OSHEAGA MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL at Parc Jean Drapeau in Montreal. July 29-31.
MONTREAL – If there was any doubt that Osheaga is Canada’s biggest music festival, it was shattered on its first night. The six-year-old event has had its attention-grabbing headliners in the past, but this year’s expensive coup, Detroit rap juggernaut Eminem (Rating: NNNN), overshadowed all of them, bringing out a record-shattering 38,000 fans on Friday night, many of whom made the pilgrimage from all over the country (yes, even Toronto).
Eminem’s career-spanning set suited the big-ticket atmosphere, but it made the other acts feel a bit like glorified openers. Janelle Monáe’s (NNNN) all-encompassing bizarro-funk performance – which included everything from choreography to costumes – should have been a scene-stealer, but for many festival-goers she was just filling time before the headliner.
Osheaga may have blown its budget on the first day Saturday’s so-called headliners, Elvis Costello & the Imposters (NN), managed to drive crowds away in droves. Watching Costello play bona fide rock classics to such a sparse group just felt awkward.
But that left the field wide open for lower-billed performers to shine, and many of them seized the opportunity. Ratatat’s (NNNN) organically played set of electro-pop, for instance, would have been an epic side-stage dance party if there’d been room to move.
Saturday also saw the return of recently reunited Toronto duo Death from Above 1979 (NNNN) to Canadian soil, and they made up for five years of lost time with a non-stop blast of low-end punk and roll fury.
The last weekend of July is a busy one for entertainment in Montreal, but Montreal Electronic Groove (MEG) has managed to sidestep that problem by positioning itself as a loosely affiliated Osheaga after-fest. A high-profile MEG late-night DJ set by LCD Soundsystem principals James Murphy and Pat Mahoney brought out a dedicated group of disco lovers to L’Olympia late Saturday night.
That left many groggy on Sunday, and daytime programming seemed to reflect that. Cypress Hill (NNN) spent their afternoon set (starting at 4:20, naturally) leading a festival-wide smokeout, while Beirut’s (NNN) lugubrious Balkan-tinged indie pop acted as a soundtrack to the hot sun.
Closing out the festival in technicolour grandeur, the Flaming Lips (NNNN) used every psychedelic weapon in their arsenal – confetti cannons, laser hands, costumes and trippy LED displays – for a front-to-back retelling of their 1999 classic, The Soft Bulletin. The album’s mortality-obsessed subject matter isn’t the aptest material for a celebration, but the band turned it into a brightly lit ode to living every moment like it’s your last.
And for Osheaga, it was.
music@nowtoronto.com
