While I was a big Mother Mother fan back in the day, I haven’t listened closely to a new Mother Mother album since Very Good Bad Thing came out in 2014. Yet, I still knew almost every song in their nostalgia-drenched, crowd-pleasing Osheaga set in the year of our lord 2026. Not only that, but I found myself singing all the words, somehow effortlessly pulling them from the depths of my dusty-ass teenage memories, a testament to how damn catchy they still are.
By the time they started in on their second song, “Verbatim,” I was compelled to drag my partner deeper into the pit. And I wasn’t the only one rocking out: people of all ages were having as much fun as the band seemed to be.
After doing this for more than 20 years, it’s no surprise that Mother Mother’s set was as tight as my 30-something-year-old neck on the last day of a music festival weekend, with flawless vocals, magnetic chemistry between band members, and quick, seamless transitions.
The blasts from the past were not limited to Mother Mother’s catalogue. They also performed two meticulously arranged medleys: “Hayloft” mashed up with Nirvana’s “In Bloom” and “The Matrix” combined with The Pixies’ “Where is My Mind?”
An unreleased song, “Rot,” led vocally by the incomparable Molly Guldemond, reminded us that they aren’t just welcome ghosts, but still very much alive and kicking. I, for one, was moved enough to add the next Mother Mother album to my mental watchlist.
