Long time no see! How are you, Dear Criminals? Electro-minimal trio Dear Criminals gave their first major performance in their hometown of Montreal in five years this weekend at Théâtre Outremont.
Dear Criminals last performed in the metropolis in a regular format at Le Gesù in 2019. A lot has happened since then. It seems the world has become a little more violent, a little more anxious. Fortunately, we still have music.
The band kicks off their performance with Visions, Starless and Waste Land, three tracks from their album Fatale. Virtually the entire 2017 project will be performed tonight, and it’s no coincidence: the compositions require the contribution of a string quartet, which is present tonight (as are a bassist and a drummer), something rather rare in Dear Criminals shows. For their only Montreal performance of the year, we might as well go all in,” Frannie told me in an interview a few days ago.
What’s striking about Dear Criminals’ live performances is the band’s ability to quickly create a steamy, tender atmosphere. There’s an almost sensual tension in the air, so carefully and sparingly are the notes sung and played.
What also strikes the listener, even more so on stage than in the studio, is how completely the three members of the band complement each other. Frannie Holder’s voice is crystalline and fragile, Charles Lavoie knits in a kind of arrogant romanticism, while Vincent Legault brings the Dear Criminals sound to life with his keyboards. There’s nothing like Dear Criminals in Montreal, and that’s all to their advantage.
While the overall performance was highly enjoyable, it was clear that this evening’s show was closer to a “running-in” than to the grandiose proposition to which the band has been accustoming audiences for the past 10 years. In previous shows, Dear Criminals had enlisted the services of a high-school choir (in the Saint-Jean-Baptiste church, no less), 3D effects and contemporary dancers.
Today’s offering is more conventional… and that’s no bad thing. The trio need to reunite with their old songs, they need to rekindle the flame before returning to the stage with an even crazier concept. The year 2025 will probably also see a new stage or studio production for the band, once again from a reliable source (the information comes from Frannie Holder, in fact. Couldn’t be more reliable).
Dear Criminals closes the regular segment of their show with Stay Tonight, probably the most beautiful song the band has ever written. I have a special relationship with this song. I heard it in May 2020, when Covid was raging, at the Lion d’Or cabaret. The project was called Lone Ride. I was cloistered behind three Plexiglas walls. I was alone on stage, they on the other side were three, playing and watching me. Strange times, eh? It seems a long time ago all of a sudden. I’d only been allowed one song, so I had to leave my place to someone else alone afterwards. The whole thing only lasted three, four minutes, and yet it stuck. I still consider that moment to be one of the most powerful musical experiences I’ve had in recent years.
It was the first time I’d heard the song live. It was 800 times less intimate (800 being the number of people present that evening), and yet it made me realize just how far we’ve all come since then.
It’s good to be together again.
LIST OF SONGS ON THE PROGRAM
1. Visions
2. Starless
3. Waste Land
4. Little Thief
5. Yet Not the End
6. Mark my Words
7. Nelly
8. Coldwave
9. Gravedigger
10. Song for Elisabeth
11. Lover’s Suicide
12. At Bay
13. Lies in Blue
14. Lala
15. Coco
16. Rose
17. Slowdisco
18. Stay Tonight
Encore
1. 7
2. Petite mort
3. Where We Started
Photo Credit : @yagubphotography
