Xiu Xiu was unlike any live act I’ve seen in recent memory. Hosted at the intimate Theatre Fairmount, their Friday night performance was unnerving and enthralling— leaning more towards performance art than your typical concert. Armed with only a vague knowledge of their music beforehand, I truthfully found it abrasive enough to leave the concert early, yet perplexing and captivating enough to remain at the constant forefront of my mind for days afterward.
Eerie violin and piano hummed through the venue’s speakers as a crowd of mostly Mile End-looking guys and cool goth girls assembled in a hushed murmur. A projection of the band’s latest album cover, 13” Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips, illuminated the stage with gasoline-puddle-rainbow hues while an increasingly bizarre mix of cymbals and percussive instruments materialized, followed by the poised members of the LA-based band themselves.
Kicking things off with “The Silver Platter,” Xiu Xiu surprised me with the sheer ferocity and precision of their gothic, industrial, art rock, noisy sound. Perfectly timed, frantic cymbal crashes punctuated the lyrics of Jamie Stewart’s powerful warbling, piercing his lines like a stab in the gut. Both live and in recordings, Sterwart’s distinctive vocals are ghoulish, with a Dracula-esque articulation that ranges from a dying whisper to full-throated shrieking. His energy in the first three songs was really something else, doing literal handstands and pantomiming while singing, playing guitar, and whacking gongs.
Angela Seo had some stellar moments of her own, particularly her delivery of the sinister monologue from “Wig Master,” which started in a mumble and accumulated into a frenzied repetition of shouts. Another song featured a duet with Angela groan-shouting and Jamie wailing through a whistle-kazoo instrument, sounding like a newborn baby. Coupled with cymbals of every size and other curious percussive instruments, the wall of sound was overwhelming.
Yet I can’t stress enough just how deathly quiet the audience was between songs, with minutes of complete silence as the band would set up for the next track. I think Stewart even joked at one point, “You’re too loud, I can hear you talking” to an audience member halfway through the show. I have no clue if this is normal for a Xiu Xiu show or if Montreal had a particularly reverent crowd that night.
I left with even more questions and curiosity about the band than when I entered, and I genuinely haven’t stopped thinking about it since—their 16 studio albums and interviews from the last 20 years have proven to be a fun rabbit hole to dive down. And their albums sound completely different from their live show. I think that’s sufficient evidence to say that I found it to be an impactful performance to say the least.
Photos by Amir Bakarov
