Music

We went to the Pop Montreal festival

Rachel Cameron | Thursday 20 October, 2011 11:11

Rachel Cameron illustration

I got to the 10th annual Pop Montreal weekend in a stranger’s van with five others just like me – willing to make the six-hour pilgrimage from Toronto to Montreal just to overload on music for 5 days. The festival packs in about 300 acts – this year, everything from the return of the legendary Raincoats to a free Arcade Fire show with 100,000 in attendance to a messy, bloody, Fucked Up set– not to mention art and film events scattered around. My impression of Montreal has always been that of a place where they were not that fussy about your age when serving a drink, a place where I can “practice” my French and a place that consistently lives up to its reputation for having constantly freezing weather. But in mid-September, with bands and artists pouring out of every part of this beautiful city, it felt like some sort of magical symposium where the only hard part was deciding who to see.

The Spits
The Spits are onstage in heavy black cloaks and caked on silver makeup, later to be found dripping down their faces. It’s their first time in Montreal, having finally negotiated the agony of Canadian Border Control. Club Soda is a big venue for them, full of serious fans, shifting and happily tolerating the opening act, a comedian named Neil Hamburger. Spits fans are die-hard and crammed infront of the stage, some legs dangling from the balcony. Their show is tireless and dedicated – the Spits are “punk for the people” and it makes their pilgrimage to Canada that much more sincere. It’s messy and sweaty, and anyone who has traveled to the States to see them play would expect nothing less. They tell me about their love of Canadian band Rush, adding that “all our expectation of Montreal were met”. All members seem genuinely stoked on the Montreal crowd, commenting on the “big lights” atmosphere that the venue gave them. But, says Sean, “people do go crazier in smaller clubs”. A three-piece band from Seattle, WA – their first of many self-titled albums was released in 2000 – it would seem that they are much more accustomed to that kind of dark, dirty dive. Their cloaks, however, are a staple of every show and a part of their message – they never go anywhere without their “suitcase of shit”, a way of engaging every audience. Tonight, they admit, wasn’t spontaneous. That shit came with them across the border.

Trust
Trust sounds dreamy and dark, kind of the best combination at midnight with a couple beers in you and Montreal weather in an uncharacteristically muggy state. They have a sound that you feel like you’ve heard before, maybe only because of how nostalgic you get. Their 2010 single “Candy Walls”, released by Toronto label Arts & Crafts, is a slow and quiet thing, and was the first song the two-piece band wrote together. Walking into their packed show at Casa del Popolo, for a second I thought I was in the wrong place. The stage was a smoky blur of flashing rainbow fluorescents, blurrily silhouetting front man Robert Alfonse, his big, deep voice booming. The drummer, Maya Postepki, swings around effortlessly, her shadow onstage reflecting their sweet, spooky sound. Trust teeters between electro, new wave and something darker; their new music feels like something huge, and with a room full to capacity with sweaty kids – it was hard to tell if it was the lights or the music that was so transfixing. When it’s all over, the band exit the stage but the lights and fog keep pulsing, leaving the crowd to navigate their own way out of the hypnosis.

One Hundred Dollars
One Hundred Dollars is the kind of band that makes you feel like you need to get hurt more, just so that you can channel an ounce of their pain. Lead singer, Toronto’s Simone Schmidt, haunts across the stage dragging her microphone from one end to the other. She paces, undistracted, and seemingly absorbs the sad soul of the narrator behind each song off their new LP, Songs of Man. It’s definitely country music, but more importantly it’s heartbreaking music. Every time Schmidt announces a song title, there’s a sweet groan from the crowd, an insinuated “you’re killing me here”. Backed by slide guitar, drums, keys and male vocals, Schmidt’s songs catch you. And although they seem to be referencing the irrefutable, tried-and-true traditions of country music, One Hundred Dollars’ show balances that familiarity with experimentation. They’ve filled bills across Canada for punk, rock and pop acts, finding some way to adapt to each genre. One Hundred Dollars’ music is storytelling heroics, and with a new narrator for each track on Songs of Man, it’s hard to say whose heartbreak hurts worse.

Joywave
If you’re a sucker for those indie pop bands with young fresh faces and tight cut jeans, well then you’re exactly like me. One might argue that Joywave (formally The Hoodies) is setting themselves up for a slew of comparisons in this genre; their music is upbeat and danceable, their lyrics are sharp and they’ve got the image down pat. They’re heavy on samples – everything from Miike Snow to The Flaming Lips – even got a song called “Winnipeg” that takes its hook from an Alicia Keys track. Joywave is was in Montreal for one night only from Rochester, NY, they played an early show at Pop Montreal, but one that I couldn’t walk away from. They seem like some sort of expert at the indie pop thing; almost any given track would lend itself nicely to an episode of Gossip Girl – and that’s not meant to be an insult. I asked lead singer and guitarist Dan Armbruster, 25, if he’s offended by the idea. “No way, that’d be awesome”. In regards to the comparisons, (I hear Bloc Party, Two Door Cinema Club, some dude in the audience offers Mars Volta) he takes them as compliments. “One of the guys’ parents came to a show we did a while ago and told us we sounded like the B52s”, he says, seemingly pleased. Joywave may have a familiar image, but with a recently released “concept mixtape” and an image that is nothing short of cohesive, they seem to be on the right track.

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