Dynamic Festival Review | Osheaga | 8.8.13
Let’s talk Osheaga, eh? An eight year old music & arts festival held in Montreal, Canada this past weekend. We did a good job last week prepping you on the cliff notes now lets fill you in on how it all went down.
To experience Osheaga is to experience the city it’s held in from old world french colonialism to new world cultural mecca, Montreal, proved to be the perfect setting for three days of music, a few epic nights out on the town and a solid catalog of memories that won’t soon be forgotten or never remembered - we’re still piecing some things together a few days later, but we think we’ll be okay.
Being our first international festival experience we were excited to view Osheaga with fresh eyes and a renewed spirit. There’s something about crossing international borders that amps up your energy level and just gets you excited to live life. Day one proved to be less eventful than expected recycling through a line-up of bands we’ve previously checked out at other stops along the way this year. Nonetheless it wasn’t without its highlights showcasing strong performances from festival circuit vets Daughter, Alt-J, Phoenix and Vampire Weekend. Vampire Weekend might have stole the show day one in our opinion prompting a solo dance party that ended up in a foot-loose style get-down with about 20 to 30 people going absolutely ape shit when “Cousins” & “A-Punk” came on - someone needs to send us this video we know it’s out there youtube.
But what day one lacked in new acts it definitely made up for in new festival firsts. Our first taste of poutine - it’s like crack for Canadians, but soo good…be careful not to make the mistake of stuffing your face full of this stuff on the first day you might regret it later, believe us when we tell you this.
Our first time ordering a beer in the crowd. Yep, that’s exactly what we said. They actually have beer guys walking deep into the bowels of the masses to provide you with a tasty cold beverage on a hot day - Cheers to the excellent service they provided all weekend and a solid move as we hope more festivals adopt this policy. Might be hard to pull off in the US with the drinking age still being twenty-one but it was an aspect of Osheaga we came to fall in love with, totally convenient to keeping the good times rolling without taking any breaks from the music to stand in line to grab a beer.
Our last first, was seeing a festival utilize a two main-stage set-up. It was kind of weird at the start, but as the festival progressed it was definitely something that made it easier for fans to see one main act on the big screens while trying to get closer to the stage waiting for the other, or if you had a decent spot on the hill you never had to stand up from your spot all day. We’ll see if any other festivals pick up on this.
Photo via Instagram @nomadic_tutu
Moving day at Osheaga came as advertised boasting lots of local Canadian flavor and a ton of acts we’ve never seen before.
Saturday, we started out at Amtrac representing Miami’s, Super Music Group, spinning a unique mix of funky disco-house holding his own doing a great job commanding a bigger stage than what we’ve seen him play in the 305. Big things on the horizon for this guy - keep an eye out. From there we left Amtrac headed main-stage bound to catch the tail-end of Flogging Molly to get in position for Stars.
Stars just showed up with a raw attitude that was unexpected, a sound that was infectious and a set that made even the casual fan more of a fan of their music by the time they were done. Being from Canada they already had a strong fan base, this was evident when every song they played ended up being a 20,000 person sing-along love fest hitting its apex when they got into, “You’re Ex-Lover’s Dead,” a true teary eyed Osheaga moment for the ladies in the place and maybe few of the guys.
Rounding out our afternoon were sets from Tricky, Azari & III and Bonobo before we dug into and ended our day with Explosions In The Sky. Explosions hands down was the most memorable culminating performance we saw all festival. Not sure if Canadians are big fans of these guys given the lack of a crowd, but that only gave us an opportunity to witness their skill up close and personal. And song after song, lick after lick they showed what true artistry and skill looked liked and felt liked. In the midst of the rain clouds, heat-lighting and a constant threat of rain drops they brought out true emotion in their performance highlighted by crowd favorites “Postcard From 1952” and “Your Hand In Mine.” Not a bad night for Post Rock if we say so ourselves.
Day three of any festival feels more like a work day, get right in, have a great time and get right out; prepping your body and mind for the long road home and reality the next day. So here’s what you need to know from day three at Osheaga. Holy Ghost! completely worth the price of admission. Gramatik - actually showed up with Griz so technically it was Grizmatik, that was an awesome surprise. Everyone loves Kendrick Lamar even Canucks. Disclosure is as good as advertised and White Noise can make any lame body start moving their feet. After all that musical goodness throughout the day Pretty Lights decided to end the evening mad soulful dropping “Yellowbird” and “The Message Mashup” back to back before closing it down with “Hot Like Sauce.”
In the end, our lasting impression on Osheaga is this: friends & bands always move around, but cities never do. More than the music should entice you to make the trek up north to this festival it’s the backdrop it’s set within. Amazing food, tons of sightseeing and a truly unique Canadian experience awaits. There just happens to be an amazing group of people throwing a pretty kickass party with some pretty awesome music the first week of August every year - not a bad reason to take an adventure if you ask us. And if the music sucks you can always go to the Tam Tams and join the drum circle. Until next year Osheaga, until next year. Peace out Montreal it was fun!
Writer: Ditto Ramirez
Photo via Instagram @gingersnap3694
Photo via Instagram @larsen514
(Source: thesouldynamic.com)