A flight debacle on Saturday meant I didn’t arrive in Montreal until Day 1 of the Osheaga Festival was almost over, meaning the closest I got to Parc Jean-Drapeau was texts from my Coast cohort Holly (summary: THE NATIONAL!).
The festival is easily accessible by subway, and if you can make it through the pre-gate gauntlet without taking on a fistful of fliers or signing up for military service, a quick check of your bag gets you in in mere minutes. (Unlike most fests, Osheaga is cool with you bringing outside food and water, though I did end up eating pizza in a cone for five bucks later in the day, along with towels, blankets and chairs.) Armed with sunglasses and a dumb hat, I forged ahead into a 10-hour music day.
The two main stages are set up next to each other for maximum time management, with other stages down a path into the woods (seriously). So I lined up with about 40 kids to wait for The Gaslight Anthem, my favourite band of the past two years. By the time Ian Kelly (zuh?) finished next door, the gravel behind me was packed with kids in Metric shirts singing off-key to Gaslight cuts from the new American Slang and hits from the breakthrough ’59 Sound. Frontman Brain Fallon (swoooon!) was smiling from the second he walked out. “Ok Canada, let’s try to have some fun,” he said, setting up the theme of the day.
Ariane Moffatt—this was a day of many question marks, artist-wise—had a killer voice and a pretty good cover of MIA’s “Paper Planes,” though the cash register was off every single time. I found myself standing next to Seu Jorge, Bud in hand, for The Black Keys, who entered to relentlessly loud hip-hop and kept up the volume with additional musicians.
And now a photo interlude. The press tent saved my life with its picnic tables, bottled water and trees. Check it:
- No music this way.
- Hat and sunglasses by Bluenotes, Mic Mac Mall.
- The furry dude hung out all day. The lifeguard is ironic.
- Wes Miles and Alexandra Lawn of Ra Ra Riot doing an interview within tackling distance. New record out Aug 24!
“What the fuck y’all sittin’ down for?” asked Snoop Dogg of the lawn dwellers at the tail end of a hit parade sure to be repeated Sunday in Sydney.
Sonic Youth boasted about a dozen Jazzmaster guitars (Lee Ranaldo had cheat sheets taped to some of them) for a typically noisy, loud set mostly devoid of banter, smiling or crowd interaction. “This is what they do,” explained a girl behind me to her friend. “It’s 40 percent songs and 60 percent this.” I was just disappointed that Kim Gordon only played two songs on bass. (She looked amazing though.) “We’re Sonic Youth and we love Quebec City,” said Thurston Moore, before his wife jumped in with “Montreal!”
- …and Sonic Youth’s in my cooler! Get out of there you kids!
A late Snoop had knocked an otherwise on-time festival off by 15 minutes, which meant I could only catch two songs from Metric, a new one followed by “Gold Guns Girls.” (I would’ve loved Emily Haines‘s hair fan.) To the tune of “Help I’m Alive,” I made my way through the soused crowd, down a curved path into the woods to the aptly named Tree Stage, where my favourite American orch-pop band Ra Ra Riot was doing its own sound check for some reason.
I managed to nab front row for this set, marred by feedback—frontman Wes Miles was obviously miffed at the sound—which didn’t detract from the bulk of the fantastic Rhumb Line and a pair of tracks from The Orchard, out August 24.
Miles ran down the front row for a victorious high five lap.
The last band I heard at Osheaga was one whose set I’d heard one week earlier, hilariously. I headed to the complimentary Metro as Weezer tore through “The Sweater Song” and gate workers held up NO RE-ENTRY signs. Annnnnnnn….FIN. (PS The internet says Devo was amazing.)
This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2010.