After a spirited set from Toronto’s noisy experimental new wave punk duo, @slashneed the Taverne Tour audience at Le Ministère might have been unprepared for what followed. Brooklyn, New York’s Deli Girls, another duo that delves into dance-punk fury, took the stage and brought with them a wall of distorted sounds that sometimes felt like an airplane taking off, a wall of glass shattering, or synthy madness. This is all thanks to the masked Deli Girls’ DJ, Hatechild.
The leader of the group, Dan Orlowski began the set with some maniacal auto-tuned laughs, sporting some Joker-esque warpaint and a plaid skirt that read “Suck My Dick.” After some well-prepared screams about pain and societal collapse, Orlowski looked at the crowd and said “Do you guys mosh?” before flinging themselves into the crowd and smashing their body against and with the crowd in sweaty discordance. Orlowski might have some of the most controlled screaming I’ve ever heard, a pure punk rock ethos and well-executed digital mania, fringing between hyper pop, synthwave, and breakbeats. The set was pure arcane, untouchable in the grand scheme of live Montreal shows. Deli Girls is indeed, a rare breed.
