Eminem may have brought out the record crowds for Osheaga’s first day, but in terms of pure spectacle it would be hard to overshadow the Flaming Lips. Closing out the three-day Montreal festival in technicolour grandeur, the Oklahoma rockers brought out every psychedelic weapon in their arsenal for a front-to-back retelling of their 1999 classic, The Soft Bulletin.
Lead singer Wayne Coyne admitted that every song on the album was about “the inescapable sadness of realizing you’re going to die,” which is hardly uplifting material for a celebration, but the Lips’ stage show is all about embracing mortality and making the most out of every minute. That could easily come off as a cheesy platitude in lesser hands, but Coyne’s shaman-like sincerity instilled a layer of depth to the performance, even as it bombarded the crowd with confetti cannons, laser hands and trippy LED displays.
Flaming Lips show usually carry a sense of occasion, but Coyne brought out all the stops for this one. As the concert ended, he brought out two costumed Calgarians (who had been dancing on stage all the while) and performed a wedding ceremony for them onstage. It was unclear what authority he had to marry people, beyond what he called “the power of LSD”, but they reportedly went through with a more official process backstage after the show.
Earlier in the day, hip hop lifers Cypress Hill sang the praises of an entirely different intoxicant. Going on at 4:20 (of course), the rap group made no qualms about its dedication to marijuana and, fittingly, the crowd was a sea of pot smoke. No security guard thought to intervene, even as B-Real brought out one of the biggest blunts I’ve ever seen and smoked it onstage. Though it’s corporate (if you didn’t like Budweiser or Red Bull and vodka, you didn’t drink), the festival still maintains a relaxed, fan-friendly vibe.
That vibe was echoed by Beirut, whose mainstage set brought out the first festival appearances of ukulele, tuba and accordion. Zach Condon’s Balkan-tinged tunes were quite pretty under the hot sun, but his dull crooning ensured that the songs all blended together. It was the opposite case for Crystal Castles, whose Green Stage performance was as uncomfortably packed as Ratatat’s the night before. Singer Alice Glass mostly refrained from her well-known confrontational stage antics and instead delivered a set of upbeat electro without a single dose of violence.
Osheaga is obviously learning to adapt to its growing stature and draw, but it’s doing a good job of building itself into one of the biggest festivals in Canada. Without much else in the way of Coachella-style “event” festivals, it remains the best option for a Canadian music pilgrimage.
All photos by Zach Slootsky.
