Montreal Rocks

Theatre Fairmount, inches from the stage, and it felt like the whole room was inside the set. Trace Amount hit with punishing industrial intensity, clubdrugs brought the goth-synth glow, and The Black Queen ran Fever Daydream front to back for its 10th anniversary, dark, seductive, and totally immersive.

Read our review.

The Black Queen + clubdrugs + Trace Amount @ Theatre Fairmount On Wednesday, May 27, Montreal’s intimate Theatre Fairmount exploded into a haze of metal, industrial noise, gothic synths, and nostalgia as Trace Amount, clubdrugs, and The Black Queen let loose. It was my first time at the Fairmount, and in a room that small, the stage sits only inches away. You...

Three bands, zero downtime. Lip Critic turned La Sala Rossa into a full-body sweat, with two drummers, a wild electropunk pulse, and a crowd that did not stop moving for a second.

“I wanna see this whole room look like the inside of a washing machine.”

Read our review.

Lip Critic + Flatwounds + Bejalvin @ La Sala Rossa Bejalvin I will admit, I went into this show completely blind. I had barely listened to any of Lip Critic’s stuff before entering the venue, and I was very pleasantly surprised! First up for the night was Bejalvin, an experimental hyperpop duo from Minneapolis. Their set was electric, and an incre...

Superheaven returned to Montreal after a decade away and made it count.

"Tight, loud, heavy" doesn't do it justice — stop-motion claymation visuals, a crowd-stopping moment of genuine humanity, and three bands that proved modern rock is very much alive.

Read our review.

Superheaven + Modern Color + All Under Heaven @ Studio TD With their triumphant return to Canada after a decade-long absence, and a new record under their belt after about as much time, Montreal served as the kickoff city for Superheaven’s North American run with Modern Color and All Under Heaven. They tore through the Studio TD stage to give us an eveni...

The first edition of 3ffestivalfemmesfatales took over Le P'tit Ours on June 19 and 20, and Montreal's femme music community showed up in full force.

Ema Jean, the roof-rattling Death Proof, Black Magic, Those Trees, and a closing set from founder Ash Lex.

Check out the full review and photos:

Montreal's Femme Community Shows Up I’ve been asking for years and finally the universe has answered. Thanks to founders Ash Lex and Derek Wiltshire 3F:Festival Femmes Fatales kicked off it’s first edition of their women’s music festival on June 19 and 20th and it rocked. I attended both nights because I had never seen any of th...

The Fiery Furnaces at Bar Le Ritz PDB felt like a stripped-down cabaret-circus, all keyboard melodies and Eleanor Friedberger’s “crisp, serious vocal” cutting through the room.

Plus a perfect 24-hour-notice opener from local singer-songwriter Hanako. Read our review.

The Fiery Furnaces + Hanako @ Bar le Ritz It’s been a whirlwind couple of days for local singer-songwriter Hanako: quitting her job in the Old Port, then invited to open this show at 24 hours’ notice. Still, she doesn’t seem the slightest bit nervous, chatting with the crowd between each slice of her mellow, Mitski-esque minimalist ch...

Montreal's Big ‡ Brave stripped out the drums on their tenth record and built something heavier.

in grief or in hope is out now on Thrill Jockey Records.

Album Review: Big|Brave – in grief or in hope The kit is gone and you feel it in your chest before you register it consciously. BIG|BRAVE open in grief or in hope with sustained guitar drone and Liam Andrews’ bass carrying the rhythm alone, and the architecture holds. It takes a minute to understand what you’re listening to. Whether that mi...

Chet Faker turned MTELUS into another dimension.

"A mysterious, almost magical world built from shadows, groove, and voice."

For fans of: late-night headphone music brought to life on a stage.

Chet Faker @ MTelus Last night at MTELUS, the room felt like it had been pulled into another dimension. Before Chet Faker even stepped on stage, Beacon had already shifted the energy of the crowd. Their sound, electronic, deep, almost nocturnal, slowly wrapped itself around the room. There was something both intriguing...

Simple Plan back in Montreal for F1 weekend, proving their songs still land even in front of a crowd full of F1 caps. "Even in an unusual setting, their songs still land."

For fans of: early 2000s pop-punk and Montreal homecomings.

Simple Plan + Matt Lang @ F1 Montreal Simple Plan Brings Pop-Punk Nostalgia to the F1 Crowd The first night of the F1 concert series in Montreal brought together two very different Canadian acts: Matt Lang and Simple Plan. It was a strong double bill, mixing country-rock energy with the kind of pop-punk nostalgia that Simple Plan has be...

10,000 people under the same sky, moving toward the same bassline. Solomun opened Montreal's summer at Piknic Électronik and the city felt it.

Solomun @ Piknic Électronik Solomun Launches Montreal’s Summer in Front of 10,000 at Piknic Électronik Montreal did not ease into the weekend: it arrived loud, restless, and already sweating. Between the opening of Cirque du Soleil, the Canadiens’ playoff fever, Formula 1 energy slowly taking over the city, and the first ...

Warning's first album in twenty years drops today. Rituals of Shame opens with thirteen minutes of doom that doesn't waste a second of them.

Our review:

Album Review: WARNING – Rituals Οf Shame The title track opens on a lurch. Six-four against four-four, a time signature that won’t settle, and immediately you understand: Warning aren’t interested in comfort. Thirteen minutes, and the guitar leads carry the kind of mournfulness that sounds less performed than remembered. Around the sev...