Taverne Tour weekend ended at Le Ministère. Everyone has been crushing Labatt 50s for three days straight and the room is brimming with energy on the heels of La Sécurité’s performance. We survived the festival, hopping over snow banks from venue to venue. Now, it’s time to party. 

The Drin was the closing act, a noise rock band featuring a saxophone, a harmonica, and some morbid lyrics. This was an interesting choice for the festival closer. I would absolutely see this band again when I can pay attention to what is happening on the stage. Their sound is gritty and cool, and they are certainly captivating performers, just maybe not enough to hold the dwindling focus of the festival-goers on their last ounce of energy. 

It was slightly surreal and disorientating to witness at 1 am; a man in dark sunglasses playing the sax quickly approaching through the crowd, as someone shoves a greasy slice of pizza into my hand. All the while the singer is asking: “do you want to watch yourself die?.” Honestly? No, I don’t. Right now I’m at the pizza party; I want to headbang and shake some ass. There is a time and place for considering my own mortality, and I’m just not sure this was it.

O Patro Vys is a small venue above Billy Kun, a bar famous for having various ostrich heads over the walls. In reality, O Patro Vys doesn’t have many ostrich heads, but there was no lack of bad bitch vibes that snowy Friday night on the Day 2 of Montreal’s Taverne Tour. Public Appeal, Franki, Los3r, and Ura Star & Fireball Kid hyped up the dancefloor and made many girls (and me) scream. I guess that’s what FKA Twigs meant by “Eusexua”. 

Public Appeal, a DJ and musician from France, has been destroying dance halls of rave floors in Montreal for last six years. That night they lit up O Patro Vys with a label-free pop set that blended rugged electroclash beats and sultry indie sleaze. It was pure slay energy, fueled by influences from Charli XCX to underground techno – people on the dancefloor around me were jumping and singing along, profoundly hooked on Public Appeal’s confident presence and dystopian-edge pop. 

Public Appeal

Franki, a project by singer-songwriter Helena Palmer, brought to O Patro Vys a denim-inspired pop spectacle, bubbling around punchy rhythms and cheeky nostalgia for the Brat summer. Her soft guitar and intimate lyrics were backed by Julia Mela (from Gondola) on a bass and DJ Wiltbarn, an emerging local adept of juke, footwork, and girly-pop electronics —a perfect trio to match with cheerful songs about fabric, fashion, and everyday chaos. “You Look Good in Your Jeans” is still playing in my head while I’m writing this review a day later. And I don’t even wear jeans. 

Franki

I went out for a smoke, and after I was back, I found that three bubbly girls on the stage turned into three boys with laptops, ready to rock their computer wizardry. But the shit they make ain’t no Silicon Valley Hackathon; the sugary vocals, blend of melancholic lyrics and brash electronic beats were not too far-fetched from the girly energy that dominated the night at O Patro Vys. Los3r, an electronic trio from Ottawa formed in late 2022 by longtime friends Noah Perkins (Geunf), Thomas Khalil (User), and Julien Martinet (dulien) – absolutely slayed.

The night was wrapped by real instruments from Ura Star & Fireball Kid, a six-piece sound presence, described on their Bandcamp as “music for good times, kitchen parties, barn burners and night drives.” Kids back then used to call it “easycore”—lots of jumping around, lot of guitars; bright, melodic textures and chants like “I love going out – we always have a good time / cold beer in my mouth reminds me of summertime, oh ya”; its pop, punk, synth-driven hooks and, honestly, I fuck with it. Boys made it to the Brat summer party and found a way to fit in the vibe. Nothing but respect.

The Orchestre FILMharmonique under the direction of Francis Choinière, together with Le Chœur des Mélomanes, performed a short and sweet homage to the prolific Ennio Morricone at La Maison Symphonique on the night of February 8th. Selections included various themes from films such as Cinema Paradiso, The Untouchables, as well as the classic Spaghetti Westerns including The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars, et cetera.

Highlights of the evening included soprano Myriam Leblanc’s dynamic control as soaring notes; a fun spotlight moment for Lévy Bourbonnais who walked out centre stage playing the harmonica dressed in a poncho and obligatory cowboy hat; Henri Ferland’s powerful trumpeting; and the grandiose finale performance of “The Ecstasy of Gold.”

I will admit that the evening contained some selections I found to be a bit “square” or unmoving. However, I acknowledge that, for one, I wasn’t always familiar with a given piece’s associated film and therefore probably less invested emotionally; and secondly, that Ennio Morricone wrote literally hundreds of scores in his lifetime, and as such, not every theme can be a masterpiece.

Regardless, this wasn’t an indictment on the orchestra or choir who played solidly, effectively, and put on a fun evening music.

It was in snow overalls and with eight hours of driving in their bodies that Prewn took to the stage on Thursday night. At least, a fraction of the band, embodied by Massachusetts singer and guitarist Izzy Hagerup.

Freshly landed at the Pit Caribou Pub on Rachel, she quickly established an enveloping, almost esoteric atmosphere that immediately silenced the bar. In front of an audience dressed in fluorescent VioleTT Pi sweaters, Hagerup strummed her guitar with the confidence of an artist who hadn’t just arrived. The project being rather new, she strung together songs from her first and most recent album Through the Window, released in the summer of 2023.

Like a fire starting to burn, she whispers, then her voice gradually ignites into perfectly controlled, never plaintive howls. Her timbre is fiery, marked by a raw emotion that seems to inhabit her psychedelic flights. We don’t miss a word she says. Her words are at times moving, at times surreal and tinged with humor.

Si son projet s’adapte parfaitement à une formule solo, guitare électrique et voix, sa prestation promet d’être encore plus transcendante ce samedi en full band à la Sala Rossa.

From snow overalls to Korn sweaters, from folk-rock to electro-magnet, VioleTT Pi took over. The audience gathered at the foot of the stage.

Karl Gagnon, a.k.a. VioleTT Pi and his musicians performed under a faint mauve light, but at least it was to a capacity crowd. The pub stage was ill-suited to hosting a band: while the darkness suited Prewn, it did a complete disservice to VioleTT Pi’s performance. Such are the vagaries of an ephemeral pub scene. After threatening the absent lighting engineer with vandalizing his car with cucumber peelings, VioleTT Pi channeled his frustration into energy.
To the delight of his loyal audience, he drew on the best of his discography. He was provided with a bottle of Chartreuse and a spotlight, which he placed on the floor, breathing new vitality into the performance. VioleTT Pi closed with the effective closer Six Perroquets Séchés Dans Un Tiroir En Bois, where the audience chanted “Mange ma marde, mange-marde” in anthem-like chorus. He managed to keep the front of the stage moving, despite the technical problems. True to form, he once again rose to the occasion.