Magazine

I'm sure at one point or another, everyone reading this has been swayed by an alluring sticker on the front of an album. It may be something simple like a highlight of the singles, or a description of what the band sounds like. In truth, I'm all for these stickers when they tell me what the band sounds like, because if I'm going to throw hard earned money at something, I want to know what I'm going to be getting.

I’ve been in love with Silversun Pickups since just before the release of Carnavas. I saw them for the first time at the 2007 CMJ Music Marathon in New York in the back room of Piano’s.  An intimate setting in which it was next to impossible to get in. Buzz was growing, and the band was just on the verge of breaking as big as an indie band can break now a days.

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.