What's closer, cheaper, and more Canadian than Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza combined? None other than the three-day Montreal music festival OSHEAGA! From August 3 to 5, I'll grab my passport and trek five hours north into the great nation above us and forget my American troubles for a few days. If you haven't checked out the lineup, you should -- Osheaga 2k12 is stacked. It's like the indie-aughts making love to your high school iPod, and I have zero problems with that. The schedule isn't posted yet, but I've made a list of bands that I absolutely must see, and reasons why:
- The Jesus and Mary Chain: I usually don't have money to see famous bands. I can't afford Springsteen, nor can I afford Morrissey, but damn it JAMC are going to make me so happy.
- Snoop Dogg: I'm seriously hoping that there will not be a hologram involved with this performance. I'm kind of hoping though.
- Bloc Party: one time I bought a ticket for a Panic! at the Disco show because Bloc Party was opening. Then their drummer Matt Tong's lung collapsed and they cancelled, only to be filled in by the Plain White T's. Life was pretty sucky for me back then.
- Cursive: high school.
- Brand New: totally high school.
- Justice: OMG HS
- M83: M83 completely destroyed 2011, let's see if they can still bring it after touring endlessly and being the center of blogger attention.
- Garbage: the soon to be late great WFNX 101.7 FM really brought my love of Garbage to life. They're the type of band you wake up at 6 am to call in to answer trivia questions to win tickets for. I have phone anxiety though, so having an Osheaga ticket makes things easier for me.
- A$AP Rocky: I didn't meet my swag quota last quarter; I need to step it up.
- Atlas Sound: if all goes well, Bradford Cox will refrain from taking bad cover requests and the show will go as planned.
This is also my first time going to a music festival, but I've heard enough about them and I've been to Montreal before, so I think I have a decent idea of what to expect. To celebrate, I made another list of things I'm probably going to encounter.
- $8 Molson tallboys (do they make those?)
- Lots of heatstroke and dust inhalation
- Whatever drugs Canadians are into these days
- Desperately trying to figure out places to get vegan food
- Giving up and eating french fries for three days
- Lots of people shit talking American Republican candidates
- Starting conversations and then quickly stopping them because I can't speak French
And unlike American festivals, Osheaga has tickets left! So if you were considering getting chummy with some scalpers, it's time to go on the internet and get a real ticket. If you don't end up going, you're gonna be so jealous, especially once On The Download is flooded with videos, interviews, and pictures of me hanging with and/or around Snoop Dogg.
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