Courtney Barnett - Is Grunge back?

Courtney Barnett

Metropolis, Montreal

May 29, 2016

I've heard some people say that Courtney Barnett might be bringing Grunge back, is she? She might be the new voice of grunge, she definitely has the look with her loose shirt, jeans and semi long hair. She has a unique. recognizable, low and nasal voice. Her songs can create a small raucous if played at the right time. She lacks the craziness of Cobain or even Cage the Elephant's singer while performing on stage, but she has a good charisma. Can her songs inspire a whole generation? She seems to have this "I don't care what you think of me" which was Cobain's motto. Her songs structures don't seem to be Grunge like to me, but she definitely has something since i was hooked the first time i listened to her latest album. My answer would be that she could probably voice some of Nirvana's songs if they asked her like St-Vincent did, but i don't think she is that close to the phenomenon, so let's recap this show.

While we were waiting for Courtney Barnett to show up, the second to last background song before she appeared on stage started to play at an intensely loud level and it was Smell Like Teen Spirit...it seemed to instill a lot of energy from the crowd as most started to hum and dance to the song almost starting a mini trash and finished with some applause so it was a great idea to warm up the crowd and a good presage for the rest of the show.

The show started strongly with "Dead fox" with a good reaction from the crowd. All her songs had a good reaction from the crowd who seemed ready for something to happen, from a cue to start a reaction. This cue wouldn't come from Courtney's interaction with the public, but from an alternate version of Small Poppies which ignited the crowd at key point in the song and that was great. Unfortunately, the songs that followed lacked the same intensity so the momentum was lost and that was a shame since something was happening. After a few "thanks", cool videos in the background and some slow songs, then came "Pedestrian at Best" which fueled the crowd. After this song, the intensity went down again, but at the end Courtney played a cool solo while on her knees and it was appreciated. 

For the encore, Courtney appeared alone on stage and talked to the crowd for the first time and explained that she had a great time and that the show was a great moment for her. They played 3 songs. The first one was a song played as a solo performer, but it didn't do much to showcase her talent, the second song was pretty fun and included everyone and the last one really ended the show on a good note and was a major hit with "Nobody really Cares...".

The show was good, the voice was great, unfortunately she never really engaged with the public, didn't really shine with her showmanship, but nevertheless i still had a good time.

Little Scream - Pleasant Album release party

Little Scream

Theatre Fairmount, Montreal

11/05/2016

Little Scream was the opening band for Land Of Talk who was back after 5 years without any presence, but it was also Little Scream's release party at the same time. I only watched Little Scream play since I didn't anything about Land of Talk and I only had an hour to spare.

So Little Scream played a great 40 minutes set of a greatly diverse musical style and combination of her albums. Sometimes minimalistic music, sometimes with more beats enhanced by the drummer who was using a lot of different types of sticks, tape playing with the melodies and the one-note playing bassist who didn't have a lot to play most of the time. Little Scream was always smiling and mocked herself when she forgot the lyrics to her song on her own album launch concert.

She invited her producer to sing with her during the last song.

It was a pleasant evening in a really cozy theatre and I was just in front of the stage to admire the band and the guitar and vocal ability of the singer.

Eagles of Death Metal - Enjoying life as much as they can

Eagles of Death Metal

May 5 2016

Metropolis Montreal

It's only been a few months since the horrible events that they went through in Paris during their Bataclan concert, but the Eagles of Death Metal are back on tour and making the best out of each show and probably of every moment of their life as it seemed during this show.

They were co-headlining the show with DFA 1979 which I've seen a couple of times and decided to only watch EoDM at his event.

I was happy to be there and also nervous at the beginning due to what happened in Paris, but it quickly went away when the show started. The singer, Jesse Hughes, was in splendid form as he showed us during his multiple dance steps he took during some of the off singing moments in most of the songs. His singing was great, he seemed happy throughout the show while addressing the crowd thanking everyone to be there, that they were really happy to be in Montreal (and not necessarily in LA like their songs say) and he kept saying how he loved his band mates and his tech guys. It was an evening full of love, "Amen" and "Can you dig it?, amen!".

During some of the songs, Jesse doesn't play the guitar, but concentrates on singing and dancing so while this happens, his guitar technician will come and play the guitar parts which is something I've never seen before in a show it was surprising, but obviously the technician was really talented so wouldn't offend anyone of course.

Everyone in the crowd was singing, dancing and being loud as much as they could during the songs and really listening to everything the band had to say as a mark of respect which was great.

Near the end of the show, the band decided to truly show their playing ability by doing some great solo performances, so the guitar player and the bassist started while Jesse was gone, but then the spotlights changed location to show Jesse on the upper balcony with a guitar and then it was his turn to do a guitar solo which really showed how good he is alone.

After a few minutes, he came back on stage to continue the solo competition with each other member doing their thing.

The show ended not long after that and it was a great moment to be there and hear such a good, loving band playing songs totally melodic, catchy and fun to dance to.

 

 



Polica - an intimate groovy evening

Polica

Le Petit Campus, Montreal

21-04-2016

I found out only a few days before the show that Polica was coming to town and even though I hadn't listened to them since their first album came out and I had never seen them live, I decided to buy a ticket right away for this concert in such a small venue that is Le Petit Campus. I liked their sound back then so I thought it would be great to see them live and I'm happy that I went.

That evening I got in the venue really late just before they started playing and I was lucky enough to be right in front of the singer. Their performance was a mix of synthpop, trip hop, robotic tones and great electronic beats to dance to. From my position on the floor, I could clearly see the singer play with her synthesizers boxes which contained a circular touchpad to modify the sounds coming out. Moreover, using her modular she was changing her voice a lot from a more robotic sounding voice, echoing sound and her beautiful natural voice which is perfect for the songs they are playing. The beats were made stronger and interesting by the addition of 2 drummers which played a crazy "solo" during the second to last song of the main set which accelerated greatly the beats of the song and the crowd loved it.

Speaking of the crowd, I can say that everyone seemed to dance to the beats throughout the whole set at the same time as the singer who was dancing to the beats and rapped on some of the songs. Everybody I could see seemed to appreciate the songs and the general performance. The singer wasn't really looking at anybody but the back wall on most songs, but she spoke to the crowd between some of the songs in French.

For the first song of the encore, they played a song that someone in the crowd yelled that they wanted to hear and the singer was happy to accept right away which was nice to see.

overall it was a really good performance in a small venue and lasted 60 minutes. It gave me such a good impression that I bought their latest vinyl which I rarely do.

 

 



Savages - mosh pit extravaganza

Savages

Corona Theatre, Montreal

02-04-2016

It was my first time seeing Savages live since I couldn't make it during their first tour because of sickness while I was in Los Angeles a few years ago so I didn't really know what to expect and I found out soon enough.

I was standing in the front row at this show even if I got in pretty late, but I quickly found out that I was really lucky to be standing slightly to the left of the stage since most of the right side started a huge mosh pit almost as soon as the second song started. Getting too old to participate in this type of dance form and I usually just want to dance where I'm standing or listening to the band and with mosh pits around it's always hard to do so since I always lookout for potential hits. Anyways the whole moment stopped later in the show when the singer asked people to move closer to each other to avoid this and then she walked on the crowd and later bodysurfed for a while which was cool to see how she trusted the audience for a long time.

The band which consists of 4 women gave an incredibly hardcore performance with their post punk songs and attitude. The energy level of the songs and the singer were really high which gave more fuel to the crowd which enjoyed hitting each other and participating in the show. Only a few rare songs like Adore Life would calm people down...a bit.

Each member of the group had her own personality or way of playing in the band which was totally different from the bandmates

The singer was singing loudly and screaming sometimes, interacting with the crowd by going around and touching people, walking on the crowd and giving anecdotes.

While the guitar player gave a performance without giving away any emotions and seemed cold or really focused on her playing skills only looking at her guitar and standing still while playing during the entire set. The only moment she moved for a few seconds was during the last song to play near the drummer and came back to her previous spot after 1 minute which was funny in a way.

Watching the bassist was an entire different story since she was always dancing to the beat of the music, she seemed to really enjoyed the moment and the crowd, but she kept her eyes closed during the entire show which is quite unusual.

Finally the drummer was the person I watched the most during the show other than the singer since she played really hard by hitting her drums like crazy and she was always smiling while playing and at the crowd between songs.

The sober or lack of mise en scene really helped to focus entirely on the music itself. No need for extra fla fla when the music goes right through you with such intensity and loudness which sometimes made it impossible to hear the singer.

The encore interlude was actually played by the guitar player and the bassist who jammed until the singer and drummer came back on stage which is unusual, but way cooler as a fan!

The show was great, intense as was the crowd.

A must to see - Half Moon Run + Emilie & Ogden

Emilie & Ogden

Metropolis

Montreal 01-04-2016

 The opening act for the first of four sold out Half Moon Run show was Emilie & Ogden, her harp.

I had listened to her album 2-3 times since she released it in 2015 and I thought it was a good album, but seeing her live was something else. I never thought I would say this, but I quickly realized that a group with the main focus is the harp can actually rock really hard with the help of her drummer and her bassist.

Her performance was splendid on the harp, her voice sounded perfect, the bass was loud, Ogden was top notch and it was a show to remember as it was heavy and intense.

The crowd seemed to really appreciate the show as well and everyone was cheering hard after each song until they saluted us goodbye only to come back at the end of the Half Moon Run performance like she told us she did during her previous tour with them where she was shining again.

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Half Moon Run

Metropolis

01/04/2016





The first of four Half Moon Run shows at the Metropolis was an event to remember and to share with others. From the moment the group stepped on the stage to the last second of the show, the crowd was supercharged as if a boy band was playing in front of them and girls were going nuts except that everyone was going nuts, loudest I've seen a crowd, and it was a rock band from Montreal playing for us. The band was obviously really happy to be here in front of this crowd at home with their parents cheering and dancing from the VIP section. I've rarely seen so much excitement at a show from the crowd. I felt quite old with the college kids that formed 95% of the crowd.

The members of the group are excellent musicians and it was easy to appreciate it through the solo performances that they were giving each one at a time during the songs that they played sometimes with their guitars sometimes with the harmonica or the keyboards, but they were also joined by numerous other musicians who were playing violin, cello, traverse flute, piano and keyboards. Speaking of the soloes on harmonica and guitar, I can say that they were intense and had a huge reaction from the crowd. There was even a moment when the singer started playing with his mouth on his guitar while on his knees and it was something to remember.

Half Moon Run is playing with 2 drum sets on stage at all times and it can be heard during the whole show and really brings the beats and the songs to a different level of energy.

These showmen played 21 songs last night that ranged from intense rock, to folk rock, dance-electro, fast and slower songs to bring intensity down a little bit only to restart strong.  The singer had a great voice, but I couldn't see him much to their setting which placed the singer behind the speakers on the left of the stage, unfortunately,which was the only issue I had last night during this amazing set.

Setlist:

Scenically they are doing great things with the lights using LED posts, colorful lights and intense spotlights that basically made me close my eyes as they blinded me, but as a whole the lights enhanced the songs. They highlighted the crowd often with main lights to see the reaction. Moreover, Half Moon Run surprised everyone with 5 seconds of an intense blast of white steam coming from the top of the stage towards the crowd which was quite impressive and gave me no time to react to take a picture since I was frozen for a few seconds.

They finished the show with everyone on stage and including Emily (without Ogden) to sing the last song with them. It was a really nice moment to wrap things up and say goodbye.

A show to remember for sure!







Death Cab for Cutie + Metric tour

Death Cab for Cutie

Centre Bell, Montreal

March 19, 2016

Death Cab for Cutie started the show strongly by playing The New Year as they opened the show. They continued playing hits after hits:

1.The New Year
2. Crooked Teeth
3. Black Sun
4. The Ghosts of Beverly Drive
5. Title and Registration
6. Little Wanderer
7.No Sunlight
8. President of What?
9. I Will Possess Your Heart
10. Why I'm Lonely (Harvey Danger cover) (Live debut; played in honour of Aaron Huffman) 
11. El Dorado
12. You Are a Tourist
13. Cath...
14. Soul Meets Body
15. Bixby Canyon Bridge

They were rocking it throughout the show when they needed to and calmed the mood down when the songs required to be more introspective. Their performance was the best I saw of them, Ben Guibbard was really intense in his performance and mostly during his time playing on his keyboards.

The only slightly boring moment for me was when they played the Harvey Danger tribute song where they didn't seem to be completely in sync with each other and Ben was singing flat or didn't know how to sing that song.

Overall I was impressed with the show they gave.

They might be coming back really soon too...

 

Metric

Centre Bell, Montreal

March 19, 2016

Metric was the main event of this op-headlining tour with Death Cab.

To start this review I just want to say that Metric is one of my favorite bands, every Metric show I've been attending has been a major event and greatly entertaining without ever having me complaining about their performance.

If you had never seen Metric live before and you heard that Emily Haines in concert is exceptional and bringing the whole band up a notch, well it is usually true and that is why I love to watch them live, but it was not the case last night.  Emily's voice was way off due to sickness probably and her scenic performance suffered from the same issue and showed a definite lack of energy. I think she tried hard to move around and push her voice as hard as she could during the show, but it showed a lot. Emily pushed the limit by doing parts of 2 songs in acapalla which didn't help the songs at that time.

Metric tried something else that was new and nice to see which was to invite the Montreal Choir to sing "Dream so real" and the intention was great, but unfortunately the people in the Choir didn't sing and when they did we couldn't hear them well or at all which rendered the moment less stellar and off they were after that song.

Fortunately, Metric the band saved the show with a really great musicianship display of what they can do including Emily who is a great musician and really intense when she plays her keyboards. There is nothing I can say negatively about their performance as soon as they just played their instruments it was something else!

They made great alternative versions of some of their songs helped greatly with an amazing lighting show which changed songs and dynamics of these songs as they played along and interrupted by the light events. When they turned into robot like musicians with their glasses and the arrangements of the songs and beats for a song it was an amazing moment to absorb and I was blasted by those versions of the songs which was something totally new on this tour.

It was a good performance overall but obviously not the best I have seen of Metric unfortunately.

Set list:

1.IOU  
2. Help I'm Alive  
3. Youth Without Youth  
4. Twilight Galaxy  
5. Cascades
6. Hustle Rose (Acapella Snippet)   
7. Too Bad, So Sad  
8. Artificial Nocturne 
9. Dreams So Real (Acoustic, with choir)   
10. Blind Valentine (Instrumental snippet)  
11. Sick Muse  
12. Collect Call  
13. Other Side 
14. Black Sheep 
15. Synthetica  
16. Combat Baby (Acapella Snippet) 
17. Gold Guns Girls
18. The Shade
Encore:
19. Celebrate  
20. Gimme Sympathy (Acoustic) 
21. Breathing Underwater