Moshing is a pretty effective way to keep warm when it’s -15 outside. When HRT took to the stage, La Sotterenea came alive. Composed of Kirby on vocals and Ana on programming, their brand of ‘transgirl electronic body music’ ripped any people that were lurking in the corners and thrust them into the mix. With urgent vocals growled from the depths of heavy industrial beats, Kirby’s forays into the crowd only dialled up the energy even more.
God’s Mom at La Sotterenea felt like a ritual, a moment of collective worship. Grand, haunting vocals. Throbbing, clubby instrumentals. All hemmed by Bria Salmena who, adorned with chainmail and latex, was the magnetic presence leading the sermon. Salmena says that the Toronto-band is ‘not hedonism for the sake of hedonism, it’s a reckoning’. Montréal is here for it.
