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Osheaga Music Festival 2012

Osheaga Music Festival
Montreal, Canada
August 3-5

Every music festival has a question. Sometimes, it’s an obvious one that develops a theme for the fest – “When will it stop raining,” “Who’s going to play the Superjam,” “What’s the deal with those mascots,” or “How many artists will get stopped at the border?” Other times, it’s a total mystery – as was the case the weekend of Aug. 3-5 at Montreal’s seventh annual Osheaga Music Festival, when people were walking around and wondering aloud, “What do you think that giant crane is for?”

For three days, a huge, industrial crane stood directly behind the main stage, like an unfinished London Olympic venue waiting for the finishing touch, until it became a part of the background scenery of Jean Drapeau Park.

Until, that is, the Black Keys put that question to rest.

Closing the festival on Sunday night, August 5, the Keys once again proved they can throw as good a party as any band. During their third-last song, Everlasting Light (which always features a special effect), the slumbering crane awoke into action and swung a platform over the crowd, from which a rain of purple, blue and white sparks showered down. It was the defining moment of the festival and, of course, the raucous crowd went even more nuts.

It was a fitting end to the biggest and best Osheaga yet. In the shadow of the geodesic dome built for the 1967 World’s Fair, the event drew a sellout crowd of 120,000 people and – trust me – it was obvious there were A LOT of people there.

The only hiccups to the fest were logistical, not musical – the layout featured a long, winding path that funneled tens of thousands of inebriated concert-goers up a narrow staircase and walkway constructed over a road that remained open during the event, causing major backlogs and making it very difficult to hop from stage to stage. You basically had to pick a side and commit to it for a whole show. There were also huge lineups for concession stands, water stations and bathrooms, and not nearly enough beer tents for all the people, but that is all part of the festival experience.

In terms of the music, I was extremely impressed. There were very few disappointments and several bands with whom I was pleasantly surprised. Some of my lesser highlights included Gary Clark Jr., who absolutely shredded his guitar Friday afternoon and showed that the future of blues rock is in good hands; British DJ SBTRKT, whose mixture of classical, rock and electronic sounds was refreshingly groovy compared to some of the other DJs on the electronic stage (and his delightfully British quips to the crowd were quite charming); the Black Angels, who I didn’t know anything about but are really an explosion of hard rock and up-tempo rhythm; and Little Dragon, a Swedish electronic group that was much more funky and rockin’ than their description as “electronic” led me to believe. Great visuals, too.

The first day of the festival got off to a bit of a slow start as 80,000 people tried to figure out where all the stages and beer tents were, so many fans missed the first few hours of shows by bands like fun., Hey Ocean!, Yukon Blonde, Freelance Whales and the Bombay Bicycle Club. Folk-rock band Of Monsters and Men really kicked off the fest with the first huge crowd, turning up their rock-factor to get people moving. Their decision not to close their set with Little Talks, their biggest song, I thought was unusual, but allowed people to leave early to catch Franz Ferdinand. I decided to skip those quintessential indie-rockers in favour of Austin, Texas’ Gary Clark Jr., and was not disappointed.

Florence & the Machine was the biggest act of opening night, though curiously they did not get the headlining spot, which went to Justice, one of the most self-serving and overblown electronic performances I’ve ever seen. The DJ spent at least five minutes of his show walking out from behind his turntables and holding his hand up for applause, in front of a giant light-up cross. Talk about ego.

Florence, for her part, sounded great after recovering from her vocal chord injury of a few weeks ago and had some good banter for the massive crowd that formed to watch her, at one point proclaiming, “We need human sacrifices! I want to see as many people on shoulders as possible.”

Later that night, MGMT took the stage and promptly blew me away. Ive seen the New York duo several times at festivals over the years, and always felt they were a little too electronic-disco for my tastes. This, I have since come to understand, is why so many people like them. However, tonight, they played a much more psychedelic, meandering, jammy set that was reminiscent of Pink Floyd, especially in their lighting and artwork, which was like an hour-long trip to the cover of Floyd’s More album. Their version of the Rolling Stones’ Angie was also really well done and perfect for the vibe of their set. “They can’t say we never tried to cover that song,” teased co-frontman Andrew VanWyngarden after strumming the last chords.

They were easily one of the highlights of my festival, though many people I talked to were disappointed it wasn’t more of a dance party. I’d say, if MGMT used to be a rebellious, end-of-the-year high-school party, now they’ve become a third-year college frat party.