Japandroids

Since Owen Pallett was done a bit early, I had a chance to get back to the main stage to catch the end of Sarah Harmer's set.  I stuck around for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros as well as Jimmy Cliff.  As far as I could tell, they played solid, unremarkable sets.  Leaving Cliff's excellent orange-shirted band to finish another chorus, I ran across the festival grounds to see Japandroids, a Vancouver garage-rock band whose debut Post Nothing I had picked up a few weeks before.

When I got to the stage, I wondered what was wrong.  There were only two guys on stage, a drummer and guitarist.  Where was the rest of the band?  After the first song ended and no one else appeared, I began to realize that I had been duped.  This was not the first time this had happened; the White Stripes and the Black Keys had both fooled me into thinking they were more than duos in the past.  Which, for me, puts Japandroids in pretty good company.

Or perhaps it just puts their album in good company.  Live, I thought they sounded a bit trebley and thin, despite guitarist Brian King's three-amp system (two Fender combos with miked Marshall cabs, and a smaller Fender in the middle).  His and drummer David Prowse's energy was undeniable but uninfectious; listening to the album, I itched for the mosh pit, but the afternoon Osheaga crowd was unmoved.

Maybe there just wasn't room for moshing.  There's no question that Japandroids held the most tightly packed crowd of the day (before the headliners on the main stage) throughout their rapid-fire set.  There was tons of room onstage, but hardly room to clap in the crowd.  I realized I'd be happier just listening to the album on my own, and headed back to the main stage.