“I know you think of me when you reach second base,” quipped Clarence Tremblay, frontwoman of Montreal three-piece soft grunge band, Birds of Prrrey, as they kicked off this year’s FME main stage. It’s not a bad way to introduce yourself and it certainly caught my attention. Based in Montreal, Birds of Prrrey have been a staple of the local scene for the past few years, but somehow I’ve never gotten around to seeing them live. They recently dropped their debut album, Peace Love Homicide. It’s a dreamy, soft-grunge banger of an album with punk and Riot Grrrl elements (two genres and sounds that’s have been foundational to who they are). All I can say is I’ve been missing out.
I’ll admit I’ve always had a soft spot for a three-piece band. There’s something I really like about a trio getting so much out of so little. And they killed it. They produced a wall of sound that enveloped the Main Stage. Noelle Inniss, hunched over her drum set, brought an intensity and energy that drove the whole thing forward. Grace Spitzley, on bass, had this hypnotic quality with her bass riffs. For me though, what really elevated the band’s performance was Tremblay. Her vocals were hauntingly beautiful. Her wailing invoked a sense of yearning and pining within me that made me reminisce about all of my past romantic failings. It’s a tough and thankless job to open a festival’s main stage. The crowd is sparse, the mood hasn’t really been set yet, and the pressure is on to set the tone. Birds of Prrrey did just that—their set acting like a siren’s call slowly pulling people towards the stage.
