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MORE PHOTOS It can be a very satisfying experience to catch a live music act like Lake Street Dive in the OLG After Dark series tent at the Ottawa Jazzfest, and this night blew way past any expectation or anticipation held from checking the band out on Youtube, or even listening to their tracks on services like Rdio in advance. Simply filling up a tent to near capacity might seem like a success, but numbers aren't necessarily important for repeat customers. By the end of the show, everyone was interacting with the band and experiencing the same effects of an incredibly well-practiced line-up of talent performing before their eyes. This was evident in the dancing, bouncing, beat clapping in-concert as directed by the sultry vocal lead Rachael Price. Of course at the bitter end, when she offered her thanks to the energetic crowd and promised to return, everyone pleaded to make it happen, with a few ready to throw in the money to book the show. If you have a listen to some of their motown influenced, soul-driven tunes without ever seeing them, you might just think the band would have a set of backup singers, a horn player and one of those drum assistants that cover things like tamourine and cowbell. Seeing them live, you'll quickly find out that every musician is multi-talented and all of the vocal backups are all done by the supporting drummer (Mike Calabrese) and acoustic double-basser (Bridget Kearney). These aren't simple harmonies, , they were a bit busy being the band and are also the kind that separate simple four-piece bands and superhero style talented musicians. Early in the set, it appeared like a few people knew of the band well while the majority were there to discover. When the band attempted to get some crowd clapping going, it didn't pay off right away, but a few songs later, they had everyone at their beckoned call for interaction. There may have been some sing-a-long action too, but seeing alot of live music at Jazzfest in the span of a week starts to play mind-tricks Price had most people melting with her incredibly sexy voice and style, and basically fixated on her while she moved to the music around the stage. One guy compared her to Scarlet Johanssson (probably without ever hearing SJ sing and was actually just referring to a similarity in complexion). This kind of scientifict data was collected under strictly controlled conditions obviously. If the guitarist, Mike "McDuck" Olson, were a super hero, his super power wouldn't be playing guitar, then trumpet, then guitar again, but keeping his sk8tr dude cap on perfectly adjusted to the right without it EVER MOVING ONCE. He may have had on of those food stylists in beforehand to keep it in place, much like they do when they pin burger toppings to the meat for a mouth-watering photoshoot. He had some well placed tasteful licks, while not really needing to be a fancy-pants speed demon. He stayed between the lines expected and needed by the tunes. Calabrese's drumming and vocals were really impressive due to his perfection. His super power would be the ability to continue playing the drums with one arm and his feet, while beating the tambourine with this other hand to his chest, WHILE singing. Maybe that's not a super power yet, but it came to be quite handy. Kearney's Bass and vocals squared off the quartet, and she was equally impressive. A double-bass can seem gimicky to some, but they are usually matched up with a musician that can make them sing, which she did figuratively and literally. While the sound of the bass had those tonal qualities of the acoustic, it was rightfully heavy for the soul induced grooves that got people dancing. It was nearly a two-hour show since they provided an encore until about 12:20 am which included their slowed-up rendition of " ". That song has a very identifyable and hook-important bass line and Kearney pulled it off really nicely for this. Since this was the end, it will hopefully go down as the epic first show that Lake Street Dive performed in Ottawa. It might be lip service to promise to be back, and how great the crowd was, but they will certainly have a guaranteed 200 of everyone there, plus all of their friends, show up at their next Ottawa gig.

MORE PHOTOS Imagine arriving at one of 2 top chefs restaurant with sought after seating and with no idea what you're about to taste for the next hour and a half. The 12 course menu starts with an amuse bouche. One with flavour notes you're not heard in a while and includes a satisfying crunch. The meal continues with some eclectic charcuterie, old moldy cheese and some veggies or flowers or herbs that you've only heard about in passing. Eventually you're led to a dessert that envolopes your tongue and slides graciously down your gullet. That's a long winded way to describe what Nels Cline ( ) and B.J. Novak's dopalganger, co-guitarist Julian Lage's set was like. These two guys pretty much ignored all melodic musical hook rules, meaning they seemed to favoured to play the notes and clashing harmonies that most aren't used to. Something amazing about this was knowing that this wasn't improv, it was composed songs that are difficult to imagine as being repeatable. Yet they are. Nels brought an impressive 16 CD's to sell (come on management! Only 16?) related to this show. It was surprising how little merch there was, but probably couldn't be matched to the live version which really was an illusion of uncomposition. They were amazingly tight considering how many uncovential movements that were happening. There were very rare moments where their eyes met, but they were always musically locked, with the four of them. At least with Julian's eyes, feverishly enjoying what his compadre was doing while he accompanied. This is going to get guitar nerdy. You'd better be sitting down. So for the amuse bouche, they appeared to be screwing around with . Inversions were turning around each other. As they work with the guitar, you just mathematically work out if you hold the pattern. They were embedding the diminished pattern in different ways against AND along each other. It's kinda hard to explain, right or wrong. Just think of how complicated quantam physics are and there you have it. The show escalated to a set of tunes, with names that everyone would want to know where the name came from, on account of them not having any words. They clearly have meaning, you'll never know what they are. All that mattered was that they were pretty much using every dissonant chord, and clashing note they could put together in a string that made sense overall. Every triad had at least one flattened 5th or sharpened 9th, with a smattering of 7ths and thirds both ways. This was a huge main course with lots of flavourful moldy cheese and aged cured charcuterie from parts you normally don't want to know about. Things may clash, but there's always satisfaction. Sorry about the food simile again, but it was palatable. (yeah, that word is a bit of a twist on palpable -- on purpose but with real intention). Nels had found a resonating sound artifact disturbing the moments where silence was part of the recipe and removed a reverb pedal to use the internal amp reverb. It was an 'E' by the way. They had discovered it in sound check earlier, identified the actual note using harmonics on the guitar and rejigged the plugs to get rid of it. It found it's way back and they adapted. The new silence, during the quietly decading finishes became brilliant. Seriously, when it got quiet, anyone in the 100ish crowd sniffing was heard. Oh, and here's a tip, lay off the farting in shows like these. As any good meal eater knows, a great feast includes a sweet, sweet desert. Nels and Julian served that up with completely harmonically satisfying natural notes. This included everyone's favourite C, G, D...you just can't get any better than that. This was the crème brulée of chords and melodies. It's obvious this simile is ridiculous however, it's all about taste. Some dishes taste great to some, and not as much to others. There is no denying that the same is true for music at festivals like all three Ottawa music festivals that take over the entire summer. You never know what you might be missing if you don't at least look at the menu. And here is the carmelized (why won't the simile end?) sugar on top of that extra dessert. Bill Frisell later played the late night super fun happy tent providing the soundtrack to an old Buster Keaton film, Go West. This is absolutely a great trend that started with the performance last year, with With every musician having a display in front of them, they perfectly timed every comedic fall with bass drum hits, or simulated a trianluar dinner bell with cymbal rings. At the same time superfluous harmonic overtones filled the tent. There was one scene where a firetruck was called for and at that very moment, no shit, a siren swelled by, lighting up the tent in red white and blue lights as it continued down laurier street. Isn't it possible that was planned? Syncronicity managed to dominate the stage from this point on. Watching a silent film that the Frisell ensemble pretty much directed the audience to, told a story. A dufus who finds his way onto a ranch before the internet, seems to be looking for something, falls over shit, told to brand a cow to which he magically pulls out a shaving kit (did people carry those back then?) and SHAVES the brand into the cow (ok for you PETA?) and continues his way through his adventure, leading an unwilling herd and mutherfucking soundtracked by Bill Frisell....Live, ultimately getting his reward. His cow. Not Bill, the dude in the film.