“The last time I was here, I don’t think I was legally allowed. I was like 17,” Sasha Khalimonova (the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of Sasha Cay) laughs while telling a packed room in Divan Orange. This venue, which was forced to close down in 2018 and signalled a wave of gentrification issues on Montreal’s St. Laurent and the Plateau, has reopened for the 25th anniversary of Pop Montreal. “It’s a dream come true to play here and play with Plants and Animals.”
Before the home town indie heroes, Plants and Animals tooks the stage, Sasha Cay (made up of Khalimonova, Rhys Climenhage on drums, Clay Middleton on lead guitar, and Owen Saar on bass) guided the crowd through some moody, 80s-tinged bedroom pop with a healthy dash of shoegaze. At points it felt very Metric if there was more of a Kate Bush influence, but Sasha Cay’s vocals also jump between grungey delay to a bit of auto tune. There was lots of feedback throughout the show, coming from Sasha’s mic, but it kind of added to the alluring quality of some of the droning guitar waves and murky lyrics. I believe they played the fuzzy atmospheric and doom-rocky “Barrel,” the latest single the group dropped early this year.
I can’t really tell you any names of other songs, because most of the set was from a surprise album that will be announced at some point. “It’s a surprise because we are I’m you now,” Khalimonova laughed. One moment that will stay in my mind was a loud wall-of-sound juncture where all of the guitar players crowded around the drums and hung their instruments low by the kick drum, almost as if they were absorbing energy from some arcane ritual. I’ll be waiting for that new album, oh yes.
