Blending ‘80s Italia-glam and a primal, self-aware machismo of the future, Choses Sauvages never fails to electrify a crowd. Headed by the ever-animalistic Félix Bélisle (who was in his finest Freddy Mercury look for FME’s Thursday night), the Saint-Eustache/Montreal funk-punking supergroup takes pleasure in firebombing the dancefloor, demanding motion and mayhem with each long, shapeshifting song.
Each Choses Sauvages cut is an unassuming trapdoor leading to a new subterranean wonder realm of pure sensation. What starts as a funky, four-on-the-floor beat transforms before our eyes, zig-zagging through moments of screamo, hard rock, Prince-esque seduction anthems, and back to that irresistible funk sound at its centre. It’s impossible to keep track, feeling less like a setlist and more like a wall of TVs switched to clashing yet strangely resonant frequencies.
Adding to the frenetic, Quebec-infused tones that Choses Sauvages is so known for was the guest addition of Montreal post-punk Alix Fernz on guitar. His usual angular, juxtaposing style is mellowed slightly here, leaning into the soul and the feeling in a symbiotic push-and-pull with full-time member Marc-Antoine Barbier. Locking it down throughout is Charles Primeau on bass, each nasty little riff coaxing a little more, more, more out of the fast-rising crowd.
Bélisle himself never disappoints on vocals, showing off raw power and endurance with hair-raising high notes and ferocious, growling passages alike. Like the rest of the songs, his cadence and delivery can change at a moment’s notice, stretching and pulling until it snaps like a brittle rubber band, slingshotting the whole outfit into another danceworthy instrumental break to take us home. At FME 2026, Choses Sauvages showed us the power and grace of celebrating music, not just playing it.
