Concert Reviews

My admirably apt associate summed up the Warped Tour 2009 experience pretty well, so I won’t bore you with a second recounting of the day’s events. I also won’t bother with the obligatory “this was my sixth and last Warped Tour because I am OLD” spiel that encapsulated my reviews of the last two years of everyone’s favorite summer cash suck. Mostly since A) it probably isn’t and B) I’m not old...not yet, and in fact Warped Tour 2009 actually made me feel a lot younger than I’ve felt in a good long while (not like the jump from 15 to 22 is all that impressive…if I were 36 maybe that statement would mean more, but I’m gonna run with it.)  

This year's Osheaga music festival went off without a hitch.... well, with the exception of a headlining act cancelation, torrential rain and ankle deep mud. This didn’t stop concert goers from flocking to the island however, with Saturday night capping at a whopping 30,000 spectators.  Having Coldplay round out the evening will have that effect.

I first attended Osheaga in its first year, and it was nothing to scoff at. However, mediocre line ups and overlapping schedules always made me think that I would never again pay to stand around waiting for the one or two bands I wanted to see within a lineup of bands that didn’t seem to really fit. This year I was fortunate enough to land a press-pass, and so I gave it another go.

By Steve Musil - CJLO Presents - 07/09/2009

By Brian Hastie - Drive Home: Countdown To Armageddon - 06/18/2009

The constant, hours-long rain spell that befell Montreal did little to dampen the spirits of those who showed up for the Riverboat Gamblers/Rancid/Rise Against show at Parc Jean Drapeau, on Ile St. Helene. The crowd appeared to be predominantly youthful and seemed eager for the proceedings to start and jockeyed for position in front of the stage well before the start of the show.

By Josh Mocle - The Kids are So-So - 06/22/2009

By Christine Lariviere - The Lonesome Strangers - 05/21/2009

By DJ Solespin - Eclectricity - 05/14/2009

Leave it to K-os to come up with the idea of a “pay what you want” concert.  I learned about it days ago and saw him playing video games with an E-Talk correspondent on the eve of the concert.  I was thrilled when I found out I was one of the lucky CJLO staff that would see him at L’Olympia.