Marie-Céleste Burns Bright

I’ll admit that before I was invited to their show, I had no idea who Marie-Céleste, the Francophone indie pop sensation from Alma, QC, now based in Montreal, was. I had seen the posters all around town, featuring the band suspended in the air on the cover of their latest album, Tout ce qui brille, but I had no idea what to expect.

The show begins with a set by Kamilou, a local Franco rapper aiming for that soft-sung Billie Eilish vibe. As she walked around the front of the Club Soda stage, with a red curtain covering the full stage, she was accompanied by a guitarist (whose name I can’t find anywhere) who also handled her DJ and backing tracks with a laptop.

Kamilou has great flow, combining trap, rap, and a bit of soft jazz from her EP Pour toujours et à jamais, but her vocal mix live was way too quiet, almost like her vocals were over-compressed. This is not an issue with her, but rather the sound person not mixing her correctly. With the unruly sold-out crowd in Club Soda, it was impossible to hear her clearly, especially when she was talking directly to the crowd. The guitarist’s solos were also lost in the mix. I think I heard Kamilou say she was working coat check that night, which would be a funny turn of events, but I can’t say for sure.

The curtain eventually opens, and a bearded man in a suit gives a quick patriotic speech and says we are about to witness Quebecois history. I find it a little much, but the hype is clearly real as the curtain opens to a full band setup and a spot in the back for a horn section. Above the stage is a giant, crafted sun, much liek the cover of Tout ce qui brille.

During the first few songs, including one of my favourites of the night, the bossanova pop flavoured “Combien de temps?,” Marie-Céleste’s sound feels much fuller and clearer than Kamilou’s. A man, Simon Duchesne, looking like Donovan if he were a pirate, strums a light and dancey acoustic guitar, while a longer haired moustached keyboardist, Philippe Plourde, hops between three synthesizers. Together they sing harmonies while the bass player, Olivier Tremblay, lays down the song’s rhythmic foundation with the human dynamo drummer, Guillaume Sliger, and lead guitarist, Zachary Tremblay, rips a few solos.

The set is quite long, and the songs sound almost identical to the album, but Marie-Céleste clearly has super fans who know absolutely every lyric and scream in unison to songs like “2 goélands” and “CAM,” so it’s fun to be part of. One fun moment comes as Duchesne and Plourde hop into the crowd while the rest of the band jams. Marie-Celeste proper finishes the full set with a few encores from the previous album, Feux de joie. Yes, the Québécois indie pop sensation is burning brighter and brighter.