Osheaga Day 1

Oh, yeah. Brazilian Girls, say yeah!

Osheaga, the two day outdoor music festival being held for the first time this weekend, has so far been pretty much everything I expected. Brian and I arrived very early, at about 11:30am and found no crowds ahead of us. Until about 3 in the afternoon, the audiences at the main stages were easily managed and no crowd-maze-ing was necessary to see the performers on stage. This is how we saw The Magic Numbers ("oh what's my name? what's me naaaaame?" Now I can't remember where I heard them for the first time, but the important thing is I asked Tom to download them for me and so I've ahd their songs on my iTunes since then). Oh yeah, and it was *amazing* to see the band in person, because they are *nothing* like one would expect from such high-pitched, poppy tunes producers. They're like Fleetwood Mac fetishists! All men in the band are fat, and wear long black hair in a way that makes you think they're going to break into prog rock any second... The women look exactly like the men. And their voices are beautiful and I love this band. I'm going to buy their record and prove that downloading is only another form of promotion.

Later, we walked through the woods on Ile Ste-Helene, where the festival is being held, to the MEG stage (what does MEG stand for?) to see a band Cecilia recommended: Hushpuppies. They're French dandies and HOT! We chose the keyboardist as the hottest, but what else is new? I only wish that they played songs in French, since they are, en fait, French. They did a fun cover of The Kinks, "I'm not like everybody else".

Maude and Greg eventually joined us, and we met up with Mary Roach, who was working at the Engineers Without Borders kiosk. Until about 6pm, Brian and I had been cat napping and being lazy (great party on Friday) on the hill that faces the main stages, but at 6:15 it was time for Metric and we never sat down for long after that. I've seen Metric three times, I think (La Tulipe when it was called Cabaret du Plateau; Ottawa Blues Fest and last night), and they're always aweome and almost mystical in the way they create a bond, and a vibe with the audience. I felt like crying at the end, in the best way. Everybody loves Emily Haines. It must be very hard to be her. Oh, but an aside: there was a balcony where the backstage passes could watch the stages from. You know, the artists. Well, they never clapped! They took pictures, and watched us, and watched the stage, but they never clapped after any performance. WTF is up with that? (snooty voice) "Well, as an artist, you see, I *approve* of this performance, ta. It's satisfactory."

The best band we'd never heard before was Brazilian Girls, by FAR. So much fun! I heard some guys on the way out saying it was really all about the singer's sexuality (she's hot) but I disagree. I wasn't particularly affected by her sexuality but I was contaged (my word, copyright) by their super catchy, dancey music. I would definitely go see them on their own in the future. As in, pay for a ticket to see just them.

And we wrapped up with one full Sonic Youth (The Geriatrics, heh) song, as a compromise between those that were ready to go home and those that weren't. It was a good song. And I caught "one of those that were ready to go home" totally getting into it...

I came home exhausted, collapsed, and slept a lot. Now it's 11:55am and I'm ready to call Brian to see if we're going to buy rainboots before heading out again. I'm so ready for it, rain or shine! First up: Islands. I LOVE IT.