British diva Dua Lipa concluded Sunday night a 15e edition of Osheaga that many experienced with relief, after a 2020 edition in the water and a 2021 edition limited to 15,000 spectators per day. Return to Île Sainte-Hélène, with the stars of the hour and thirsty music lovers, for an edition that its organizers describe as a success. Few will find anything to contradict them: perfect weather, a site with perfected ergonomics, several memorable concerts — Burna Boy, Turnstile, Wet Leg, Mitski, Les Louanges, Arcade Fire — the weekend lived up to expectations.
And Dua Lipa dazzled us. A simple glance at the massive crowd to conclude that his concert was the most popular of the whole weekend. With good reason: the Brit now succeeds Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Madonna before her, offering the ultimate in mainstream pop. A voice, a style, delivered with the help of a small orchestra augmented by four singers and above all a dozen dancers. Choreography for each chorus that everyone knows (commercial radio loves Dua Lipa), rhinestones, spectacle, class, a perfectly calibrated sequence between the most pop and disco from the start to the dance / house of the second half . A real pro, Dua Lipa, who fully deserved the sound engineers to cut the whistle to Machine Gun Kelly, the bugger, who encroached on the time allotted to him until we could not take any more of his molasses of pop-punk-rap. Oust!
Earlier in the day, neo-R&B musician Tinashe also showed off a lot of class, delivering a flawless and jam-packed concert. hits (unfortunately not as appreciated by our commercial radio stations, another injustice), accompanied by her own dancers. Charismatic, she makes the most of her fine voice, as comfortable in ballads as in trap rhythms. Just after her, on the neighboring stage, the Frenchman Laylow offered his first concert on Quebec soil, in front of a less numerous audience, but at least as enthusiastic, the guy who has had his fans so far. He apologized at length to them for arriving here without his musicians or the scenic paraphernalia he deploys on a European tour (he replaced the Belgian Damso at short notice). It will be a postponement, he promised. Finally, a word on the performance of one of the most awaited groups by rock fans, Wet Leg. One would have thought that the small stage at Les Arbres would have been too cramped for the girls, considering the enthusiasm aroused by their first album released last April.
Eventually, there was room for everyone at this whirlwind gig; a necessarily messy concert, the group is only on its first real tour, but so friendly, Rhian Teasdale even laughing while singing, guitar around his neck, alongside his guitarist friend Hester Chambers (a drummer and a bass player accompany). And of course, when the duo swung their success Lounge Chair in conclusion, the crowd, who hadn’t waited for this tune to get out of their way, danced all smiles.
The boss is satisfied
“I couldn’t be happier” with this return “to normal” for Osheaga, told reporters its co-founder Nick Farkas, accompanied by assistant programmer Daniel Glick. “That’s what we want, to create an experience, to live it in community” with those who share the pleasure of musical discovery. Nearly 120,000 spectators took part in these three days of festivities, a number equivalent to that of the 2019 edition, the first to be held on the remodeled site, which can accommodate 55,000 spectators.
I couldn’t be happier. […] That’s what we want, to create an experience, to live it in community.
All in all, when he returned after two years complicated by the pandemic, Osheaga was not complete. According to Nick Farkas, several factors weighed on the ticketing of the event: “COVID and inflation”, which increased the production costs of the event (and the price of the can of beer…) by 15 at 20%.
To this was added “the difficulty of finding a guest room” while, during this same weekend, the Just for Laughs festival and the 24th International AIDS Conference overheated the hospitality industry. At least, “it’s a good thing for Montreal,” commented Farkas, adding that half of Osheaga’s spectators came from outside the province, mostly from Ontario, whereas in past years, almost 65% of tickets were sold outside Quebec.
This gives weight to the local argument in Osheaga’s musical programming, in terms of local artists, but also with regard to the tastes of the Montreal public, the foundation on which Osheaga must rely, recognize Farkas and Glick. The latter also mentioned the challenges of programming to explain the receipts at the box office, recalling having had to replace two headliners (Foo Fighters and ASAP Rocky), while the third, Dua Lipa, gave a concert at the Bell Center last Monday , an unfortunate coincidence of the calendar upset by the pandemic. “And even The Kid LAROI must come back to play at the MTelus” on August 9th.
But as is always the case at Osheaga, the best programming is often written in smaller print on the poster. Thus, Saturday was marked by brilliant performances.
Big comeback from Mitski
Let’s start by recalling that of Mitski. Three years after her performance at Osheaga, she was back on the Mountain’s main stage, again delivering an exquisite performance, bordering on what constitutes good outdoor festival entertainment. Let us understand: immediately after the naive and brainless boom of Arkells on the next stage, the singer-songwriter came to sing to us the despair of romantic relationships as only she knows how to do. Her songs may have a melodic and often energetic pop-rock-new wave feel, but the musician isn’t here to make us want to order a shooter tour…
Mitski may be at her best indoors, like at the Théâtre Saint-Denis last March, but she still knows how to deliver a memorable performance because of her poignant interpretations. Her voice, just and solemn, her gestures, above all, studied, theatrical, as if each song deserved its own choreography. Its musicians perfectly reproduced the studio versions; they were placed far back in the stage, and Mitski never interacted with them. On stage, there was only her, gesticulating. Towards the end of the concert, she addressed the audience for the first time; swear, we even think we saw him smile.
His repertoire was judiciously chosen, a mixture of old successes and the most beautiful (the salvo of Love Me More and Working for the Knifewhat an introduction!) from his magnificent last album Laurel Hellreleased last February.
The “bug” 100gecs
At the other end of the site, on the Green stage, the American duo 100gecs would establish themselves as the musical bug of this edition of Osheaga. Dylan Brady, with a yellow cone on his head, triggering the sequences from his laptop, his colleague Laura dancing and singing them barefoot, sometimes taking the guitar.
The two sing, with great autotune reinforcement, on this music qualified as hyperpop, as if we were passing pop-punk, trap, hardcore (punk and techno) in a cement mixer to extract a dense and heavy substance to be butchered ears. As a backdrop, the giant screen that loops memes and hatched, fractured images, like the glitch in the machine. Funny, explosive, very punk in attitude, the duo offered this kind of show that marks the spirits.
Burna Boy’s Charisma
Finally, the prize for the best concert of the day went to the Nigerian Burna Boy — who we waited for at Parc Jean-Drapeau until the last minute, informants told us, worried to know he was still in his private plane from from Boston barely an hour before he took the stage.
What a charismatic singer we discovered on Saturday evening! He paced the stage with his broad smile and his impossible chain of diamonds around his neck, commanding the crowd which, down to the foot of the mound, at the bottom of the plains, could not help but dance to his many hits. And on stage, a good dozen musicians – four singers, two men on brass, two others on keyboards, guitar and rhythm section. The high class to deliver his version of Afrobeat, more flowing and melodious, stained with dancehall and R & B influences. The best songs from his new album, Love, Damini, weaved their way through his many hits, Yes (from the album Outside2017), the immense Gbona and On the Low (ofAfrican Giant, 2018). Almost two dozen pieces.
Burna Boy stole the show of the day (of the weekend, even?) from headliner Future, who, although he also gave a good performance — multiply all his successes with a solid and likeable stage presence —, looked like an amateur, there all alone with his DJ Banks (who chained rap hits for more than 15 minutes before the rapper deigned to arrive…), rapping on his own recorded voice while the scent of smoke and jets of fire appeared at all times, as if to give the illusion of a large arena concert