Virgin Mobile Stage                        Gogol Bordello! Party time!                         The Crowd

 
              Duffy                                    Broken Social Scene                      Jack Johnson



Black Keys Video Clip

Monday August 4, 2008: Cycled downtown late morning. Shopping on St. Catherine Street. August sales.

The rain looked like it wold hold off. Crossed my fingers, cycled across the river to the Islands to get a ticket for the 2nd day of the Osheaga Music Festival at Parc Jean Drapeau. Cycled the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit and the paths of the Ile Ste-Helene and Ile Notre-Dame while I was there for the heck of it. 

I didn't have all my rain gear with me (call me a sceptic) so I cycled back to my digs to pack my bag for the 'all weather' possibilities. The drill: only one water bottle (without a cap) allowed in your bag / pack sack; no grub; no cans; no bottles. In short, nothing that could be a projectile thrown towards a stage or broken and stepped on in the crowd.

Cycled it back over across the river to the Islands for the Osheaga Music Festival.
Chained my bicycle to a solid looking fence near the Metro (subway) station on the Island.
Through the security and bag check. On through the vendor and promotional kiosks that lined the route to the stages. Scene de la Rivere (Virgin Mobile) and Scene de la Montagne (Molson Dry) being the bigger venues off to the left. A meandering path to the right brought you to the smaller venues Scene Meg (Meg) and Scene des Arbres (Sirius.)

First act I caught was the Black Keys show at 5:00 pm at the Virgin Mobile stage. Kick-Ass blues band.

Gogol Bordello was the next act playing at the adjacent Molson Dry stage. As the band name implies it was a "bordello" on stage! They threw-down a party with an eclectic, funky, rhythmic sound and tons of energy from the lead singer and the two dancers. Fiddle, accordion, drums, dancers, tambourines!  Just one kicking party that had the crowd partying and jumpin'.

Duffy, the fine looking singer from Wales hit the Virgin Mobile stage just before 7:00 pm. She claimed she is rhythm challenged but she looked great in jeans, heels and hair in pony-tail. She belted out pop in her unique Welsh voice. Her big hit song "Mercy" closed out her show. 

Broken Social Scene on the Molson Dry stage as the sun went down. Loved it. Snacked on a burger & beer for dinner as I caught the band. Beer was a reasonable $5.25 / glass.

CSS, from Brazil, had the audience at the Scene Meg dancing to their funky, oh-so danceable Brazilian rhythms. I got into their sound when programming my music playlist in recent months for The Earth Lounge radio program.

Head-liner Jack Johnson, one of my own favs, hit the Virgin Mobile stage abouts 9:00 pm. Great sound, all his popular tracks. Sitting, Wiating, Wishing; Better Together; and the rest. Solid set. He came back for an encore.

Lastly, the closer had you dancing out of the Parc with local home boys Chromeo putting on a smoking hot sound to a dancing crowd with tracks like 100% and Bonafide Luvin.

Fashion hit of the day: Socks & Rubber Boots. The savvy-wise ladies in the crowd were going with rubber boots. I wasn't there Sunday but with the previous rains and crowds some sod obviously turned to mud. The gals added style to their rubber boots with funky socks and either short-shorts or mini-skirts. To Chris and Sandy from Toronto and all the other gals that turned the rubber boot look into fashion chic ... sweet.

Hats (or maybe 'boots off' to the organizers.) Great acts in the program. Very eclectic Indy groups. Best yet ... no rip off on concessions with draft beer going for $5.25 and a hamburger for less than $5.00. Considering you had a limit on what you bring on site that seemed fair.

Et Voila, party over. I cycled home heading across the bridge back to Old Montreal.
Osheaga Music Festival (Monday August 4, 2008) The Black Keys