Overheard at Osheaga

 

It’s time for one of my favourite ongoing segments: things overheard at music festivals. Enjoy!

- “You’re washing your feet in that?”

- “Who do you have to bribe to get a street closed around here?”

- “You’re gonne be here for a long time – longer than City and Colour played for.”

- “It’s 2012! The Apocalypse is coming!”

- “We’ve been saying it’s 2012 since before it was 2012, and we’ll be saying it after.”

- “It’s Montreal, everywhere serves till 3 o’clock!”

- “Maybe I should get cash, I have like zero dollars…”

          - “I have at least twenty.”

- “Gilles Du-ceppe, charged me 10 dollars for a ci-ga-rette...” (drunken singing)

- “I didn’t go to Bluesfest this year, that was my identical twin sister.”

- “He’s doing the slow walk…”

          - “He knows the slow walk well…”

- “There are some people doing the robot near me.”

- “That shirt is really rad, man – I didn’t know the bears could board!”

- “You’re not going to Snoop Dogg?”

          - “Bah, no, and it’s Snoop LION now…”

          - “Snoop Lion…”

          - “Sheep Lion!”

- “They want to get rid of our health care!”

          - “We should all just fuckin’ use gold, anyway.”

Osheaga Update: That's A Wrap...

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, including a great music festival - and Montreal's Osheaga was surely that. It had its ups and downs, there are some things festival organizers will surely learn from, but those things were all logistical. I can honestly say there wasnt a single band during the course of the three days of the fest that disappointed me, and several i was pleasantly surprised by. Sure, it was extremely hot, incredibly crowded, there were not nearly enough beer tents and the layout was brutal, but the music was phenomenal. All the detriments were logistic, not music. So ill just have to go back next year when they've got it all sorted out.

Some highlights of day 3:

- The Shins - great show, i was very impressed. They remind me of a young REM, mixed with some Revolver-era Beatles (that trippy, melodic guitar sound like Tomorrow Never Knows) with some of the up-tempo beats reminiscent of Queen.
- all the metal heads gathered for some head banging at the Black Angels, who put on a great show with lots of diversity and musical tangents away from their cacophonous metal sound, which i enjoyed
- did you know Bloc Party is British? I didnt. This band needs a more ambitious sound if they want to really break through, they sound too much like everyone else who's popular right now. I could say the same thing for Of Mice and Men, even the Shins.
- Metric put on almost exactly the same show as they did three weeks ago at Ottawa Bluesfest, which i really enjoyed, with a slightly different set list and less banter to the crowd, which was much bigger due to their Montreal roots.
- Black Keys = Awesome. Fantastic. Amazing. Second-best Keys show ive ever seen, after my first one. Those guys just know how to party.

Stay tuned for a full festival review and, of course, my favourite segment that focuses on crazy, hilarious drunk/stoned people at festivals, "Overheard at the Festival."


Overheard at Osheaga:

- “You’re washing your feet in that?”

- “You’re gonne be here for a long time – longer than City and Colour played for.”
- "Who do you have to bribe to get a street closed around here?"

- “It’s 2012! The Apocalypse is coming!”

          - “We’ve been saying it’s 2012 since before it was 2012, and we’ll be saying it after.”

- “Everywhere serves till 3 oclock!”

- “Maybe I should get cash, I have like zero dollars."

          - “I have at least twenty…”

- (sung at the top of her lungs) “Gilles Du-ceppe, charged me 10 dollars for a ci-ga-rette...”

- “I didn’t go to Bluesfest this year, that was my identical twin sister.”

- “He’s doing the slow walk…”

          - “He knows the slow walk well…”

Osheaga Update: Enter, Day 3

Osheaga Fest - Day 3: Here's whats on tap: Passion Pit, Santigold, Woodkid, the Shins, Bloc Party, Metric, the Black Keys, M83, and more. Plus a 40% chance of thunderstorms, so interesting day ahead. Stay tuned!

Osheaga Update: Day 2's End

Osheaga festival is two thirds over, and already im wishing it was gonna last longer than it is. Never thought id say it, but im a little nostalgic for a two week-long Bluesfest experience, know what i mean?

Here, now, thoughts and observations from Day 2.

- great tatoo on the underside of a guy's arm: "Build a better ____"
- Great set by Plants & Animals, i was very impressed - great version of Good Friend that had the crowd going nuts and with the lyrics, "it takes a good friend to say you've got your head up your ass," you could hear people in the crowd going, "ya, thats true!"
- it was so hot they broke out the water canons, but they werent strong enough to reach the majority of the crowd so the front, right corner of the crowd was getting drenched! it was refreshing at first, but then it was getting repeatedly soaked over and over again. Moral of the story: variable-jet water canons.
- P&A seems like a great quarter-life crisis band with their contemporary style and existencial yet down-to-earth lyrics
- They remind me of Wilco, if i had to compare
- Young the Giant had a better, though less psychedelic set than the one i saw three weeks ago in Ottawa - it was a smokin hot afternoon under the sun so they couldnt be as lightshow focused, and they rocked a bit more. One song reminded me of Pearl Jam's Given to Fly, but i maintain my My Morning Jacket comparison.
- YtG also has a sort of Spoon-style simplicity combined with the soaring, ethereal arcs Coldplay style oooh-oooooh-ooooooh reverb
- overheard during the fest - "They want to get rid of our health care!"
                                              - "We should all just fuckin' use gold anyway, man."
- Rockin set by the Arkells, who continue to win converts with every show. Nice tease of the Black Keys "Lonely Boy" - "We've had this weekend circled on our calendar for a long time," said lead singer  Max Kerman.
- shout out to 2005-Bonnaroo-tshirt-wearing Will, Colin and their group from Fredericton on their festival tour, who got to see Iron Maiden for the first time last week and were Arkells virgins
- British DJ duo SUBTRKT was really good, mixing elements of classical and dubstep, and as a charming twist they were so typically British
- when he said, very understatedly to the crowd between "scenes," "it's hot up here, (sigh)" it was so typically british i cant even describe why it made me laugh so much
- sorta like, "this is gonna be our last scene of the night, i fink"
- Feist was great, very bluesy and much harder than expecting, but with some very uplifting, operatic sections to it with a female-power liberation Dixie Chicks feel at times. Interesting set. - Someone brought a palm tree and passed it through the crowd up to the stage.
- "it does kinda feel like Coachella out here today," she said in the heat
- "Thanks you doe bringing a palm tree, which i only ever dreamt would happen."
- overheard at the Sheepdogs: "Not going to Snoop Dogg?"
                                                  - "Bah no, and it's Snoop Lion now..."
                                                  - "Snoop Lion!"
                                                  - "Sheep Lion!"
- Sheepdogs were absolutely awesome, they are the best jam band to come out of Canada in a long time. they honestly sounded like the Allman Brothers, and were teasing Jessica throughout the whole show
- "That shirt is really rad man, i didnt know the bears could board!"
- spontaneous applause in the metro station on the way home for Canada when the medal count was flashed on the screens in the tunnel. Gotta love it.  

Osheaga Update: Enter, Day 2

Im about to head out for Osheaga, day two, and my day should look something like this: Plants & Animals, Young the Giant, the Arkells, maybe some dubstep in between or possibly some Garbage or Feist, then the Sheepdogs to close it out. Gonna be a solid day of music with some good can-con. Excelsior!

Osheaga update: End, Day 1

Day 1 is in the books and, before i start preparations for the hot, sweaty metro trip back to parc jean drapeau for Day 2, here are some thoughts and observations from Day 1. ill turn this insto something coherent once i have the whole narrative from the three days of the festival.

- dont want to start off on a negative note but a really poor layout to the festival made me miss several good bands in the opening hours of the fest - managed to catch the last couple songs Of Mice & Men did and they were actually not bad, much more rockin than their radio folkiness
- tough choice between Franz Ferdinand and Gary Clark Jr - i had a feeling the melancholy indie rockers would fail to hold my interest so i decided to groove to the young blues guitarists awesome southern twang. Good choice.
- somwhere between 60-80 thousandss people trying to watch florence & the machine in a space designed for half that. by the time i was packed in like a sardine in a crushed tin box, i still couldnt see anything, not even the big screens
- florence telling the crowd "we need human sacrifices! i want to see as many people on shoulders as possible."
- in the ongoing effort to further my dub-ducation, i went to check out some Zeds Dead and was pleasantly surprised by the high degree of dance-ability
- MGMT was the highlight of the night - they've come a long way since i first saw them years ago at Bonnaroo - much more low key (for them) set, with a more pink-floyd-ey, jamming psychedelic vibe, espcially in the artwork - than their old electro dance party sound. id say, whereas MGMT used to be a rebellious end of the year high school house party, they've graduated to something like a 3rd year college house party.
- MGMT's cover of the Stones' Angie was excellent - a good choice for then and well executed
- my (highly illegible) notes say: MGMT = radiohead + vampire weekend + pink floyd artwork (it was the album More im thinking of, very Andy Warhol-esque).
- people screaming for Kids, which they did not play
- That guy Justice is one of the most self-congratulating djs ive ever seen. I mean, who puts a giant light up cross onstage behind them? he spent half his show in front of his soundboard, in silence, with his arm gathering applause. come on.
- saying, "there are some people doing the robot around me" is not a good way to give directions during a DJ show
 

Happy Birthday Jerry

You would have been 70 today, and I just want you to know how much you mean to me. I even named my cat after you. your music changed my life and so many others'. Keep on truckin, my friend.

Once in a while you get shown the light
in the strangest of places, if you look at it right.

On behalf of the entire jam band community, happy birthday Jerry!