When Cold Visions spawned into the world earlier this year, Bladee proved that there was a method to his delirium through the creation of his longest and most cohesive studio album to-date — so, on the first day of the 2024 edition of Montreal’s Osheaga music festival, it really came as no surprise that the Swedish cloud rapper spent most of his 50-minute set performing the album’s highlights.
Although Bladee and the rest of his SoundCloud trap posse Drain Gang (comprising fellow rappers Ecco2k and Thaiboy Digital) might disorient the average person from an older generation, he seemed right at home on Friday night in the presence of Montreal’s artistic community, known for their grand obsession with the internet’s many microcosms.
Fans flocked to the festival’s Green Stage to see a fantasy-style neon red cross projected on the screen as dark, droning noises built up in the background. After a moment of silence, Bladee bounced into action rocking a red bandana, corpse paint, studded jean jacket and some distressed denim. “Not many brain cells left,” Bladee began before a roaring crowd, who immediately recognized the beginning of “Paranoid,” the first track from Cold Visions.
Bladee spent the remaining 45 delivering many of the highlights of Cold Visions, working systematically from the LP’s top to its bottom while a quagmire of visuals ranging from ultra-gory ’80s anime and horror movie scenes to children’s cartoons like Frosty the Snowman lit up the screen behind him.
Although his lyrics deal with loneliness and existentialism, Bladee is a man of few words while on stage. “Merci beaucoup,” he said to his French-Canadian crowd at one point early on in the show, before jumping right into “Flatline.” These two words proved to be the only ones he uttered throughout his entire time on stage.
As the show went on, the sun began to set in a bleak, overcast sky. This weather felt all too fitting over the distorted bass and Drain Gang-style trap beats, which could switch up from soft and ethereal to something much more depraved and sinister within an instant.
Soon after, his time was up, and Bladee blew a few kisses to the crowd before dropping the mic and walking off. The crowd slowly sauntered away, elated but equally feeling the need to touch grass. Only a Bladee show can make you feel as though you’ve spent too much time online when in reality you’ve been outside in a crowd full of people.
