With much of the DFA crowd having gone to Ratatat or otherwise dissolved during Bright Eyes, it looked like living legend Elvis Costello wasn’t going to get the crowd he deserved, headlining Day Two (the big mud puddle left over from DFA moshers & the daytime hose also gave a hole in the crowd). They were also a bit of an odd fit as headliners, considering none of the other Osheaga acts were as long-lived (though many on Day Two paid tribute to the man, including Sebastien Grainger of DFA turning the “D!F!A!” chant from the crowd into “El!Vis!Costello!”…). None of this seemed to faze Elvis or his Imposters, who put on a hell of a show.
They also came prepared. While Costello didn’t have the ‘Wheel of Songs’ that he had recently revived on tour (a giant, carnival-like wheel that he’d spin to pick a song to play), claiming that Montreal didn’t let him bring it, he did have his ‘Hammer of Songs’ – a carnival-like hammer game with titles like “Songs of Sneer” and “Ladies Excuse Me”. Costello also brought his go-go booth – a gilded cage for his own go-go dancer. A second dancer was brought on to pick a song and swing the hammer (led to the Hammer by a third, who sort of played the role that the stage models do at awards ceremonies, guiding people around the stage), before spending her own time in the go-go booth.
But that was hardly all, as Costello also invited two fans, a boy and a girl, up from the front of the crowd onto the stage, to pick a song each (neither ever swung the Hammer, though). The boy was particularly excited, falling when climbing up onto the stage (but bouncing right back up), energetically pointing at Costello and the band – so much so that the tall blond who guided them around the stage had to pull him back. Both were eventually put into the go-go booth (the boy couldn’t dance, and even fell down a second time), perhaps as much to keep them – i.e., him – from potentially causing problems on stage. Later, when he returned to his friends (right in front of your QRO correspondent), they saw the bruises the young man had from his trip, but “I’m so happy that I don’t care!”
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