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.
