Basia Bulat October 2009
This is somewhat the 3rd and final time for going to The Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield, Quebec. I dubbed it the “Black Sheep Inn Fall Series” because the past two concerts I attended were Kyrie Kristmanson and The Balconies. It was in a span of a few weeks. This time, it was none other than Canadian indie darling, Basia Bulat. It was packed crowd because Basia Bulat is just popular within Canadian independent music. As often, Basia and her bandmates are usually happy to see me as I’ve been a great supporter of her music.

Before I review her performance, Basia’s opening act was Patrick LePoidevin, he’s a singer residing in Sackville, New Brunswick. What’s unique about his music is that he uses a looper pedal where plays a tune and it will repeat as he will continue playing a different tune. His style of music blends from the acoustic and Alternative. The last song he performed where he got the audience to sing along a part with “la la…” and then he started going around the crowd. Not bad for an opening act.
Ok, onto Basia, as usual, she performed amazingly. She started off with “Heart Of My Own“, a song which is also titled to her upcoming 2nd album to be released on January 26, 2010. She has been playing that song live at concerts and in my opinion, I still love that song because her voice complements the melody as it brings a mellow tone. She also sang the usual songs from her debut album, “Oh, My Darling.” Songs from Snakes and Ladders, In The Night (still a cute video because of the costumed people), The Pilgriming Vine (MV filmed in Lanark), and I Was a Daughter (gotta love the clapping) were performed. She sang new songs for her upcoming sophomore album and out of the new songs I am starting to know, it’s Walk You Down, Gold Rush and Run. With “Walk You Down”, it’s a different style because it’s a fast song but it brings an energetic feel. Gold Rush, which I played on my fill-in show at CKCU, it’s another soft and fast song which is sweet and lovely to listen. You can download Gold Rush on her website. Basically, I think several of her new songs will be catchy come the album release in January. As for the final song, she sang “Oh, My Darling” and the crowd sang along to it. As usual, Basia is joined by her brother, Bobby Bulat on drums and Allison (In Wonderland) Stewart on the violin. The instruments she used were her guitar, ukulele, autoharp and a 100 year old harp, which she mentioned had a crack. In a rare form, she played the piano as I have seen her play on keyboard previously.
Overall, the crowd at the Black Sheep Inn was amazing and packed. There wasn’t any loud chatter during the performances as the crowd were very patient during the concert. It was just a lovely night to start the first weekend of October.

Photos are posted here through my Flickr. Enjoy!
Here is one of the videos I took and apologies on the sound front. That’s “Heart of My Own.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp8fB5QIDkA&hl=en&fs=1&]

Earlier on Saturday afternoon, I had a lion dance parade down on Ottawa Chinatown, it was for FestivAsia. We were first up, so I didn’t get a chance to see the other performers parading down the street. Here’s the photos I took during the parade, you can click here via Flickr.
Here’s a clip that I took during the parade. It was a silly way to multitask.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo78wKnfzZo&hl=en&fs=1&]