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hey Ottawa.. got plans for Saturday?


thatpatguy

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if you don't why don't you come down to the Bourbon Street Music Hall and check out The Crowd.

Bourbon Street is a reasonably new venue for Ottawa. It's in the west end at the corner of Greenbank and Baseline road. You can check it out online at http://www.bourbon-streetmusichall.com

The Crowd will be there this Saturday (Oct 2nd), and if you are planning on coming you should come early, I hear the food there is amazing

hope to see you on Saturday!

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Here are some quick impressions of the venue and the band.

The venue is in a sort of unexpected location: a strip mall beside a gas station on Baseline. If you weren't explicitly looking for it, I doubt you'd even notice it, or consider going to it to spend a night out.

Inside, it looks great, sort of "nouveau bistro": there's nice art on the walls, which are painted a dark red, and a big bar made of ornate and decorative wood. The club is narrow and long; the bar takes up most of the left-side wall, and the stage is down the far end of the club, with the soundbooth at the other (street) end. If you move the tables around, there's a small dance area squeezed in between the front of the stage and the end of the bar.

My guess is that they're primarily aiming the place to be combination of a restaurant/bistro and a music club. I didn't check the menu, but what I overheard (esp. the desserts) makes me think they've put some serious thought and energy into it.

The stage is pretty small; not a small as the one at Cafe Deckuf, but midway between Dekcuf's and, say, Babylon's. The Crowd, which has 10 or 11 people in it, coulnd't fit, and the horn section (trumpet, alto sax, tenor sax, baritone sax) was standing on the floor in front of the stage, leaving the keys, guitar, singer(s), drummer, bass, and congas on stage.

The band started a bit after 10pm, and did three sets. IIRC, the songs were all covers. The first set was pretty standard, with a bit of blues (ISTR some Paul Butterfield), some soul, etc. I found it a bit bland; not bad really, it just didn't grab me that strongly.

The second set was much better. I think the standout piece was a cover of "Stand By Me" that floored me. The rest of the second set was also much better and, I think, much closer to what Skanks would get into.

The third set was sort of midway in quality between the first two: better than the first set, but not as good as the second. (I taped the show, and I'll try to come up with a set list.)

Overall, I liked the show. One thing I'll note: they got people dancing. Almost right from the beginning, there were folks on the floor, even some who were re-arranging tables to make more room. And these weren't dance-club regulars; no, they were (I think) older (than I am) suburban types, givin'er as best they knew how, without reservations or inhibitions. Having seen The Force Field in action at too many shows, I give some heavy props to the dancers and those who made them dance.

Aloha,

Brad

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thanks for coming out Brad. We didn't play our best, but it was a good show I think, and I totally agree.. we were just going through the motions for the first set.

It was great to see everyone get into the show though, I love it when people are up dancing for us.

Also, I had the prawns in olive oil and garlic butter there and they were fantastic.. so yeah.. great food!

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