Anywho, I decided to mix things up this year and leave the US and head up to our lovely neighbors to the north for Osheaga in Montreal. And it was AWESOME. Osheaga is similar to Lollapalooza in that it's a three day music festival with a whole range of musical artists performing at different stages throughout the day. While this is awesome, it also made it a bit of a challenge to see everyone I wanted to see.
Friday started out with a great set from Hey Ocean, a Canadian band that really needs to be noticed here in America because they're awesome and had the crowd dancing the whole time. "Big Blue Wave" was probably my favorite song they did live and I'm hoping to catch them again soon.
After that I made it to a couple songs by Yukon Blonde, who were just as insane live as I expected them to be, before rushing off to catch Polica, a band from Minneapolis that has been receiving a lot of press lately... and deservingly so!
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| Minnesota loving. |
Polica has managed the seemingly impossible task of using autotune in a way that enhances what's already there instead of making up for something that's missing. This becomes incredibly obvious during their live performances, which are filled with emotion and genuine musicianship.
From there I caught Bombay Bicycle Club (didn't stay for their whole set as I found them crazy boring), Freelance Whales, the Jezabels, Of Monsters and Men, Sigur Ros, and Justice. The highlight of the day, however, was without question Florence and the Machine. Florence has this mystique about her that comes out in her live performances. It's more than just her powerful singing voice (though that certainly adds to it!). The way she dances around the stage with her dress flowing and blowing in the (man made) wind, her interactions with the audience, her constant encouraging people to be loving and accepting of each other... It all felt really surreal.
After a brief sleep, Saturday arrived and with it came the hot, hot sun. I probably put on half a tube of sunscreen that day because I kept sweating it off. The only thing hotter than the sun was the music. The day started off with the very end of a pretty good sounding set by the Do and then Kathleen Edwards, who was phenomenal. She brought the rock and, most impressively, her earrings matched her bra. Clearly, as a gay man, I'm obligated to notice these things.
I caught a bit of Portugal. The Man before I headed over to see Kandle, a Montreal native who people seemed really excited about. She was awesome! Her voice was great, her band did a fantastic job, the crowd was into it and she seemed really appreciative and sincere. After Kandle we stuck around for the Black Lips. I was a bit leery as I had seen them twice before. One time they were AWESOME, the other time they were completely horrible. It could have gone either way but it ended up being a dancingly good time. And oh look, we ran into one of them after.
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| We meet all the bands. |
After them was Young Galaxy. Waiting for them produced one of the most exciting moments of the trip, a wave from Amy Milan (of Stars), who was back stage and looking fab as always. Young Galaxy was only mildly familiar to me (I'd only heard a couple songs) but their sound was infectious and I found myself dancing the whole time. Definitely a highlight!
Next up we booked it to the main stage to secure spots for Feist and Garbage. In the meantime, we caught Brand New. They were fine but I wasn't blown away by them and couldn't imagine myself listening to their music on my own. They weren't bad by any means, but I definitely didn't rush out to buy their album.
Garbage came next and they produced some of my favorite moments of the whole festival. They opened with "Automatic Systematic Habit," and it set the tone for a great set. A few songs in, Shirley introduced her band to the audience. "For those of you who are fans of us," she spoke, "we are Garbage. And for those of you who aren't fans, first of all, fuck you. We're still Garbage." And then she proceeded to keep rocking our faces off.
It was like a 90's explosion but by far the coolest part of the set was not something that happened when the music was going. At one point, a fan was trying to hand Shirley a letter from the band so Shirley, in perfect French, asked one of the security guards to grab the letter for her. She then thanked the fan and promised to read it. A simple gesture, yes, but I guarantee that person's life was made. If only all bands were that cool.
Speaking of cool, up next was the insanely cool Feist. She... is a total badass. Guitars, a trio of singers, members of Broken Social Scene, giving Snoop Dogg a shout out. The coolest part of her set, however, was when a fan sent a palm tree up through the audience as a gift and she stopped the song she was playing, brought the palm tree on stage, and kept going. Why the fan thought a palm tree was the perfect gift we may never know, but I suppose even the most famous musicians don't necessarily have enough tropical foliage.
As I alluded to in the last paragraph (please reread said paragraph if necessary) after Feist came Snoop Dogg (he wasn't Snoop Lion that night) and it was... quite interesting. As the whitest person on the planet, I never thought I'd be able to add "Seen Snoop Dogg Live" to my resume but well, now I can. That'll get me employment for sure! In the grand tradition of bizarre things happening at the festival, we were also treated to a couple very publicly doing the nasty right next to us. I'm not talking heavy petting or dry humping, either. It was pretty clear there was full on penetration going on.
Fast forward to the next morning and the day I had been waiting all weekend for, METRIC SUNDAY. To the surprise of no one who knows me we got there before doors opened, despite the fact that it was humid and rainy, and camped out the front row all day. And we made signs.
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| Go listen to "Succexy" before you question it. |
Luckily, the festival gods were merciful and pretty much everyone I wanted to see that day was on one of the main two stages. First off was Chappo. They were so bizarre and so wonderful I can't even begin to describe what actually happened. I'll sum it up with this list: Sexy bikini models, seagulls, a volcano, confetti wands. And there was a giant dream catcher and something about a Native American elder in the desert.
Up next was Zeus at the other main stage (they were right next to each other so we could see both acts) and they were really, really good. I only wish I could've been closer. Following them was Dan Mangan who is crazy talented and had us all sing a really fun song about robots.
Following Dan was Passion Pit. I'll admit my bias and say that I'm not a huge Passion Pit fan but I was actually surprised by how good they were live. I was expecting a train wreck and instead I was dancing and singing along. And I'll also admit that this may have been because, to my surprise, their lead singer is 100% doable. I'd make a joke about wanting to get into his Passion Pit, but obviously I'm too mature for that.
Common was on the other stage next and he made one fan's life by pulling her on stage, singing to her, and letting her go in for a kiss. I think something about the festival atmosphere made the artists want to do cool things for the fans and one of these cool things happened to my friend Steph during Santigold's set when Santi invited her and some others to come dance on stage with her. Steph's excitement was apparent as she looked like she was in shock the whole time.
I unfortunately couldn't see much of Tame Impala's set over at the second main stage but they sounded really good. At our stage next was the Shins and holy lord were they a lot of fun! They even did my favorite song by them, "Australia," and I caused a mild scene in the front row. This excitement was diminished when City and Colour took the stage and I wanted to fall asleep from how bored I was. They're fine musicians but jeezy creezy. Do something besides get up their and play your songs.
As soon as they left the stage, I quickly perked up because IT WAS METRIC TIME. Metric opened with the lead track on their new album, "Artificial Nocturne," and I was quickly sucked in. Nothing beats starting out a set being able to scream, "I'm just as fucked up as they say" along with the lead singer of one of your favorite bands. From there they went into their most recent single, "Youth Without Youth." Some fans weren't thrilled with the song when it was originally released, but the overall sentiment seemed to be that seeing it live was an entirely new, positive experience.
During YWY was when the palm tree incident happened. Sure enough, palm tree man was back and another palm tree made its way up to the front of the crowd. This time, however, the security people threw it to the side. Obviously, as I assume palm trees are expensive, this pissed off palm tree man and he came up right behind me and started yelling at the guards. This escalated into the guards pulling him out of the audience, him kicking and screaming, and then wrestling palm tree man into submission and carrying off the premise. Who knew someone so into plants could be so full of rage?
Anyway, Metric then went into "Speed the Collapse" and the fan favorite, "Lost Kitten." This resulted in a total freakout of all around me and may have caused me to wet myself just a little. From there they went on, doing mostly new tracks but also a few old favorites including "Help I'm Alive," "Empty," and "Dead Disco" (which is ALWAYS insane live!). Their set was closed out with a beautiful acoustic version of "Gimme Sympathy" that brought a few tears to my eyes and shivers to my spine. And just as quickly as it had started, Metric's set, and the weekend of music, was over.
Overall, I'd say this was my best festival experience to date. I made a lot of wise decisions that I didn't make at the other festivals that I'd gone to, such as bringing my own food, not drinking, and actually wearing a butt load of sunscreen. Montreal was a cool city and I wish I could go on for all the fun adventures that happened outside the festival, but I'm sure most of you have quit reading by this point. Will I go to Osheaga again? Most definitely. It was an A+ weekend and I know I'll be thinking fondly of it for the rest of my life.
