounds great. Whitehorse is always a fun band to see in concert and this time was no different. How to describe their music, hmmm, a mix of blues, swamp rock with some pop mixed in. Enjoyed their set again.
Whitehorse.
Closing out this years Interstellar Rodeo was Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats. While I only have one of his albums and that being his debut album with the Night Sweats, an album I thought was just ok, until I saw him on the Austin City Limits TV program, and wow, was he ever good on that. So I was looking forward to seeing and hearing him in a live environment. And Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats did not let me down. There style of music which is a mix of soul and blues with some Americana mixed in was amazing, you could probably add some funk to the list of style of music. Nathaniel sounded great and him and his band played with a lot of energy in which the crowd fed off, as did the band. I didn't know all the music, but they played a good selection of tunes from the album I do have. The biggest song of his set of course was his hit "S.O.B.". A very entertaining show. All and all another fun night out at Interstellar Rodeo. Good times!!!
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats.
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