Osheaga Friday highlights (Florence and the Machine, Thurston Moore, FKA Twigs and more)

The tenth edition of Osheaga kicked off yesterday, with another sold-out edition expected to bring some 135,000 people to Parc Jean Drapeau. Friday’s temperatures had cooled considerably from a few days prior, which made for a pleasant stroll through the grounds, apart from a near-miss storm situation right before headliner Florence and the Machine were set to take the stage.

Below are a few highlights from Friday’s sets; stay tuned for more coverage from Osheaga’s weekend sets in the coming days. Be sure to follow us on Instagram for live updates from the festival.

The Decemberists

The Decemberists are the perfect mid-afternoon festival act; they have a couple of songs that almost any festival-goer will recognize, and their brand of indie folk is irresistible enough to convert even the most ADD-addled in the crowd.

“This is a dad-rock song,” frontman Colin Meloy joked before “The Rake’s Song,” seemingly embracing their indie-rock elder-statesmen position at the fest.

Chet Faker

Australia’s Chet Faker drew an enormous crowd to the Green Stage for his his low-key, jazzy electronica set. He recruited the huge crowd on backup vocal duty for his cover of Blackstreet’s 1996 hit “No Diggity,” which he insisted he would soon be retiring from his set. When you have hits like “Gold” in your back pocket, you can probably safely move on from novelty covers.

Thurston Moore

Thurston Moore‘s set featured an alt-generation supergroup of sorts, including his former Sonic Youth bandmate Steve Shelley on drums, My Bloody Valentine’s Debbie Googe on bass, and the UK’s James Sedwards on guitar. The band’s set focused primarily on Moore’s latest solo album, The Best Day, and included a new song from his forthcoming LP, Rock n’ Roll Consciousness.  Their set ran slightly long, leaving Moore to joke that they were going to play a “four minute version of this twenty minute song we wrote,” (which they then proceeded to do).

FKA Twigs

FKA Twigs had the most dramatic set of the day, with her ethereal vocals set against a striking array of intense strobe lights. With a minimal backing band, her background in dance was really put to work, as she gyrated, spun and crept along the stage on her knees throughout her hour-long set. While her sultry blend of R&B and electronica is perhaps best suited for a dark club as opposed to a huge open field, it was easily one of the most intense performances of the day.

Florence and the Machine

While her last powerhouse Osheaga appearance in 2012 may have taken the mostly unfamiliar crowd by surprise, Florence Welch’s whirlwind of a performance last night has decently cemented her status as a true rock star. The onset of a coming storm seemed to threaten her set until the very last minute, but as soon as Welch bounded onto the stage following a volley of fireworks, it was clear that the storm clouds knew better than to mess with her.

Barefoot and clad completely in white, Welsch looked almost like an apparition as she sprinted back and forth across the stage, twirling in circles like a ballerina, and addressing the crowd with the passion of a Southern preacher.

Her set was front loaded with hits, with back-to-back performances of the anthemic “Ship To Wreck,” and “Shake It Out,” leading to the loudest crowd reactions of the day. While there are still two full days of Osheaga to go, it’s hard to imagine that any act will top Welsch’s infectiously joyous set.

Osheaga continues on August 1 and 2. Follow Bad Feeling Magazine on Instagram for live updates from the fest.