There was a lot of good music and good times with good people at Bigwood IIII, Aug. 27. And while I’ve seen the p
erformers many times, it is always fun to see them again.
I arrived mid-afternoon in time to catch the tail end of the New Weather Machine’s set with Jason Schutchen on bass.
They played a solid set of their own indie-rock meets ’70s era David Bowie and Mott the Hoople. 
And while I’d seen Toques and Beards the night before playing an unplugged set at the Owl, they plugged in and turned it up for an electrifying set of original material with Taylor Ackerman, Jason Schutchen and Brett Skauge alternating on lead vocals.
Bigwood IIII was also the scene of Bleu Sensashun’s last gig for about nine months.
The tore it up with an upbeat set of blues and R and B powered by singer Shawna Romolliwa, some tasteful guitar from Steve Ferzacca and a rock steady rhythm.
The party started, according to host Todd Carter, with local metal band Berserker.
Vocalist Jon Vornbrock hoisted himself up in the air by grabbing onto the top of the wooden stage and howled like he was being pitchforked and burned, as the band bludgeoned the audience with energetic, detuned riffs to keep up the tempo and the energy levels.
While I had to leave before Lustre Creame’s set, as guitarist Aaron Trozzo tuned his guitar, wearing a pirate hat, by the time I returned well after midnight, midway through a blistering set of blues rock from Darryl Düus, the energy level remained high.
Düus had a good sized crowd dancing in front of the stage through a set of originals, about an ex and blues standards like “Rolling and Tumbling,” and “Yonder Wall.”
Taylor Ackerman, who has gone country in several of his other bands, returned his blues roots adding additional solos and rhythm guitar.
Blues rock duo Smokestack Jacks took the stage around 2 a.m. to play numerous crowd favourites as well as introduce a few new originals.
