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PAPA ROACH, DAUGHTRY In Ottawa, Canada At Bluesfest By Andrew Depedro, Ottawa Corespondent Monday, August 18, 2025 @ 9:51 AM
When yours truly isn't on the frontlines of the Ottawa Bluesfest reporting on many legendary pure rock soldiers conquering Lebreton Flats every July and directing the online traffic to KNAC.COM, he's also directing actual traffic in and around the main stage away from random pedestrians as part of the Road Warriors team (through Alternates) - including his clueless sister who walked right in front of an oncoming golf cart before both myself and my supervisor frantically waved her away from harm with a flurry of loud commands and red glow sticks.
The most interesting part of this story thus far was that she somehow managed to still coax me into taking a selfie with her after her near-death experience. Recalling previous random stories of when Noel Gallagher and Wild Mick Brown were busted for taking a golf cart on an unauthorized commute around festival grounds while under the influence, maybe it was for the best that previous requests for OASIS and DOKKEN to headline Bluesfest were ignored - which leaves me with the role of reporting on the bands who did headline Bluesfest based on their musical performance and not on their driving skills.
Starting with a surprising admission here, as a massive fan of karaoke, I despise - and still do - the millennial cultural offshoot known as American Idol. Raised on the sharper acerbic wit of Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show, then Joel, Tom Servo and Crow from Mystery Science Theater 3000 and then obviously Beavis & Butthead, for me, Simon Cowell's North American music talent platform simply couldn't compare when it came to rating performances. The previous examples were at least jovial and light-hearted as they were quick and whimsical; Simon and his team of judges often came off as cynically-sounding douches whenever they gave their opinion on someone's heartfelt performance even if it was just them performing "Bohemian Rhapsody" on the sitar or literally performing the pillow-over-the-face deathbed queef version of the entire sequence to "Don't Stop Believin'".
And, lest we forget, William Hung and Sanjay. Though, we probably should.
No wonder the show was featured as no less than four MAD Fold-In punchlines and prompted Paula Abdul to take up day drinking for a whole decade. Probably because she saw all four of those aforementioned MAD Fold-Ins though at least Simon Cowell was deservedly featured in one of them. William Hung and Sanjay definitely were.
On the other hand, American Idol somehow did some sort of oddly earthly good. Bo Bice briefly gave BADLANDS some much-needed street cred when he performed "In A Dream" during his audition in 2007. Carrie Underwood also got her big break on the show, eventually giving her the confidence to belt out live versions of "Paradise City" and "Ace Of Spades" in between her usual country balladry throughout her nearly 20-year career.
And then came CHRIS DAUGHTRY.
His initial musical output on his first AI audition drew various comparisons to STAIND, 3 DOORS DOWN and HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH. Those comparisons were not outstandingly flattering compliments in the slightest at the time - and that was just from the internet. That said, he too was able to elevate himself from the shaky Idol platform and make his own name some nine studio albums later - as he certainly did at his first-ever Bluesfest appearance. Speaking of appearances, as he took the stage to belt out his opening number "The Reckoning" adorned in body tattoos and black leather protective sports gear, I'm pretty sure I randomly belted out the following sentence in my best Tom Servo voice:
"WHERE DO THE BODY TATTOOS END AND THE ACTUAL GARMENTS BEGIN?"
In DAUGHTRY's defense, even at 27 degrees Celsius that day, it was still abnormally warm. Not heat dome warm thankfully, but he also put on enough of an energetic performance to warrant breaking out a sweat when he followed up with "Pieces" and "The Day I Die". For me, his standout performances started with his rendition of JOURNEY's "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" which he'd recently recorded with Lzzy Hale - for which, in her absence, Chris immediately picked up her slack and honorably performed the work of two people. I think his guitarist bearing a striking resemblance to Chad Kroeger also helped with some of the backing vocals but let's give credit where it's due as well. His grandiose persona notwithstanding during tracks such as "It's Not Over", Chris also displays a genuine tender side to him as he brings out a shy-looking forlorn redheaded teenage girl to duet with him on an acoustic version of "Waiting For Superman" - the shy-looking teenage girl who was then revealed to be his daughter Adalynn Rose. The song itself appears to be a humble accolade towards a much-needed yet missing guiding figure in one's life - and with Adalynn's vocal delivery on the acoustic-driven version of the song, it all comes together full circle. In fact, her performance alongside her father would be the peak highlight of the show for me despite some admittedly convincing renditions of "The Dam", "Over You", "Heavy Is The Crown" and the closing number "Artificial". Still, despite being the subject of a maddingly massive culture war millennial punchline, one has to give massive respect to Chris Daughtry for never bending under pressure otherwise.
https://daughtryofficial.com/
Respiratory issues?
I'm not a doctor; just someone who directs golf cart traffic away from easily-distracted siblings whilst occasionally reporting on the same live performances taking place. Yet, with so much frequent flashy activity all around, it's very easy for one to be losing their sight, losing their mind, etc. Wish that somebody could tell them they're fine - even if it almost kills them.
That's partly where I and the rest of the Road Warriors come in, but some karaoke performances aside, we're not the actual entertainment worth writing a review about. And that's where headliners PAPA ROACH come in as they make their official Bluesfest and Ottawa live debut at, their ardent souls of black outfits gracing the stage as they opened with "Even If It Kills Me". With frontman Jacoby Shaddix at the helm, the LA-based quintet have a good 30-year history to present with a window of 90 minutes. The band put on a decently entertaining performance throughout their allotted stage time. Following up with "Blood Brothers" and the thrashy-sounding onslaught of "Dead Cell", the band - comprised of Shaddix, guitarists Jerry Horton and Anthony Esperance, bassist Toby Esperance and drummer Tony Palermo - had the crowd on their feet for the duration of the show - and then off their feet whenever the soundtrack for a moshpit made its call. After a couple of renditions of "...To Be Loved", "Kill The Noise", "Getting Away With Murder" and "Liar", the closest to any sort of loud pyro activity during the entire concert was Jacoby's young son came out with a T-shirt cannon and fired shirts into the crowd.
That said, it was perhaps GREEN DAY's previous set which had appeared to reignite PAPA ROACH's proverbial spark throughout the rest of the show. With both bands being from southern California (GREEN DAY being from Oakland while PAPA ROACH being from San Bernadino), their paths have often crossed on occasion during the early stages of their careers despite GREEN DAY having about a good decade's head start and five studio albums in their career before PAPA ROACH were even signed. Yet, if any animosity was present regarding the trajectory of either band's career, Jacoby Shaddix saved that scorn towards his critics; instead, he was more interested in reminiscing about the early days. "We used to go see them back in the day," he elated to the crowd, "It's awesome to be on the same festival with a band as iconic as GREEN DAY." And with their debut album Infest celebrating its quarter century this year, PAPA ROACH also took the time to celebrate the halcyon days of the nu-metal movement, which had been birthed in their community at nearly the same time. Alongside KORN, DEFTONES, SYSTEM OF A DOWN and among their brothers in JNCO, ADIDAS and wallet chains, the band honored their legacies with a neat medley of some of their best-known numbers. Even with their contemporaries in LIMP BIZKIT hailing from Florida, PAPA ROACH also included them in the medley as Fred Durst and company had given the nu-metal scene part of its image - and briefly made red baseball caps somewhat cool to be seen in public with if nothing else.
Closing with "Last Resort" whose sporadic MAIDEN-style opening riffs had initially appeared out of place in nu-metal but had familiarized over time, PAPA ROACH had likely seen themselves in a similar perspective as the headliner of a music festival they're visiting for the very first time. Once the last crushing power chord faded into the night sky, Jacoby's last address to the jubilant crowd was a promise to make a donation to a suicide prevention line in each city they play thus far on this tour, including Ottawa - and for PAPA ROACH to make a return to the city in the near future.
Critically revered and bugged at first for simply being as well as for sampling directly from the mouths of its other musical peers, PAPA ROACH came to Bluesfest with a reserved anticipation of friendly acceptance from their newfound ecosystem of sorts - and somehow became part of that same ecosystem themselves through as much investing as infesting. And a return to the city in the near future based on their debut performance happening to a similar encouraging reception? Chances are that they might.
https://paparoachmerch.com/
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And then came the quieter introspective part of the show - first starting with a performance of "Forever" featuring a tag to LINKIN PARK's "In The End" in honor of the band's late frontman Chester Bennington - which spoke more volumes than any needless amount of overhead pyro ever could with the broadcast of a suicide awareness video recorded by and featuring the band members. It was direct and to the point and definitely got the audience's attention. And PAPA ROACH have never made their mission of speaking out about mental health a secret, with the lyrics to their biggest hit "Last Resort" being the most evident. Interestingly, the song itself had copped more criticism for its opening riff sounding too similar to IRON MAIDEN's "Phantom Of The Opera" than for being a message about mental health struggles from a young person's perspective, which was probably the most maddening aspect the band ever had to deal with about its reaction, but it otherwise helped to give them a further sense of purpose to continue onwards.