Owen Pallett Storms Offstage During Osheaga Set

From the crowd, everything seemed fine.

There were all the usual signs of a quality Owen Pallett show: looped virtuosic strings ebbing and swaying in an interlocked pattern, all held together by Pallett's wistful vocal style and subversive lyricism. Onstage, however, things were not going so smoothly.

The troubles began early on when Pallett stopped the show's opening number to berate his sound man.

"If you don't know how to work the monitors just take out my vocals entirely, I'll sing it dry," the classically trained musician abruptly called out.

As the set progressed, the sizable audience that had gathered to watch the former Polaris Prize winner and current shortlister assumed everything had returned to normal. Pallett even seemed to be enjoying himself, smiling and wooping as he ran through a set that consisted of highlights from his latest album 'Heartland,' as well as crowd-pleasing versions of Final Fantasy classics 'The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead' and his homage to the Montreal music scene and festival headliners the Arcade Fire (his former bandmates), 'This Is the Dream of Win & Régine.'

However, when his time was running thin and he approached the hair-raising coda to set closer and Heartland standout 'Lewis Takes Off His Shirt,' Pallett's frustration boiled over beyond the sly passive aggressive stares he has been shooting towards the soundboard.

"I'm sorry, you can't do a looped show with no monitors. Goodbye," Pallett exclaimed before leaving the stage, visibly frustrated. Luckily, the usually aggressive Montreal crowd sympathized and the violin virtuoso was still given an impressive cheer, regardless of the less-than-ideal set conclusion.