Rau_Ze at Club Soda | The voice of Montreal Youth

by Sami Rixhon

Braving the cold for a dose of R&B, another of soul. Rau_Ze, a project revolving around a young duo formed by Rose Perron and Félix Paul, treated itself to an extra performance at the launch of Virer nos vies at Club Soda, its first career show. Well, not really.

Not really, because a little over two years ago, the Saint-Laurent venue saw Rau_Ze win the 26th edition of the Francouvertes. In a way, they had come full circle there, on these stages, before reaching even greater heights.

Talkin’ ’bout my generation

The line in front of Club Soda stretches for half the block several dozen minutes after the doors open. The checkroom is full (literally) and we’re struggling to find a seat in the balcony. The fervour is real.

Rau_Ze and a half-dozen musicians take to the stage and open their set with the title track from their album, Virer nos vies. Everyone repeats it, everyone already knows it, but what a gift Rose Perron has for singing. Her personality is unique, she exudes confidence the more she lets herself be carried away by her vocal flights. Yet Perron seems immediately more shy when the words she utters are not accompanied by musical notes, when she impromptu addresses such a loyal crowd between songs. Music transforms us.

Sumerset, Pas la peine, L’Habitude (especially L’Habitude): barely six months after the launch of their album, Rau_Ze can already look back on real hits that are probably on many a Montrealer’s playlist. In fact, I’ve seen the duo’s name mentioned several times in recent days in my friends’ Spotify and Apple Music retrospectives. It’s simple: Rau_Ze is the biggest Generation Z musical phenomenon in Quebec since Hubert Lenoir, in 2018. It’s no mean feat to completely fill Club Soda after a successful first launch, which took place in a venue half the size, and without having released any new material since.

Rau_Ze plays all the pieces on Virer nos vies, offers a cover of Claude Dubois’ Femmes de rêve, and closes the set with two insane jams of free-punk-jazz-psychedelic-experimental that leave room for pogos at the foot of the floor.

In their early twenties, the members of Rau_Ze are a true example of success and rigor for anyone their age who aspires to excel. The offering is professional and particularly mature, and the ceiling, already very high, will get higher the more experience the band gains.

A MTELUS with them in a year or two will be devilishly pleasant.