DAY 1: Rock is still there, you just need to dig a lil’
This month, the 19th edition of the Osheaga Music Festival was happening in Montreal, at Parc Jean-Drapeau. Like last year, Atlantic Canada Rocks was there to cover the event!
After arriving at the park, and doing my usual walk around the venue, one thing I noticed; things haven’t changed that much, and that’s for the better. Over the years, the site has been constantly improving to a point where things run as optimal as they can even with 55 000 people getting in.
With that, let’s go over some reviews, and again, with so many bands on the lineup (close to 90), it’s impossible for one single person to catch every act, so these are the artists that I managed to catch during the 3 days.
Ok, I may have lied a little in my intro about “nothing changed”. Upon arriving at the Coca-Cola stage, the first thing I noticed was the change in the layout. The stage is now set up so that there’s less “tree interference”, leaving more spaces for festival goers to dance as much as they want!
Tallandskinny
So I get at the Coca-Cola stage to start my day with Tallandskinny. The Montreal DJ is building a reputation of getting the crowd going and dancing everywhere she performs, and being the first artist to play on Friday at 2PM, that skill was truly needed. Of the 3 openers at the Coca-Cola stage (the “EDM” stage), she was the one who got the biggest crowd to start the day. Her mixes of hip-hop, RnB, all wrapped up with really good beats was part of what we needed to start the festival.
Begonia
There’s two ways to start a day at a music festival. You can go and get your groove on early and go check out Tallandskinny, or you start smoothly and warm up for the long day ahead. I went 50/50 on Day 1, as halfway through the DJ set, I headed to the main area to catch Canadian singer songwriter Begonia with the 2nd part of her set. Her smooth voice was exactly what was needed to gently counterbalance the hype and groove I just took part in earlier. We even got to hear her brand new single “So High” that was just released the day before, and hopefully it’s a very good indication of a possible new album coming shortly.
The Struts
Now that everyone was all warmed up, it was time to ROCK with British band The Struts taking the stage on an already hot day! The moment they arrived on stage, they wasted no time, opening with “Primadonna Like Me”, and managed to rock our socks off for the next 40 minutes! The only moment we could take a breather was when lead singer Luke Spiller took a few moments to thank us for being there this early in the day, and for giving him all the energy we had. And it was reciprocal, him and the band gave their all, making sure we participate as much as we can, and finishing it off with the sing along “Could Have Been Me”. After opening for Queens of The Stone Age last year, we would be more than due for a proper headlining show of them in Atlantic Canada!
Damiano David
No need to walk long to catch the next act. Maneskin singer Damiano David came on the stage right next to The Struts, to promote his newly released solo album, as the trend of “Charismatic Lead Singer” continued. While Luke brought a more “Jagger” vibe, Damiano brings out his inner Robert Plant in his performance. To my surprise, he didn’t perform any Maneskin song (maybe keeping it for when Maneskin comes back), but he did pull out two covers; “Too Sweet” by Hozier and “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart” by Miley Cyrus. I stayed for the Hozier cover but I left midway as I had to head out to the other side of Parc Jean Drapeau for my next few performances.
EKKSTACY
Hailing from Vancouver, Ekkstacy piqued my curiosity very late while I was preparing my schedule. He, and his band, brings a mix of punk, rap, new wave, all topped with a good chunk of soul. And you know what? It blended really well. Nothing felt forced, he knew exactly when was the moment to be “aggressive” or when to be “chill”, even starting mosh pits at some point during his set. Ekkstacy really used his 45 minutes appropriately, focussing on his newly released album “Forever”, and gained tons of new fans (myself included) that I’m sure are waiting to see when he’ll come back for a longer set in the future. It also had a “Tide and Boar, or Marquee” show written all over it.
La Femme
We would have to wait a few minutes (technical difficulties) before the slew of rock would continue with French band La Femme. With their mix of new wave, psychedelic, all mixed with some “yé-yé”, La Femme made sure everyone kept dancing through their whole sets, and making us forget about the technical difficulties. They also used the occasion of playing Montreal to talk to the crowd in their native language, which is something that I’m sure doesn’t happen often for them in North America.
salute
Back to the Cola stage for a double shot of EDM. First off, UK based producer salute was already doing their thing, and the crowd was getting bigger and more lively at every track they were mixing for us. Mostly from their latest album, the amazing “True Magic”! An album that delivers really well in a live chill environment.
Funk Tribu
After a quick bathroom break, I went back to the Cola stage, to catch the beginning of Funk Tribu! Compared to salute, the Colombian DJ brings a much more “aggressive” approach to his set, while taking us back with some the more “retro” style that was everywhere in trance music back in the 90s/early 2000s, and also making sure to include his mega hit “Phonky Tribu” (over 90 million streams on Spotify). His scheduled placement right after the more chill salute was perfect for who was coming after him, as the crowd was all hyped and ready to continue!
Pypy
It was time now to head to the SiriusXM stage. A smaller stage, dedicated to local acts, although Pypy are far from being “small” or “new”. Featuring members of Duchess Says (who played the festival back in 2006 and 2008), Pypy came in and for 30 minutes, delivered an energetic and raw performance that went more than just the stage (litteraly…the singer and guitarist played one of their songs IN the crowd). Led by lead singer Annie-Claude Deschênes put her foot on the gas pedal, and there was no stopping them (ok…maybe the schedule, but no one can go on forever, we’ll get to that later).
Nico Moreno
We’re on to the last stretch of Day 1 with an act that immediately caught my ears when I was doing my run of digging into the lineup the moment the lineup was announced. The French DJ who specialized in the genre of Rave and “Hard Techno”, went from 0 to 10 at the very first note, and didn’t stop, only quick breaks here and there to show some love to the people in French (a common theme for French acts performing here) who came to see his set, and would get right back at it. I’ll admit, I had to take a few breather during his set, as I needed some energy for the final two performances.
Barry Can’t Swim
While a lot of people were waiting for the final act of the secondary stages, there were still plenty of people (myself included), who were there to see Scottish DJ Barry Can’t Swim, and much to my surprise, he wasn’t alone. He was with a drummer, and a keyboard player, with him in the middle, controlling everything. Performing songs from his excellent latest album “Loner”, Joshua did a marvelous job of setting the perfect vibe while the sun was setting down. A vibe where everyone was dancing and having a good time, but without “going too fast” or “too aggressive”. Throughout the entire set, I was having a “Justice” vibe from last year, where the actual music was making people dance and less the “beat”.
Doechii
While The Killers were on the main stage closing the night over there, the Forrest stage was also getting crowded to witness the very first Canadian show of Hip Hop sensation; Doechii! Coming out with a Grammy win, a song that is playing on pretty much every TikTok video, the anticipation was high and she delivered 1000%. I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure how the crowd would react throughout the show. Would they wait for “that one song”, and stall the rest!?! The answer is a big NO! She had the crowd at the palm of her hand from start to finish! People knew every word to every song, even the older one (she has 2 albums and 3 EPs). The crowd were screaming as loud as her during “Alter Ego”, and were surprised when they started hearing rock guitar’s tone during her hit “Anxiety”, and it fitted pretty well. She continued with a few more songs, but had the plug pulled out under her during the last song “Pacer” because of strict curfew rules.
And that’s a wrap for Day 1! A day that made me realize that while Rock is not as present as it was from the earlier editions of Osheaga, if you dig enough, you’ll find that the Rock element is still there. Which can be say for every genre as Evenko still managed to go out and find every type of act that will make us through the day without being stuck in the middle of the day “with nothing to listen to”.