Ice Dragon Boat Festival in Ottawa – Day 3

Hidden Beats

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Ice Dragon Boat Festival in Ottawa - Day 3

The BeaverTails Ottawa Ice Dragon Boat Festival “Live @ The Rainbow” presented by Scotiabank is a free indoor concert series taking place between Feburary 2-19. It’s part of Ottawa’s 46th Annual Winterlude at Ottawa’s legendary home of live music, The Rainbow. This years festival is headlined by Aysanabee, Born Ruffians, Chris Murphy, Dizzy, Elliott, BROOD, JJ Wilde, Joel Plaskett, and OMBIIGIZI. Stay turned as Hidden Beats covers it all!

Jasmine Trails

Jasmine Trails kicked off the third night of Ottawas Ice Dragon Boat Festival (Live @ The Rainbow) with soft harmonic melodies. Each song held the audience enraptured with its own passion, inviting the audience to experience heartfelt emotion. With each new song a hush fell over the crowd, each ear striving to take in more of the fantastic musicality as Jasmine Trails took us through a journey of longing. Jasmine Trails switched effortlessly from keyboard to guitar, but her softly enchanting vocals never wavered. The band gave a solid showing, laying down the silkiest of baselines, and pulling out some truly swanky guitar work.

Pony Girl

If Ponygirl could be described in one word, it would be “ingenious”. Every musical choice on stage, up to and including Yolande Laroche absolutely rocking out on oboe, was unique, surprising, and awesome. With a truly electric stage presence to tie it all together, this band is the total package. Ponygirl dominated the stage with a wide range of songs that each brought something unique, but uniformly blared their trademark funk loud and clear. We were all touched, deep in our working-class souls, by ‘Laff It Off’, a song about not wanting to work every day – truly an anthem for every generation. Judicious and entrancing use of autotune brought the night home with the song ‘Age of Anxious,’ followed by Pascal Huot hopping into the crowd and serenading the masses with his sultry vocals. Anyone fool enough to be undecided about this band does not actually know them or their capabilities in the slightest.

OMBIIGIZI

Wrapping up the night with a delicious twist was Canadian alternative rock band OMBIIGIZI. This band explores their Anishnaabe cultural history through sound – most songs pointedly an amalgam of the band’s unique Indigenous heritage and personal musical talents. After jokingly facilitating a teaching lesson, walking the crowd through the proper pronunciation of the band’s name (om-BEE-ga-ZAY), the music took off powerfully. Concert-goers swayed in time to the beat, enjoying OMBIIGIZI’s capacity to fill the musical space with energetic ebbs and flows. Early in the set, OMBIIGIZI blew the crowd away with the crunchy tones of ‘Residential Military’, a goosebump-inducing hit that radiates a unique brand of crunchy smoothness that left the crowd wanting more. OMBIIGIZI rode the toms with distinct ferocity, while the instrumentation and vocals kept the audience on their toes and occasionally explored unfamiliar and exciting modes.

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