Prepare for Ludacris Speed!
Who would have thought that it would be possible to have two consecutive Spaceballs references in back-to-back post titles? Yet here we are, in that exact situation. Even more remarkable is how unrelated each entry topic is and yet still connected through the wonderfulness that is the Spaceballs movie.
Last night we made it to Ludacris speed thanks to the Ottawa Bluesfest. I dragged my sick ass downtown to catch at least one show at the festival and it was a good one! We anxiously watched the skies while having dinner downtown before the show as it was quite dark and raining. However, just as we finished our meals, the skies cleared again and it remained a gorgeous evening. We made our way to Lebreton Flats, got our ID bracelets for beer, followed by beer of course (hey I was sick, not dead!). With a beer in each hand we headed to the stage to get a good spot for the show, which we managed to do – about 30-50 people back from the stage maybe. It was hard to tell as we were crammed in pretty tight by the time the show started. Sadly, our initial supply of ale was not sufficient as Luda was twenty minutes late in starting the show and we were already dry by the time he started, but there was no way we would be able to make it out of the crowd to get more. There were enough clouds of pot hovering around us that we didn’t really need anymore mind altering substances anyways.
Twenty minutes late, but well worth it. Ludacris put on an excellent show and the crowd was really into it. We had a great view and really enjoyed the show, despite the occasional group of punks, mostly girls, trying to push their way to the front. They usually got stopped once they got to us, since we would not let them through, and so they would carry on trying to find the path of least resistance. Luda was loud and on his game, sounding excellent live, and letting the crowd get into it a lot – hell, the crowd sang the entire MJ tribute interlude as well. It didn’t seem like he wanted to get off the stage as they pretty much had to tell him to shut it down since Lynyrd Skynyrd was taking to the main stage. I don’t think there were too many people rushing from the Ludacris concert to catch the Lynyrd Skynyrd one, but you never know! Between the Q-Tip, Jurassic 5, Talib Kweli and this Ludacris concerts I have attended in the last couple of years, it is hard to pick a favorite as they have all been excellent. One thing I have to say is, if I am in Ottawa next year then I am definitely going to make more of an effort to catch more shows at Bluesfest, rain or shine, as the atmosphere is simply awesome.
I do not have my compact camera anymore and so I was unable to get any pictures or images like I have before. I thought about bringing my SLR with me and am glad I didn’t as we stayed downtown afterward and it would have been a pain to bring to the bar. However, I did find a quite a few videos on Youtube and so here are some that others took at the show. We were probably about twice as far back from the stage as this person’s vantage point, and we were a bit more towards the center of the stage, but it will give you a feel for the concert we experienced.
