Osheaga Sunday highlights (Brand New, Father John Misty, Charli XCX and more)

The third and final day of Osheaga may not have had any one act as thrilling as Kendrick Lamar or Florence and the Machine earlier in the weekend, but there were still plenty of highlights, including Father John Misty’s sardonic afternoon set, the sheer energy and attitude of Charli XCX, and the cathartic emotional pull of Brand New.

Below you can check out photos and reviews from a few of the best sets on Sunday. If you missed them earlier, you can check out our reviews of the Friday and Saturday shows as well.

Father John Misty

Father John Misty‘s early afternoon set easily wins the mantle for best stage banter of the festival. Playing the act of the blasé raconteur (or actually bored), Misty (AKA Joshua Tillman) dispensed with any of the standard main-stage pleasantries, apologizing to those in the crowd whose ecstasy had just kicked in, and grabbing a crowd member’s phone for a ridiculous selfie.

“This next tune is a huge hit on the internet,” introduced “Born in the U.S.A.,” complete with a background track of canned laughter as Tillman preened across the stage and wandered onto the catwalk extending towards the crowd.

Most of Tillman’s set focused on the relatively-grandiose pop of this year’s I Love You, Honeybear LP, while an earlier acoustic cut from 2012’s Fear Fun album led to two drunken shirtless guys nearby loudly insisting that Tillman was covering a Bon Iver song (he was not).

Charli XCX

Charli XCX (real name: Charlotte Emma Aitchison) may be best known for singing the hook to Iggy Izalea’s unshakeable hit “Fancy,” but her live set veers off into outright punk rebellion, which may be a put on, but sure is a lot of fun to watch.

With an all-female backing band, she ran through a set of energetic pop-rock tracks from her Sucker LP, including the anthemic “Break the Rules,” which had the swelling crowd at the Green Stage singing along at a deafening volume.

Aitchison was celebrating her 23rd birthday at the show, and seemed thrilled to be surrounded by such a welcoming crowd. She donned a giant inflatable guitar at one point, and dozens of enormous beach balls were thrown into the crowd towards the end of her set.

Much has been made of Aitchison’s sex-symbol status, and her set rode an interesting line between the generally clean-cut rebellion-lite of her lyrics, and her overty-sexual stage presence and banter.

“Pussy power!” she yelled out repeatedly at the end of her set, which definitely seemed to strike a chord with her young (mostly female) audience, even as it likely stressed out their parents watching from the sidelines.

Brand New

Long Island’s moody emo vets Brand New stuck out like a sore thumb on the hip hop and electronic-heavy Green Stage, but they drew a sizeable crowd of enthusiastic fans looking for a cathartic sing-along.

Brand New excel at the quiet-to-loud dynamic better than almost any band since Nirvana, and their set was filled with restrained melodic tracks that exploded into dissonant outbursts, with the crowd joining in loudly on frontman Jessse Lacey’s downer choruses.

Set closer Degausser saw the band firmly embracing their punk roots, with guitarist Vincent Accardi flailing wildly across the stage, his body bent almost at a 90 degree angle, while the rest of the band coalesced around the drums to wrap up their intense set.

Philip Selway

Radiohead drummer Philip Selway’s early evening set was beset by a number of technical glitches, which might have been cause for some awkward pauses between songs. Thankfully, Selway took the tech issues in stride, repeatedly thanking the small but very vocal crowd, and blaming the delays on “spam” e-mails clogging up their inboxes.

Once the sound was finally remedied, the crowd was treated to a tight-set of Selway’s low-key electronic indie-pop, including set highlight “Coming Up for Air,” which could easily slip on a Radiohead playlist with almost none being the wiser.

Selway’s quiet, contemplative sound was the perfect soundtrack to end this year’s Osheaga on, without having to deal with the massive crowds amassing for The Black Keys over on the main stage. If you missed it earlier, be sure to check out our recent podcast with Selway here.