Being on the sold-out dancefloor of Newspeak last Friday felt like being transported to a smoke-filled Manchester warehouse or an underground party in the heart of Sheffield. For Montreal’s UK bass community, this was no ordinary club night. Feb. 13 had occupied calendars for several months, as rising garage producer[Read More…]
Tag: concert review
Dijon transforms Montreal into a playground of sound
Halfway through his sold-out tour, Dijon walked out onto the barely lit L’Olympia stage in a sweater and jeans—no opener, no fuss—and somehow transformed a 2,400-capacity venue into a jam session in his living room. Before the stage lights even turned on, he slipped into the first notes of “Many[Read More…]
Wednesday on a Friday
“I saw Wednesday on a Friday night” sounds like the setup to a classic riddle, but don’t be deceived. Fresh off the explosive release of their sixth studio album Bleeds, North Carolina’s resident alternative country band Wednesday stopped in Montreal on Nov. 15 and lit up Club Soda for the[Read More…]
Laufey transforms vulnerability into art at Place Bell
Following a Grammy for her second album, Bewitched, singer-songwriter Laufey’s A Matter of Time tour explores a new side of herself. Suki Waterhouse opened the Montreal tour stop with ethereal vocals, priming the audience for Laufey; both artists delivered outstanding performances at Place Bell on Oct. 21st. From the first[Read More…]
A Virgin sacrifice, live in Montreal
On Pure Heroine’s twelve-year anniversary, Lorde was reborn a Virgin at Montreal’s Bell Centre. After a four-year hiatus since Solar Power, she arrived incomplete and half-made, perpetually becoming—an invitation to get ready with her—for one tender night of confessional pop. Discussing her fourth album, Virgin, Lorde told Apple Music: “Everything[Read More…]
Noumoucounda Cissoko’s strings of memory and resistance shine at Nuits d’Afrique
With summer drawing to a close, one festival remains a highlight of the season. For nearly two weeks in July, the streets of Montreal pulsed with the rhythms of distant homelands. From July 8 to 20, the city became the summer’s cultural epicenter, hosting the highly anticipated Festival International Nuits[Read More…]
Rainy OAP performance rinses away pretenses
Despite the cold open that Montreal student band The Longest Year was supposed to deliver as the first act of the day, the audience who crowded around the tented Open Air Pub (OAP) stage on Thursday afternoon had seemingly already warmed. Even more surprisingly, their wet hair was plastered to[Read More…]
Cianalas brings Celtic charm to Montreal
With St. Patrick’s Day behind us but spring ahead, the lilting Celtic tunes of Montreal-based band Cianalas make the perfect soundtrack for a city shaking off the last chills of winter. The band played their first headline show on March 19 at Quai des Brumes, a dimly lit bar on[Read More…]
MJ Lenderman ushers the spirit of Asheville into Montreal’s Théâtre Fairmount
Whirring guitars pierce through the night, sloshing through the cramped crowd of Théâtre Fairmount. The amps engulf the room in a communication of riffs, a call-and-response of rhythmic strums with the scalding guitar whistles and twang of the pedal steel. As the audience returns lyrical chants to the stage, shock[Read More…]
Tokyo Police Club says a final “au revoir” to Montreal
On Jan. 23, Canadian indie rock band Tokyo Police Club (TPC) announced their farewell tour, and on Oct. 12, they played for the last time in Montreal, a city with strong ties to their beginnings as a band. The news of their breakup was met with overwhelming support from fans.[Read More…]