Osheaga Day 1 Recap and Review

I’m alive. If by any chance my eardrums aren’t or something. Day 1 of Osheaga was certainly a whirlwind of stages, poutine, heat, beautiful Montreal women…and some music somewhere in between all that.

The first thing I noticed was the subway. When you hold a festival on an island, and the majority of concert goers probably can’t drive to the island, you get a ridiculously packed subway, like I experienced on the solo trip there, and to an even greater extent on my trip off the island with a friend.

The second thing worth mentioning, and which ties into the above, is how incredibly polite and well-behaved people here are. We discussed it at the end of the day, and one of us saw maybe one person who had drank too much. It was a crush of at least 3000 people waiting to get on to the subway at the end of the night…and not a shove or an unkind word to be heard – French or English.

The same goes for the shows themselves. Save for the one couple who decided to seemingly conceive their baby in front of me during Girl Talk, everyone kept to their own space, there was no shoving from behind you, no crowd surfing over the top of you, and no one bumping into you from dancing beside you. Maybe it’s the sheer amount of jackass teenagers who get drunk and think they can crowd surf like in the movies in Nova Scotia, but the crowds are infinitely better overall in Montreal.

That doesn’t mean there was a lack of spirit in any way though. They clapped just as heard and were just as “in” to the concerts as I’d seen anyone. It was a shame that no one did any encores because of the tight scheduling, but everyone sure cheered like there was the possibility. Acts from La Roux to Woodhands were thanking the crowd, with Dan Werb from the latter group even going “…and I’m not fucking kidding when I say that, I love you guys!”

The day itself was just oppressive. Not a cloud to be seen until maybe 5 or 6pm. Guys walked around shirtless, girls had bikinis on, people were sweating like pigs. If anyone was selling sunscreen, they were the smartest merchant on the island. The sun wasn’t just beating down, there was enough humidity in the air to make the so-called 26 degrees feel upwards of 30 and then some. Of course, even that couldn’t stop throngs of people (including myself) from forming two long lines in anticipation for the fries/gravy/curds treat of poutine.

The stages were laid out in quite a fashion for their part. Give the organizers their credit, they knew how to run a festival. The two main stages were right beside each other, so that as soon as one act finished, the other could come right on, and the crowd would just have to shift side-to-side. There was another stage across a bridge and a bit deeper into the woods, and this was for up-and-coming acts. Smart idea, because this venue was covered by a tent and put the crowd on eye-level with the performers due to a raised platform for the concert goers.

You felt much closer to the band, and it was a great way to get acquainted with the newer acts at the festival, who yesterday included PARLOVR, The Rural Alberta Advantage, and Woodhands among them. The final and furthest stage was another intimate venue nestled in between trees, and this one was actually the exclusive stage of the MEG Festival for Osheaga. Luckily, it happened most of the groups I wanted to see were at that stage, so I didn’t have to do too much running between the four venues.

So now that I’ve set out the scene, why not get to the reviews of the acts themselves? We started the day in the comfort of the shade, pouring over the schedule so we could set our own. And it went as such:

La Roux

Funniest part of the day? La Roux’s tech was doing the mic check, the usual “1, 2. 1,2.” Then after a few minutes he beckoned us “1,2. La Roux!” 1,2. La Roux!” We had no problem obliging him, and when the red-headed songstress came out later, she said it was probably the funniest thing that had happened on her own tour…which she followed up by saying we probably thought they were losers if that was it.

La Roux isn’t just her though, and it’s not even a duo like I thought. It’s the familiar exotically-coiffed lead singer, a short-shorts and oversized tank-top dressed, comb-over-haired (all circa 1993) keyboardist, a bearded and slightly normal-looking synth/effects/keyboards guy, and another baggy-shirted, glasses-that-made-her-look-bug-eyed girl in the back playing…you guessed it, keyboards – though to her credit, she provided some decent back-up vocals. La Roux for her part was dressed in obscenely bright tights, a vest my mom may have worn in the 80’s, a polka-dotted (if my memory serves me correctly) baggy blouse, and round, Ozzy Osbourne-y spectacles.

Everything was fine actually, except for those shades. Of all the kinds of glasses, she chose those ones. They aged her like 40 years, made her look bug-eyed in a worse way than the other girl’s glasses, and just overall weren’t a good look for her. I felt like a granny had gotten a perm and started belting 80’s-era electro pop as my Osheaga opening act.

Thankfully though, given her “how the hell did she manage to make that look like that?” hairdo (the pic isn't from Osheaga, and doesn't even do her hair at the festival justice), there were enough distractions to go around. And oh yeah, she did some singing too. I have to admit, the lyrics all seemed overly simple and reflective of past broken relationships – kinda like the stuff I write when I’m feeling lonely on a Saturday night at 2am. We looked close in age, but I imagine she has a better manager and song-writing team than I do.

The jangly keyboards and synth stabs certainly masked over the lyrical deficiencies, and she played all her popular hits, with gusto at that. “Quicksand,” “Colourless Colour,” “In For The Kill” (sadly, not the epic Skream remix, but why would she anyways?), and closing the set with my personal favourite, “Bulletproof.” Good show to get us going and a little bit pumped for the rest of the day to come.

Eagles of Death Metal

I convinced my friends not to head to K’Naan, and that turned out to be a huge mistake (more on that later). I was hyped for Eagles of Death Metal, mainly because of their standout track “Wannabe In L.A.” Turns out that’s about the only thing that stood out about them. The lead singer had all the aura and on-stage antics of a big-time rock star, but certainly not the pipes. He glossed over some words, and the show even felt too quiet of all things. It’s a rock show – much better you’re too loud than too quiet.

He interacted with the audience a bit, but the only really highlight of the show was his guitar duel with his bandmate from opposite sides of the large headlining stage. Maybe two of the songs they played actually stood out for me, and no one else I was with was particularly impressed with Eagles of Death Metal either. I’m pretty tall too, so I could see a fair bit of the crowd in front of me (we were a bit late so got spots a bit further back), and I could tell none of them were too into it either – no telltale headbobbing or hands in the air. Lacklustre show overall, and I certainly wouldn’t want to watch them in the future.

Sidenote? Queens of the Stone Age frontman and Eagles of Death Metal drummer Josh Homme wasn't even there for the show. Boo.

(up til now, this post was written on Sunday morning…it’s now Monday morning, and in terms of Saturday, my memory could be a bit spotty, but I’ll try...I mean, just reading back through it, I see things I wrote that happened, that I'd forgotten until I read them. Whoa.)

Elbow
I’m not counting it as seeing them, because we just kinda chilled on the grass and didn’t even look towards the stage, although we could hear them playing. No one seemed too high on them anyways, given their plodding, epic, ballad-y rock. When I described them as Coldplay, but slower, to my friends, that was kinda the nail in the coffin. And this was to people who liked Coldplay, so go figure.

The Stills

Headed over to see these guys at the MEG stage, and got there a few minutes before they actually came on. And come on they did, the two lead guitarists (who I erroneously thought were brothers, given their similar looks) dressed in nurse/orderly-looking get-ups. One was rocking the red jeans and red t-shirt, the other with the same thing in blue. I’m not gonna lie, it felt like we were watching the All-Hospital Talent Show of Montreal for about 45 minutes. The one weak attempt they made at explaining the shirts didn’t make much sense either, so let’s just leave that part alone.

I’ve of course heard of The Stills, but aside from single “Being Here,” I can’t say I really knew too much of their stuff. That didn’t stop me from enjoying it though. They have quite the brand of tune – soaring, psychedelic, cresting, synthy, atmospheric rock. Every song had a distinct build-up and crescendo without fail. That kind of act can start to grate on you after a bit, especially when you start to see it coming, but there was enough variety between light-heartedness and heaviness in the songs that you didn’t really mind it too much. At one point they even brought out a special guest to play a weird-looking set of “Turkish” drums, and that was just another interesting element to their show.

Nothing other than “Being Here” really stood out for me honestly, but they were more than a good filler. They were also the reason for the earlier K’Naan mention. After convincing my friends not to head to the latter’s show, The Stills made not one, but two mentions of how awesome of a show the Somalian-Canadian put on. No specifics, but you get the feeling he made a lasting and indelible impression on the band, let alone the crowd who took him in. Even my sister texted me saying it had been “ridiculous.”

The Rural Alberta Advantage

Now the only real problem with The Stills was that they cut into this group. By the time I was done at the MEG stage and headed over to the Kia stage featuring The RAA, they were about three songs away from the end of their set. Luckily I caught much-hyped (and deservedly-so) single “Don’t Haunt This Place,” plus the outstanding closer “Edmonton,” so it wasn’t all bad news, especially considering the set itself was a curt half-hour.

Amy from the group may have been the highlight of my day if she wasn’t upstaged by Lykke Li just 15 minutes later. I mean, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a cuter girl in a band. Just inexplicably cute and pretty. I wanted to make her my girlfriend. My friend said she made him want to be a better person. All-around great person. Which made it so much worse when mid-song she knocked her keyboard off the stand, was rendered helpless, and then by the time she got it back up, had seemingly broke the thing.

The song went along fine, with only a bit of a piano loop missing from it, but our eyes were trained on Amy and her keyboard problems. All that aside though, The RAA put on a great show, and I only wish I was able to see more of it. You can tell that even though they’ve got the requisite Pitchfork-induced hype and great reviews all ‘round, they’re still a small-time band at heart, trying to make it just like everyone else. They let us know they had merchandise for sale, and lobbied for our Galaxie vote for them.

Lykke Li

Li Lykke (say lukey, not licky) Timotej Zachrisson. The 23-year old Swedish goddess of a singer. First of all, it wasn’t funny enough that her backing band was doing it’s mic check in Swedish, and taking too long to do that as it was. She came on as the sun was starting to go down, and played about as perfect a dusk show as you could get. Unfortunately Osheaga’s site doesn’t have pics from her performance up yet (if they’re going to at all), but the woman is gorgeous. She came out in a black ruffly number, complete with even-more-ruffled black boa, with mouth instruments jangling from a silver necklace, short skirt barely clearing her waist, and black, flowery nylons covering the rest of her legs. She was just oozing sex.

Though the above may read more like a stripper’s profile than that of an amazingly talented singer, I apologize. But you just had to be there. Even the girls we were with admitted to having a big girl-crush on Lykke after her performance. As the sole vocalist, and not wielding anything but a sole drumstick to randomly smash a stand-alone cymbal with, she was about as polarizing a front-woman as you can imagine. For her young age, she was as confident and laid-back as anyone I’d seen all day. Just completely in command, all the while with a laissez-faire attitude that didn’t seem to indicate as much.

I’m real familiar with her catalogue, and even more so with the numerous remixes of her blog-friendly music. The delicateness of her voice translates perfectly to the stage, and everyone hung on her every word. From asking us whether or not she could play a new song, to imploring us to “light up a J” to the same tune, there was nothing Lykke could ask that we weren’t ready to do for her. I know I myself stood there just rapt by her performance, tunnel-vision on what she’d or sing next.

And that’s the thing about Lykke, she’s unpredictable. I’ve seen footage of her breaking into Rick Ross tunes in small venues overseas, but little did I know she’d randomly jump into a very spirited and faithful (and I mean right down to the very lyrics) rendition of Lil’ Wayne’s “A Milli.” The girl has a secret love for rap, and it definitely showed through during her show. She even threw us for a loop after that with A Tribe Called Quest’s “Can I Kick It?” but we most certainly obliged her. She’s eclectic, dynamic, gorgeous, and talented. I really don’t know what more you could ask for, so Lykke was certainly the highlight of my Saturday at Osheaga.

Girl Talk

After that of course, I stuck around to get a good spot at the same MEG stage for Girl Talk’s headlining act. Of course, all my friends and even my sister skipped out to see Coldplay headlining at the main stage, but I was ready to “get my dance on” with what I hoped was to be a large and raucous crowd. Standing around beforehand, I ended up talking to three or four guys from Australia who were up in North America on a road trip, and had seen Girl Talk five times already, including a stopover in Barcelona during Spain’s spring break. I can only venture a guess at how insane that show was. For a guy in front of us, he even let her girlfriend wander off to Coldplay so he could catch GT.

Given all the good word and the better vibes coming from the crowd, I was expecting something big. Truth be told, I was let down. First off, Girl Talk is one guy, Greg Gillis (really, that's him...click it again...it's still him). He had two square laptops set up on a table, two subwoofers beside those, and a white screen in behind him for his on-the-fly powerpoint and special effects show. So between the fact that he came out in basically sweatpants, a white tee, and a sweatshirt, that his voice was about as geeky as they come, and typing up his own crowd directions to display on-screen as he went, I knew something was up. I mean, I already knew this impression of GT, but his music was undeniably catchy in any instance. That I couldn’t argue.

So basically every Girl Talk track starts with a big bass line, a rock or hip-hop riff, and the same thing for the vocals. A three-part concoction that at the conclusion of the show covered everything from AC/DC to Journey to Outkast to God-know’s-what musically. To put it lightly, it was quite a mix. To put it the other way, to the untrained and unready ear, it was a clusterfuck of 30-second snippets of every popular song in the last 20+ years. And another way? Imagine the last two years you’ve been going clubbing (and I say two because that’s as long as I’ve been doing it) and then combine all those nights into one show about an hour and a half long…and that’s Girl Talk. Get it?

I mean, this was complete with dancers hand-picked from the festival’s crowd, just dancing non-stop on stage the entire time. Given some of the deadheads and the over-abundance of guys I was standing around, there was nowhere more I wanted to be more than on that stage, dancing with the half-naked girls (yes, that’s more than three sexualized references in a day’s worth of shows at a festival…it was that kind of day, alright?).

After that show anyways, which was overall not only forgettable but also regrettable given how epic everyone said Coldplay was, I was ready to end the night on a better note. So enter…

Woodhands

Wow. I didn’t think they could make up for Girl Talk’s let-down, but they certainly tried their damnedest. I only caught about three of their songs, but I lucked out in the same way I did with The RAA (same stage too...and get this, I just found out they both have the same drummer? huh), and saw the duo play an extremely spirited trio of their hit “Dancer” (nicely extended), the tail end of a song in which they got an earlier performer from the day (Gentleman Reg) to feature on vocals, and then a huge number that just kept going and going until they left the crowd in a frenzy and wanting more. I’ll keep this review short and to the point, just like their set. They were great, high-energy electro-rock, and definitely worth a look if you have the chance.

So that sums up Day 1 of Osheaga. Check back later for Day 2.