Montreal, CAN @ Osheaga Festival - July 30th, 20116

[LaserKitten 349]

She's getting some really positive reviews for the Osheaga show:

 

http://exclaim.ca/music/article/lana_del_rey-sc_ne_de_la_rivi_re_montreal_qc_july_30

 

http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/music/osheaga-review-bad-girl-lana-del-rey-wins-big-as-day-2s-leading-lady

 

The latter one is especially good, it's nice seeing music writers take her seriously.

[analwinterofmylife 2,644]

She's getting some really positive reviews for the Osheaga show:

 

http://exclaim.ca/music/article/lana_del_rey-sc_ne_de_la_rivi_re_montreal_qc_july_30

 

http://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/music/osheaga-review-bad-girl-lana-del-rey-wins-big-as-day-2s-leading-lady

 

The latter one is especially good, it's nice seeing music writers take her seriously.

 

Sounds kind of like ppl were expecting her to fuck up tho

[Afterparty 3,025]

 making   her   comeback 

[LaserKitten 349]

Sounds kind of like ppl were expecting her to fuck up tho

 

But isn't that just business as usual with Lana? Except for her fans, I think there's probably a bit of morbid curiosity about her from the general public. I would imagine that for many people, Lana is still the morose girl who apparently fucked up on SNL, as dumb and ancient as that is to us.

If it means they're pleasantly surprised, that's a good thing I think. 

[PARADIXO 32,936]

Wow seems like it was another really good LDR show. Legend just gets better and better each night.

[Lust 4,031]

Wow seems like it was another really good LDR show. Legend just gets better and better each night.

Yea I agree this seems like her best show this tour so far

[kik 1,564]

The Montreal Gazette review is great Rob twitted it.

 

A not so good review from the Toronto Sun (my comments in bold):

 

MONTREAL - Saturday is turning out to be ladies' night (big fucking rolleyes) at the Osheaga Music and Arts Festival.

Last year, Florence + the Machine finished the night between Kendrick Lamar and the Black Keys; this year, Lana Del Rey had the task of closing between the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the weekend attraction, Radiohead.

 

But unlike Florence Welch, Del Rey brought more cheap theatrics than stage presence and energy. Dressed in a short yellow dress and, of course, the standard flowers in her hair (this idiot can't make a difference between flowers and butterflies), Del Rey meandered through a snoozy hour-and-20-minute set (thanks God she didn't play much of Honeymoon, he would have fell into a 10 years coma )that seemed more like local musical theatre than a closing spot at one of the biggest music festivals in the world.

Outside of a few screams of excitement from the teenage girls in the crowd (I'm in my 30's and was front row, I understand I'm the exception, but whatever), it was all very underwhelming. The big moment seemed to swallow her up, as she never really connected with the rest of throngs in attendance (like many other very good acts, she doesn't speak much/interact with the crowd (The Barr Brothers, Daughter...), but she acknowledged the city and said she liked it because it was so close to home Lake Placid. She smiled at fans, waved, but most of the time she's in her own universe and that's what I like). In fact, many headed to the exits early, probably resting up for Thom Yorke and co. tomorrow. (You fucking idiot... many people leave early to catch the metro before it gets super crowded (if you wait until the end, expect to wait 1.5 hour to get in the metro. I left before the end of Florence last year exactly for that reason and I was not the only one).

 

Ridiculously, she spent five minutes of her allotted time towards the end of her set signing autographs and taking selfies with those in the front row. No, we're not kidding. (Yeah, she ONLY spent 5 minutes (more like 3) to sign autographs/take selfies with people who waiting in line since 4am and stayed at the same stage under a burning sun for 10 hours without enough water because the festival only allows one (1) bottle of water that you can go refill, but that means losing your spot. Being first row and sitting down to rest means you lose half of your space in that sardine can, how fun is that to watch a show in diagonal. So yeah, those devoted fans deserved the very few minutes she spent with them, and half of them, myself included, were not the lucky ones as she only met people on the left side)

On a much brighter note, teeing up Del Rey was Seattle's Death Cab For Cutie, who warmed up the crowd with their atmospheric guitar rock, topped by their hits "I Will Possess Your Heart," Black Sun" and "Grapevine Fires." (so inappropriate to say that... we don't need energetic performers to warm us up before Lana, he really doesn't get it)

 

Other highlights from Day 2 included three-sister act Haim, who mixed some great pop hooks with a wicked sense of humour; July Talk, whose sultry set had the River Stage fully engaged; (I agree that both band were great, I mean GREAT. I've never listened to July Talks but their performance was amazing. Lana style is mellow, it's only the hardcore/very emotional/extroverted fans who scream like crazy. Other people listen. Being more quiet doesn't mean you are bored) and Kurt Vile, who was out of place with his outlaw singer-songwriter acumen, but he won the Osheagans over with his workman-like time on the main stage.

 

One of the best acts of the day went to Dan Auerbach's side project the Arcs, who blazed through a 50-minute set of songs from their debut album, "Yours, Dreamily." (I don't know, I was sitting in a fetal position on my one foot square vital space on the ground, trying to disconnect from the body ache at that point)

It all starts again tomorrow with Disclosure, Leon Bridges, M83, Grimes, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats and the aforementioned headliner, Radiohead.

 

Twitter: @johnwillms

 

JWilliams@Postmedia.com

 

[FredRed 4,836]

The Montreal Gazette review is great Rob twitted it.

 

A not so good review from the Toronto Sun (my comments in bold):

I feel your pain when I see reviews like this but it is past the point of really letting it get to us.Lana is talented. Lana has a huge fan base. She has already accomplished a lot and some of her early negative press will always follow her around. I used to reply to articles and reviews but now I am a little more confident in Lana and her career. (Boosted in no small part by people like the ones on this board) Even now you can see a YouTube comment that will say, "Most people don't know she's Auto-tuned and her father's rich. He bought her career" (Eyes roll)

 

Just don't let it get you down that's all.

[kik 1,564]

I feel your pain when I see reviews like this but it is past the point of really letting it get to us.Lana is talented. Lana has a huge fan base. She has already accomplished a lot and some of her early negative press will always follow her around. I used to reply to articles and reviews but now I am a little more confident in Lana and her career. (Boosted in no small part by people like the ones on this board) Even now you can see a YouTube comment that will say, "Most people don't know she's Auto-tuned and her father's rich. He bought her career" (Eyes roll)

 

Just don't let it get you down that's all.

 

Words of wisdom. Thank you Fred. That's what I usually do, but today I just needed to vent.

 

-

 

The pre-concert experience was a big, big mess, to the point I had a hard time focusing/enjoying the show. Lana was fantastic, her vocals were top notch, a real pro. Plus, she had an overload of sensuality the way she danced and carried herself, très va va voom. I'm just mad at the security who couldn't make a narrower line, they made us move in large barricaded areas telling us that people should remember their position in line because they wanted it to be fair to everyone and I was naive. There was no line anymore when security moved us, you could fit 12 persons per row in that "line". I lost my spot because I decided to go talk to a group of friends on the back (I was #12 in line at 6am) and I thought I could get next/in front of the group of girls who lined up after me before security decided to disorganize everything, but those girls were pushed at the back too, so I tried my best to get in the front of the "line" before they open the gate, but it was hard, people were tight to each others ready to run like Forrest.

 

When they opened the gates for us to go to bag search (5 lines), I was stuck behind a girl who got searched extensively and I could see all the other kids getting screened fast and already rushing to the stage. Security would scream at us not to run or they'll get us out like wtf we're not in a public swimming pool, how to you think you can control a hundred crazy fans? A freaking stampede. When I realized there was no spot left front row, I started getting a panic attack and cried saying how a looser with no-life I was for freaking out for such a stupid thing and a bunch of lovely girls had pity and squeezed themselves so I could fit in next to my friend. But our other friend couldn't make it, she was second row and she was mad at the girls because if they would have squeezed themselves a bit more, she could have been front row, but the girls didn't wanted to get pushed far right, so one of them gave her a dirty look saying "who are you?" (she probably didn't know she was with us).

 

My friend was crying, asking me to push them, but I felt bad because the girls already gave me a spot and the 3 of us in our group would not stand up in diagonal to let her get front row because of the uncomfortable/too intimate position (chest next to the back). I feel guilty about it, but everyone became territorial and it made me act like a bad selfish person, I hate that. We're not friends in everyday life, we just help each other getting organized when Lana comes to Montréal. When I realized I was on 2nd row, I started talking loudly, saying it wasn't fair and one of them agreed and I told him "You got in line 1 hour later than me, why don't you give me your spot if you agree it isn't fair?" and he didn't do anything, and I'm not mad at him at all (I really like him), I would have done the same thing. It's just not the kind of general atmosphere I like, I'm not competitive and I like to share and do things right. Everybody in our group think like that. But we couldn't. My friend on 2nd row had to have medical staff to help her walk out of the site, her back was dead. Btw she finally was able to squeeze in first row when the show started, but she had to tolerate the bad energy of the girl on her left who was mad at her. It went from shoulders 2 shoulders -> hips 2 hips, my arms were crossed in front of me and my boobs were popping out of my cleavage lawl. The pressure on my arms and shoulders was so bad like when you get blood pressure test. My body wasn't properly aligned and most of my weight was on my left foot, I felt like a flamingo, but I wasn't resting.

 

Lana met some fans before OTTR, the last song. I thought she might come back after, but she didn't. She waved at the crowd and I was waving at her with the most desperate face, showing her my UV vinyl, stretching my body over that stupid barricade, trying to reach her and she smiled at me with a slightly sad expression in her face. I understood later that she probably left because of the curfew. C'est la vie!

 

Well, at least I tried the festival thing. I was hesitant, and I was right (it sucked), but I tried it. I'm gonna sell my ticket for the Ohana Fest. Even if it's a smaller festival, hardcore fans will be there and it's gonna be a fight for front row again. I also heard LA fans are quite aggressive. Good luck @@LAman.

 

I'm also disappointed at life, because I had 3 opportunities to meet her in Montréal for that concert and I chose not to wait at her hotel the day of the show, because I wanted to get front row (the goal is to enjoy the music, not take a selfie) and my other friends who knew her hotel (I think we were the only 3 people who found out where she stayed) met her and talked to her for about 5 minutes, got their vinyl signed (she didn't want to take pictures though). They couldn't tell in what mood she was, they said she didn't seam to enjoy talking to them, but why didn't she leave? There's nothing rude to say that you have to go. I don't really get it. Maybe she's open to talk, but jaded by the redundancy of the conversations. Or she realize after a few words that "we", fans, are not so special.

 

I saw some of the Lana crew at the airport (Blake, Biron, Tom, Kevin, Johnny, Pamy, Anna...) and said a few words to them as they were passing by, one by one. I told Johnny (her stylist) that the best dress Lana wears are in her Montréal shows and he laughed I asked Biron if he had fun at Lolla and he said yes and I asked if Lana was coming and he said "Maybeee..." with a huge smile. We waited 2-3 more hours and we didn't see her, so we left. My friend who met her at her hotel the day of the show texted me and said the first time she came out, she jumped in the car with Johnny and they took off so fast he didn't have time to react. He said he didn't know where they were going, maybe soundcheck and it didn't make sense because it was 3pm the day of the show and there was already other acts on stage, so I said they went shopping for a better dress I love yellow.

 

So yep, that's the story. A lot of negativity, but on a brighter note, I didn't starve (I brought 3 meals for the whole day), I have a light sunburn, we had shadow starting at 2pm, security gave us a bit of water, the show was great, it wasn't raining, I got front row, I wasn't alone and I enjoyed chatting with the people around me, I didn't touch my cellphone during the show and most of all, it was so hot outside I didn't have to pee in a bottle!

 

Last year, I slept outside all night to get a good spot and I thought to myself "That's how it feels to sleep on the concrete in the city when you're homeless" and this year I thought to myself "That's how it feels to be squeezed in a train to Auschwitz".

[Flipflopfan 254]

She has already accomplished a lot and some of her early negative press will always follow her around. I used to reply to articles and reviews but now I am a little more confident in Lana and her career.

I was like that too. I remember her 2014 US tour when she had a lot of negative press and I had several meltdowns. I even lied in the comment section that I was at her concert in Dallas just to counter the extreme negativity of a journalist named Thor (LoL). It was a ridiculous behavior but I couldn't help it. My problem with the writer of the negative article from the Toronto Sun is not that he doesn't have valid points about her show, it's that he was negatively biased from the beginning. I had this feeling about him and I visited his Twitter account where he presented his article with "Sry Lana fans you would not like what I have to say" Really? This is a just a click bait to provoke Lana fans? The article wasn't vicious enough for that and it will be forgotten as soon as it was written.

 

Today I accept some criticism of her live appearances because not everybody who watch her show is a fan who came to worship a goddess. Some people are casual fans or just curious, who maybe will be baffled at her lack of movement, engagement with the audience, monotone delivery, awkward stage presence (like she is apologizing to be there) and some people just cannot accept that she just vanishes for 5-10 minutes to sign autographs and take selfies in the first row. That is the risk to perform at large festivals. But she was lucky so far in the US because there were many Lana fans in Chicago and Montreal. So far so good, her press in the US was mostly positive. 

[graham4anything 2,859]

OMFG!!!

 

Did a poster actually say being in the crush of people in the front is like being in a train goin to the Auschwitz death camp among others that 6 million Jews were killed in?

 

give me a fucking break.

[kik 1,564]

OMFG!!!

 

Did a poster actually say being in the crush of people in the front is like being in a train goin to the Auschwitz death camp among others that 6 million Jews were killed in?

 

give me a fucking break.

And what about the homeless I talked about? No word for those millions of people dying everyday? I guess they don't count.

 

-

 

I didn't use the comparison to minimize what happened in WWII and the suffering people (not only Jews) went through in those trains to hell. My situation was voluntary and theirs was not. I used it as a description of the high level of physical discomfort/pain, heat/dehydration and space restriction. Not the emotional pain and worries. When security splashed us with fireman water hoses, when I saw girls passing out around me and when I thought I was about to give up of exhaustion, that comparison crossed my mind, but I should have kept that thought to myself. Or preferably not having it at all.

 

The homeless comparison was more about the vulnerability of sleeping in the downtown streets of a big city. I don't pretend I know what a homeless everyday life and its struggles feels life. I hope they will still accept my food coupons

 

I apologize if I offended anyone.

[PlaceboHoliday 658]

Geez that Toronto Sun reviewer is a dick, I get it you don't like her performance.. but do your job you idiot, criticize her don't trash her!!

(I was saving reviews and articles of her shows and I saw this review, out of my stupid curiosity I checked his twitter and he liked some shady tweets about Lana so I'm sure he's a dick and wasn't just doing his job as a reviewer)

[West Coast 45,791]

Reviving an old thread to share, yet again, some old crappy pictures I took with my old phone from a concert.