Day 2 Recap and Review of Osheaga

"I will kill you if you try to steal it"

I think there's been more time between this review and the actual shows this time around compared to the first day, so I'll try to remember as much as possible. I was completely wiped yesterday as we pulled an all-nighter after Osheaga so as to not miss our 6:45am flight the next morning. I can't tell you how weird it was and what kind of whirlwind it felt like. I came home Monday morning still thinking it was Sunday, and feeling like it was Sunday night. Just totally surreal, and the constant on-and-off napping between 3am and 3pm certainly didn't help anything coalesce.

I woke up around 1pm on Sunday, after everyone had already left for combinations of shopping and breakfasts. Eventually everyone was back for 3pm and we were able to make it outta the house in time for the 4:45pm acts. Unfortunately though, that meant missing The Ting Tings, as well as BEAST, who we felt like checking out too. No harm, no foul though, given how the rest of the day turned out.

Decked in shorts for the hot weather, a hoodie for the rain, and a t-shirt just to stay cool, I was pretty much ready for anything - until we got there and saw people walking back from the more forest-y stages (MEG and Kia) just covered in mud. And guess who decided to bring only one pair of shoes with him to Montreal? It didn't help that the weather couldn't make its mind up either - it rained heavily all morning, let up when we headed to the subway and the festival, got hot and cleared up for a little while, then the skies opened up and poured down on us just prior to The Arctic Monkeys' set. I dunno who was more disoriented after the weekend: me, or the weather forecast.

So as we walked in to the gates of Osheaga, we could hear "That's Not My Name" blasting over the speakers, signaling the end of that show. Making our way over to Vampire Weekend, we settled in far right...a little too far for my liking. Between the jaunty afro-pop I knew VW would pump out, the general laid-back nature of the headliners' crowds (and I was set to see a lot of acts on the headlining stages that day), and the text I received from my friend saying he was heading over to see Arkells, I got outta there before Vampire Weekend could even hit a chorus.

Arkells

These guys already blew me away with their Halifax Virgin Fest set, so I knew what to expect. Part of the reason actually that I initially wanted to see Vampire Weekend was that I knew what I'd be getting with Arkells: they only have one full disc out, so you're not gonna get much variance in their set lists. But given the brand of hard-charging rock and insanely-catchy hooks they showcase, I knew watching them again certainly wouldn't be a let-down.

The good thing about the Kia stage during the two-day festival was that it was never packed...sadly in some cases, as a lot of great up-and-coming acts (Woodhands, The Rural Alberta Advantage, Arkells, Winter Gloves, Hollerado, Amazing Baby) were being showcased on that very stage. That being said, it was easy to get up on the raised platform and secure a great view of the performers there.

(On a side note...it kind of amazed my friends and I how generally short those attending Osheaga were. At a lot of shows I've been to, you're lucky if you're a few rows back and aren't blocked by two or three people taller than you - and I'm six feet. At Osheaga, I felt like I was that tall guy getting into other people's ways, seeing as I almost never had my view of the acts obstructed by anyone taller than myself. Great for me...I dunno about anyone behind me though.)

One thing I noticed during the show was that aside from the rather large fellow with equally large sideburns, I may have been the biggest Arkells fan in attendance. I thought these guys might be a bit bigger Canada-wide, and it seemed like they might've had a better reception at Virgin Fest, so I'm attributing the lack of concert-goers to either the bigger draw of Vampire Weekend, or the fact they may not be quite as big in Quebec as they are in the rest of the country.

All that aside, they put on another great performance. There was the same intensity between bandmates, generally the same set list, some of the same gimmicks (getting everyone to finger-snap at one point, starting the "hey, hey, hey" chant before "The Ballad of Hugo Chavez," and the call-and-crowd-response of "punchin' in," "punchin' out" at the mid-point of show-closer "Oh, The Boss Is Coming.") and all the same lively rock featured on their stellar debut Jackson Square (review's coming soon) - though much less facial hair this time around, as the majority of the guys had either trimmed or completely shaved off their epic beards I'd seen them with a month before. Musta got itchy.

Off their extended rock-outs, clever improvs for (both!) times lead singer Max Kerman's mic became unplugged, and spirited chemistry between the quintet, it was a great start to the day for me. That's not even to mention the new song the group debuted, which I imagine is gonna be called "Country Boy" judging by the performance. It only reinforced the already-great songwriting coming from this Hamilton group, whose songs always seem to tell an interesting story. It's rock with substance.

Amazing Baby

...which is exactly what Amazing Baby isn't. Killing a half-hour between twin half-hour sets, we came back as this funny-looking troupe took the stage for one hell of a strange set. They were one of the few non-female-fronted groups at Osheaga with a lead singer bereft of an instrument - just him, his Von Zipper shades, and shirt un-buttoned halfway. (In trying to research the lead singer's actual name, I came upon old standby Wikipedia...which should slap a "citation needed" tag on Amazing Baby's page. Criticisms of being more concerned with their fashion than music should certainly be cited if it's gonna be included at all.)

Anyways, with that above sentence in mind, yes they had cool shades, and yes their guitarist had a translucent axe (rare as fuck evidently, seeing as Google Images doesn't even have a picture approaching what this thing looked like...pics up tomorrow though hopefully so you can actually see), but these guys put on a good show either way.

Back to their frontman though, he of no instrument. When you're swinging the mic around during songs cause you have nothing else to do during instrumental breaks, maybe it's time to learn guitar or something and add to the wall of sound these guys are capable of putting out. The incumbent guitarist definitely knew how to shred however, more focused on churning out a good tune than anyone else I'd seen to that point on the weekend. Judging from his horrible haircut, pubescent mustache, and ill-fitting tie-dye orange shirt, that see-through guitar of his might be the only thing he's focused on in life. Whoever wrote the Wikipedia entry on these guys definitely wasn't at the show on Sunday to judge their "sense of fashion."

But on the other hand, maybe that page is right. I mean, my first three paragraphs on Amazing Baby have barely mentioned the music. Maybe that makes sense. Pitchfork described them (quite positively) as basically ripping off groups like Led Zepplin, and not having a great sense of direction. On stage, they seemed a bit similar. Not much stood out about their set, other than they played really loudly, and you couldn't even make out any lyrics.

They're good enough on their instruments (those who actually played them in the group...okay, I kid, he was an alright guy) to make up for that fact, but they were certainly in the right place playing the Kia tent, where the vocals were by far the worst of anywhere at Osheaga - like, show after show, and evidently, day after day...no one even bothered to fix it it seemed. They had a few good tracks; one self-described and out-of-the-ordinary "thrasher" tune that went over well with some insanely-dancing fellows near the front, and "Bayonets" was definitely a stand-out, but given the fact I just spent five minutes looking up the difference between that song and their other single "Headdress," I'm not sure how these guys plan to be very memorable.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the show, but not even near the same way I did Arkells. This was just raw music being played loudly, albeit well. But that's all it was, nothing deeper, nothing "more." I'm still gonna get new album Rewild, just because I was intrigued at the very least, so look out for a possible review of that in the future for a more definitive look at Amazing Baby.

Rufus Wainright

We had time to kill after Amazing Baby's half-hour set, and settled down on a friend's blanket in view of Rufus Wainright's solo show on the secondary headlining stage. I mean, I personally like the guy's songs, and think he's a good performer (obviously he's doing something right to get top-billing at Osheaga), but the people I was with were just eviscerating the poor guy.

Yeah, he did seem real flighty towards the end, saying he had a bit more time to play than he thought, and sending an awkward well-wish to ailing Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, but the actual music still seemed solid. I certainly can't do an actual review though, as this was my "Elbow moment" for the day: an act I heard, but definitely didn't watch or even really pay attention to. Aside from "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk," I couldn't even tell you what else he played.

The Decemberists

Sike. Same kinda thing as Rufus and Elbow, but this time we were staking out our spot at the other main stage in anticpation of The Arctic Monkeys. Other than what we saw on the sole big screen and a few glimpses I caught of the impeccably dressed group performing opposite us, all I can tell you is that I recognised a few strands of "The Rake's Song." So...

The Pre-Arctic Monkeys Staking-Out-Our-Spot, Chillin, and Getting Wet Experience

...would be more appropriate. Though we got there before The Decemberists even began their set, we were still at least 10 if not 20 rows back from the stage, and that was more than an hour before the show. People were obviously quite dedicated. During the wait, our own little crowd did everything from bat around some beach balls, to start "Arc-tic Mon-keys" chants...during The Decemberists set.

I certainly didn't condone that, and even jokingly told off my sister when she started to get in on it. Unfortunately, the girl in front of us didn't know it was a joke, and whipped around quite quickly when she heard me yell "don't do that!" That was a fun thing to explain away, though it does make for good conversation. I at least know now the offended girl was from Ottawa. Yay? Anyways, the lesson is...have some respect for the other people performing. They have their fans, and your show isn't even on yet.

During our wait, the sky started to cloud over, and just let loose on us for a good 15 minutes. Luckily, our friend bought an umbrella earlier, and just about every fourth person in the crowd whipped theirs out too. Unfortunately, that made for a lot of collateral dripping, and not quite complete coverage for everyone. So I ended up with one arm completely soaked, a slightly moist hood, and a completely dry everything else. Yay. Miraculously however, the rain stopped right before Arctic Monkeys came out. God/Mother Nature has good timing.

The Arctic Monkeys

This is one of those bands I say I know of, and that I can say whether I like or not (I do), but I don't really know a ton of their stuff. I have two or three of their tunes, and know a good deal more from before, but it was just a matter of "they were the best people playing." I wasn't gonna watch Tiga, and though I don't mind Heartless Bastards, I wasn't gonna skip Arctic Monkeys' hour-and-fifteen-minute show for their much shorter half-hour set.

I hadn't seen any night-time shows on the main stages, so it was definitely a different experience for me. Great light show, expansive stage, a pretty loving crowd - it was all pretty tight, and I was excited for it. The one thing I noticed right off the bat was that Alex Turner's voice was very true live compared to the recorded version, so that was refreshing. And of course the vocals were much better on that Budweiser main stage than Kia's sorry excuse of a tent of a stage.

The second thing I noticed was the guitar work on their songs. Bands out of England seem to have this great way of playing and twisting their chords in uniquely expressive ways, giving a real feel to the songs that's seemingly lacking in some alternative music on this side of the pond. If you don't believe me, just think of Bloc Party and Muse aside from the boys in Monkeys. I'm telling you though, there were licks that sounded just downright evil. And I think it's great that they can do that - balance those hellish sounding guitar strums with Alex's night-on-the-town lyrics and eager cadence.

For some reason though, Arctic Monkeys slowed it down not once, but twice, with Alex even addressing the crowd and asking their permission if he could keep it at that lagging pace for at least one more. Of course we cheered and obliged him, but it was weird coming from a group that seems to operate much better at high energy. Another strange quirk was that they would announce the names of most of the songs before actually playing them, sometimes even saying what album it was off of. Next to no one else did at Osheaga, especially the other well-established acts.

Finally, there seemed to be a lot of finagling with the songs. They had a distinct style in the delivery, in the same vein The Stills did the day before. Each song would build and build and build to a crescendo, then they'd throw the false ending at you, elicit a big cheer, then jump right back into it and finish the tune off. It's good, and it keeps the crowd engaged, but when you do it song after song after song, it gets quite predictable and boring. There was also the fact that I could barely ever figure out when a song was actually done; The Arctic Monkeys are one of those bands that continue to tune and strum in between all their songs, so there was never really a sense of closure until they announced what they'd be playing next.

Anyways, again, I'm nit-picking, because I did enjoy the show. I was conscious that I was watching a performance the entire time however, which was kind of a bummer. You know you're having a great time when you're ignoring everything else and you become totally immersed by the act in front of you - it's quite possible that during the Monkeys' set, I was already planning what I'd be doing the rest of the night, and figuring out how to best pull my all-nighter. Head bobbing up and down the entire time of course, but still.

"I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" was certainly their best number, and had me moving and shaking the whole song. Other than that though, everything was like 6/10, 7/10 for me. Definitely better for those around me I'd think, but given how long they've been around, and the fact they haven't completely caught on and stuck with me yet, they probably weren't gonna do much in those 60 or so minutes to convince me otherwise. I say only 60 because we all left the set about 15 minutes early to get to our respective spots at our own weekend-closing shows. Everyone else headed to the adjoining stage to catch Yeah Yeah Yeahs, while I trekked alone to see...

Crystal Castles (say it with an epic movie voice-over voice...it makes the entire transition ten times cooler)

So yeah, Crystal Castles, who I was pumped beyond belief to finally catch live. This duo of Alice Glass and Ethan Kath have slowly grown on me more and more as the year's went on, picking up a great song by them here and there, until I had five or six absolute bangers by them that I'll probably never, ever get sick of. It was like a complete 180 for me going from Arctic Monkeys to Crystal Castles.

With the former, I didn't really care where we were standing, as long as I got up pretty close. For CC, I was there at least 45 minutes early, and after trekking through the whole day's worth of churned-up mud (I swear to God the stuff was at least 5 or 6 inches deep...only by the grace of God was I walking slow enough that my shoe got caught in the mud twice and I didn't take that dreaded extra step to leave my sock covered in regrettable muck), was able to secure not only a third-row spot, just left of dead-center, but with some gentle manoeuvering, a perch on the mud-less platform extending for a few feet in front of the stage. I was set.

Disappointingly, it didn't seem like the band nor its techs were. Watching them labour for a solid 40 minutes (we were getting antsy) on all the electronic equipment necessary for Ethan to craft a show worthy of their festival-closing spot was nerve-racking, as at one point, all four or five techs on stage crowded around one box and just started shaking their heads. There was one false alarm when a shaggy-haired and bearded guy with glasses came out, and in my fervor, I mistakenly thought he was Ethan. It didn't help that he was lazily smoking on a cigarette, only came out about half an hour after everyone else was already setting up, danced around a bit, and then played a few beats on the drums.

Anyway, my angst about the show was well-founded, knowing that they've skipped out on shows before when they've deemed the acoustics not up to par. The sight of all those techs looking worried was certainly not reassuring, and as the 9:45pm start time came and went, I wasn't the only one getting anxious. The lights would dim at some points, and the crowd would start cheering a bit, but given that the between-set music was still going, I don't know why they got excited. Eventually, the main tech up there grabbed the mic, took centre stage, and had us all cheering again for one reason or another. He just looked down at us and "said, don't cheer, I don't have good news."

By that point, I was mortified. Yeah Yeah Yeah's were already well into their set, and I was not ready to make the trek over, let alone find my firmly entrenched friends and sister, who had "sick" spots 10 or 15 rows back from the stage. The tech continued by thankfully telling us the set was not actually canceled, but that somehow, the duo had flown into Ottawa instead of Montreal, and was now driving the distance between. They were gonna be there, just later.

So again, we whittled away the time. I talked to some people, threw some guy's plastic bottle of beer he snuck in up and over my head to the rest of the crowd (he didn't want it anyways, I wasn't just being a dick), and actually had a good time listening to the between-set tunes, which the tech told us to relax and enjoy, as they were off his own iPod. To this hour, he played a really catchy and interesting instrumental electronic/dance/techno tune that I recognized, and even hummed yesterday, but that's been able to escape me all evening. Not even a perusing of Cut Copy and Hercules And Love Affair's myspace pages provided me with any relief, as I thought them the likely culprits. So if you were in Montreal, at Osheaga, on Sunday night, at Crystal Castles, standing right behind a guy in a navy hoodie bobbing his head to the catchy song coming out of the speakers, and you somehow know what it was...for the love of God, tell me. It's been killing me.

Anyway, the lights go off again, but this time, something strange happens: the music cuts out too. Could it be? Is it...the (real) Ethan Kath running out, grabbing the microphone, telling us they were there, and then manning his arsenal of synthesizers, effects buttons and whatever other 8-bit, sample-manipulating devices were stacked on top of that one poor table? Yes, yes it was. After him came out tour drummer Christopher Robin (until now I haven't mentioned how strange I thought it was that such an electro-heavy group like Crystal Castles had a live drum set...they make drum machines literally for that purpose...Kanye West made an entire album with that machine), and a few seconds later, from the depths of the backstage curtain, crawling along the stage floor like an incarnation of their "Black Panther," NME's Coolest Person of 2008...Alice Mothaeffin' Glass.

Now from there it's all a little blurry. I was so completely taken by the music and Alice's absolutely inexplicable, manical, possessed and outright awesome performance that I can't really give you specifics. I know a few things, more or less out of order, which I will put into list form for my enjoyment, and for your clarity:

• Alice grabbed a quart of Smirnoff vodka, took a swig of it, then passed it to the crowd, while walking back to the stage and chanting into her voice-altering microphone "share...share...share it"
• I don't actually know where Alice got the quart from...all I remember is looking at her one minute, then looking at her the next, and seeing the quart
• at one point, she rolled around the stage for a solid five minutes
• I now know why the cleaned the stage before the show
• during that time, she grated the mircophone against the stage's surface to make noises, and when she wasn't doing that, she put it up to the on-stage speakers just to generate feedback for the music
• she came down to crowd level, was held aloft by two guys from security, and started basically convulsing and yelping out lyrics at the same time, oblivious to those holding her, oblivous to the touch of dozens of fans groping for a piece of her, oblivious to everything but the music around her

...so if that doesn't give you an idea of the show, I don't know what will. Crystal Castles is equal parts calm (Ethan) and utter chaos (Alice). There's a few other points I have to make about her. She literally looks possessed on stage. She shrieks into the mic, and when she's not...she's yelling into it. Her eyes look absolutely dead. Like, they say eyes are the window to the soul. She's 1.) dead inside, 2.) has tinted eye windows, or 3.) actually did sell her soul to the devil, and is quite literally soul-less. Those are the only three explanations by the way.

She just seems completely unfazed by anything and everything around her. And to make that even stranger, whenever she walked up to Ethan for a whispered word into the ear about something, she held herself with unbecoming poise and sanity for someone who'd just been seizing on the stage and yelling near-gibberish. A conundrum of a woman if I've ever seen one. Other than singing, all I recall her saying was something about their flight from New York getting messed up, and her being glad to be in Montreal (I possibly made the second part up, she might not have even said that much.)

In regards to her vocals though, it was a wonder that you could even hear her really. I'm not sure if the microphone was broken, or if it was just the way Crystal Castles likes their shows mixed, but you could NOT hear any lyrics other than when Alice was just shrieking them at the top of her lungs. The broken mic was certainly a possiblity though. On top of everything else, Alice would just on to the drum set and start smashing the mouthpiece on the cymbals like it was a drumstick on a rope. It made perfect sense now why one of the techs repeatedly wrapped the poor mic in generous amounts of duct tape, so as to not let the cord rip out mid-set.

Now this all might sound like one complete shit-show of an act. Just an absolute mess. And it's funny, because it probably was. Ethan and Christopher did hold it together quite admirably though, and somehow Alice's tamer side let shine through that there might have been some calculation and awareness to her madness. The one thing I didn't get though was the guy beside me, he of the thrown beer. He was there with his girlfriend, he was certainly younger than me, but still 16-18, and seemed alright...until the show started and people started dancing and going crazy.

I already described the crowds in Montreal as being great. But this was the first time I'd ever felt even the hint of a push in the back. When Alice came down, everyone was pushing from behind to try and get closer to her. I frankly didn't mind at all, as long as they didnt' knock me off into the mud, and as that didn't happen, I was hunky-dory. Girlfriend-guy though was not faring so well. Someone was dancing aggressively beside me, and I didn't mind at all, but seemingly thi guy had had enough. He reached across me, grabbed him mid-jump, and told him to "just relax." Seeing the absurdity in front of me, I scoffed at his gall for trying to tell this equally young guy to "just relax" during easily the most electric show of my concert-going life. Dance on man.

But the guy didn't stop. Two minutes later, he was still dancing, and this time buddy did the same thing, and though I didn't hear specifics, I saw him put up one finger and go "one more time." Thankfully, nothing came of it, or I was going to step in, but if you're third row at a show, you should probably know what you're getting in to - and if not, then shut up, or stay home.

The show almost ended abruptly, with Ethan walking across the stage to a collapsed Alice and yelling "what the fuck?! they cut the sound!? - let's do one more song!" to the raucous cheer of those in the crowd. If anyone thought it was planned or staged, I certainly don't think so, especially with the trouble the band had already went through just to get there. Add that to the fact that Crystal Castles don't exactly seem the gimmicky type.

So one more song, and the best musical day of my life was done. I was off-the-rocker amped up afterwards, excited just to be alive, and so thankful for having seen Crystal Castles work their electronic magic. You'll notice I didn't name songs, and that's because: hell if I know what they played. I heard snippets of the songs I loved, and otherwise, they did their thing, and I happilly obliged. It was only afterwards that something (I actually forget now) was thrown into the crowd as a memento, and then the set list ripped off the stage by a tech and thrown to the people in front of me.

I've never been one at all to lug around a camera and take pictures as keepsakes to remember anything by, let alone concerts. Eager however to savour some memory of the awe-inspiring show, I asked the teens in front of me (in French of course) whether or not their friend had got the set list. Though they understood me, I repeated it in English, and asked if I could take a picture of it, just as my own personal thing. The girl turned around and proclaimed the above caption I wrote under her picture, to which I quickly responded "oh wow, I swear to God I'd never do that, I just want a pic," to which she kindly agreed.

To sum up that insane Crystal Castles show that night, I'm going to Einstein of all people. I've read he once said "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." In that way, Alice Glass probably does do the same thing during every show, but she knows damn well what the result is gonna be. People are gonna love it - and that night, I was happy to be one of them.