Let’s not sugarcoat it. I was a wreck during early Sunday evening, the last day of FME. All I needed was sleep, but there were, of course, more bands to review. I walked into the darkened room of 55 Dallaire and stumbled upon a set by Moiré, a six-piece grunge-gaze group from Malartic, Quebec. The riffs were heavy, yet subdued, full of half- and full-step guitar bends that throw you off-kilter and bass and drum fills that feel quite nebulous.
It was a little much for my feeble brain, and under other circumstances, I might have liked it. It felt reminiscent of Duster or even Have A Nice Life, but with French vocals. But by the fourth droney song, my eyes felt ridiculously heavy, and I began to sway in a half-sleep-induced coma. The vocals, various French groans or wails, also felt very droney and did nothing to break me out of my standing siesta.
The stage was shaded in a purple glow, and at times, I truly felt like I was dreaming. The vocals were also quite low in the mix, so it was difficult to deduce what was actually being sung. The instrumentation was always heavy, like a concrete slab, and I was happy to eventually be free of its clutches. Maybe if I had seen Moiré, and it wasn’t the last day of this bender of a festival, I would have enjoyed it a bit more.
