Laura Krieg and Renonce prove that Francophone Darkwave is alive and Well

Last Thursday evening, a rather rare event took place at Bar Le Ritz: An almost 100 per cent francophone darkwave concert. The two headliners, the local queen of this genre, Laura Krieg, and the new post-punk/industrial group Renonce, who were launching their first album, Ombre, being two projects that favour the surrealist and dark language of Rimbaud and Baudelaire with their music. So I was very happy to go to Ritz (a room that I usually don’t particularly like) after a delicious dinner with good friends in an excellent little Indian restaurant near the venue in Parc-Extension. I arrived around 8:30 p.m., happy to warm my buttocks after walking for a while in the cold wind of this yet-still-cold-spring evening, just in time to say hi to some of my friends through the growing crowd, moving to the front, moments before the show began.

Their made-up faces, their exaggeratedly lacquered hair, and wearing of new-wave/glam androgynous clothes reminiscent of the style of the iconic brand of the early ‘80s Parachute, Laura Krieg and her usual musical sidekick, the veteran figure of the post-punk scene, Johny Couteau, arrived on stage to a wave of enthusiastic applause from the curious spectators who quickly gathered in front of the duo. The performance started strong with an extremely catchy drum machine and synths backing track over which Johny plays minimal, mechanical, and very effective bass lines, as well as epic percussion on a drum pad, while Laura sings in a casual, but still intoxicating way, and occasionally plays guitar. Fans of the band, like me, will have recognized several pieces from their repertoire such as “Tout s’effondre, tout va bien,” “Angst,” and “Fin du travail, vie magique.”

Laura Krieg Shredding / Stephan Boissonneault, PAN M 360

“Fin du travail, vie magique” / Laura Krieg

Playing for nearly half an hour, the Laura Krieg duo did a good job of finally getting the crowd moving, which at first seemed a bit frozen, thanks to new tracks that I had never heard before that had a more Italo-disco or even almost euro-pop influence which I hope to hear on a new album very soon.

After a short intermission of about twenty minutes, it was Renonce’s turn to storm the ears of the audience with their industrial-flavored darkwave tones. Founded in 2021, the solo project of Frédéric Nogarede, who notably played with the group Adam Strangler a few years ago, was celebrating the release of his first album, Ombre. This being my first time seeing Renonce in concert, I didn’t know what to expect. To my surprise, the musician took to the stage accompanied by two additional players, a guitarist, and a drummer, which pleased me enormously since we see more and more solo musicians who only sing along over backing tracks played on a laptop.

Renonce @ Bar Le Ritz

The group was able to deliver a very energetic performance, chaining heavy industrial songs in a quasi-continuous way, interspersing them with impressive instrumental soundscapes built on an array of analog synthesizers spread out on a table in front of the singer. The drums being very powerful and tight sounded almost like a machine and the guitar used feedback, among other things, in a very skillful way. The vocals, for their part, sometimes went from being soft and introspective to a sharp scream reminiscent of Nivek Ogre of the classic industrial band Skinny Puppy. Another cool aspect was the use of projections on the wall behind the trio, which greatly added to the ambiance of the performance.

A beautiful evening that gave me even more confidence in the fact that the alternative French-speaking Montreal scene is booming and has recovered very well from its pandemic misfortunes of recent years.