And we’re back! The PAN M 360 team is crisscrossing the entire FME 2024 program, picking up as many artists as possible during this 22nd edition in the beautiful Rouyn-Noranda. Continuing into day 2 we have coverage of Maryze, Amery, Feeling Figures, Alix Fernz, and Allô Fantôme.
Allô Fantôme: Artsy baroque pop and a side of tacos
by Stephan Boissonneault
The tunes of Allô Fantôme, the super project of songwriter Samuel Gendron, feel like they were plucked out of the ’70s, along with bands like Procol Harum and The Moody Blues. Leading a seven-piece band of electric and 12-string guitar, flute, bass, synths, and a steady drum section, Gendron commanded the room with his prophetic voice, singing about fear, love, and balloon animals. This maximalist approach to rock was perfect after a delicious offering of tacos, courtesy of label cuties, bonbonbon, for the five-year anniversary. Gendron’s skills on the keyboard are captivating to watch and his band, we must give a shout-out to the bassist for holding it all down, is tight as sin. The whole performance felt like staring at an abstract painting and finding the next part to change your life.
Melodrama and Mystique
by Lyle Hendriks
For my first show of Friday evening at FME, we had Maryze, a solo act from Montreal who pulls inspiration from the likes of pop’s heaviest hitters while bringing a unique boudoir intimacy to her anthemic tracks. Maryze played for a relatively tame crowd in a cocktail bar that would have been dusky if it had only been after dusk.
For a solo performer who, as she puts it, is basically reading from her diary, this early evening show could have been an intimidating setting for her performance, making it hard to bring (and keep) the energy. But fortunately, Maryze didn’t have this trouble at all. She covered a lot of sonic and emotional ground in her set, and sang her ass off for the entirety. Whether it’s huge pop songs that would be at home in the church of Lady Gaga, dirty club tracks about tongues, a romantic (and devastatingly sad) ballad with just her voice and the piano, or even a full, 4-minute acapella rendition of “La Vie en Rose” as she sat on the bar, Maryze was a pleasure to watch. Her voice is unbelievable, soaring over her backing music and giving me goosebumps as she draws us closer and closer. We might as well start booking Maryze for stadiums—she’s already playing like she’s in one.
Alix Chaos Fernz Incarnate
by Stephan Boissonneault
One aspect that has perhaps been somewhat lacking in the music scene is chaos, pure unbridled chaos that the great poets will try to lament. But on Friday night at Le Paramount, the town of Rouyn-Noranda was witness to that chaos in the form of Alix Fernz, the young, yet dynamic post-punk meets everything synth stooge who has been on a steady incline before the release of his debut album, Bizou. Wearing half of a shirt and showing off his canopy of tattoos, Alix launched into the whirlwind, stuffing his microphone in the back of his throat and at one point, almost choking himself out with the cable. It’s dangerous fun and most of the crowd loved it. A few had no idea what they had just walked into and probably felt like they were in the thickened haze of a preternatural trip. The Alix Fernz project is definitely best served with a full band; buzzing flying-v lead guitar, a prog-gasmic bass section, heavy drums, and jammy interludes that felt like Wire on speed. Safe to say, we can’t wait for the follow-up to Bizou and all its splendour.
Amery — Soft Rock Sweethearts
by Lyle Hendriks
I’m pleased to announce that the sunshine, falling-in-love-for-the-first-time vibes of Amery are absolutely apparent in her live performance. While some music in this niche treads into the territory of being annoyingly cheerful, Amery and her band completely sidestep this issue thanks to an overwhelming sense of genuine joy behind their music. Soft, sensitive, and sweet, the band draws us in with a lower-than-average volume and a subdued energy that only entices us.
The band feels somehow both tight and loose, ebbing and flowing with one another as we’re led through the emotional centre of each song. Amery herself is a pleasure to watch, with a huge smile on her face and relentless dancing that you can’t help but love. Her music makes you want to hold a puppy or go on a bike ride to nowhere, and every lyric comes to us like someone admitting a playground crush. By the end of the set, she’d won the room over handily, shredding a cover of Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff”, much to the delight of a few dad-aged dudes who got to tearing it up on the dancefloor. If you get the chance to see Amery perform, make sure you’re ready to leave in a good mood.
Feeling Figures or Mysticism with Teeth
by Stephan Boissonneault
Maybe it was the cocktail of substances and Sapporo’s I had partaken, or maybe it was just something clinging to the air at FME, but I could not for the life of me get the concept of ego death out of my mind while watching Montreal’s Feeling Figures. Their set, a sporadic dose of twee-shoegaze pop and heavy guitar noise, backed by a rounded-out rhythm section who lead the band down a few grooving rabbit holes, felt at times like an unrelenting dream, one you never wanted to end. The dual vocals from Zakary Slax and Kay Moon, while each slaying on their respective axes, was a back and worth of noisy harmony that brought to mind some of the no-wave madness of ZE Records days. Back to ego death, the feeling of ultimate surrender and loss of the senses (a calming feeling, I know), The Figs took us on a psychic journey, one where you had to float around the walls of catharsis. A spiritual journey fit for FME.
photos by Stephan Boissonneault & Jacob Zweig
