OTTAWA - A burst of rain cleared out much of the major crowd that amassed to see Montreal's Sam Roberts Band play the Ottawa Bluesfest main stage last night, and it's too bad.
They missed a no-holds-barred, down and dirty, mostly jam-driven encore that was vintage Roberts.
I had wondered if the group could ever compare to some of the Montreal group's best shows at bar venues like Capital Music Hall and Barrymore's.
And the truth is, judging from the first part of last night's set at Festival Plaza in front of a big chunk of the estimated 20,000 people who turned out for the entire Bluesfest last night, they can't. Not really.
Those in front of the stage might argue with me, but if you didn't get up close enough to see beads of Roberts' sweat -- which started to flow after about the first refrain of the first song, because these guys do nothing if not sing their hearts out, no matter what the venue -- then you missed some of their magic.
The group still turned in the sort of raw, emotionally energetic show they are known for consistently delivering.
Taking the stage after Matt Mays and El Torpedo and The Stills, the passionate quintet rocked ferociously whether Roberts was belting out signature tunes like the former song of summer Brother Down or Hard Road, or new ones, like an infectious and hard-driving Bridge to Nowhere or Mystified, Heavy, off new release Chemical City.
"I guess the whole idea of the blues is in every riff and every note of every rock band that ever played," Roberts told the soaked crowd at one point.
Judging from his sold-out bar shows and the healthy- sized crowd that turned out on a Monday, Roberts and his four-piece band of young scruffies are now one of Canada's hottest concert tickets.
Roberts in particular exhibits unbelievable, electrifying showmanship, his curly locks drenched and plastered to his head a half-hour into the show. Soon after, he had a sea of hands clapping in the air to familiar hit Don't Walk Away Eileen.
The burst of rain that turned into a lightning-accompanied drizzle put a bit of a damper on things, just as the band launched into another favourite, the anthem-like Where Have All The Good People Gone.
But true to form, Roberts et al didn't miss a beat.
