From August 31 to September 3, I was fortunate enough to attend the 15th annual Festival De Musique Émergente (FME).
The festival is located on Rouyn-Noranda which is a small town in Southwestern Quebec, the center of Abitibi region.
I was lucky to get flown and have a hotel to stay there thanks, to the publicist working for the festival.
While it was my first time in this town, it was quite a shock being in a small town where the main language is French.
I was trying to keep an open mind for my first FME experience which to my surprise is a community festival. (Check out their missions and goals.)
On the first night, I got to see La Mverte, Thus Owls, Philippe B, Andy Shauf, King Abid, Slosh, Atsuko Chiba and Duchess Says.
France’s La Mverte began the festival on the outdoor stage presented by Desjardins.Since it was chilly outside, I decided to go to Agora des Arts which used to be a church now turned into a venue space for live events. Starting off the show was Thus Owls. It was a unique set, if you can see in the photo. They had Mike Feuerstack on the left, Laurel Sprengelmeyer of Little Scream in the middle and Nic Basque of Plants and Animals in the right. Performing new materials for the FME and it was so good!Montreal singer/songwriter Philippe B was the second performer at Agora des Arts. The long-listed Polaris Music Prize nominee performed a nice intimate set of his Francophone folk pop music.This was the reason I wanted to go to FME. To see Andy Shauf perform! This time he had a backing band which included clarinet players! Played a lot from 2016’s album The Party and few older songs like Drink My Rivers and Hometown Hero. Felt like the show went by so fast, probably because I knew every song!! I got my Andy fix for 2017!!After a wonderful evening with Andy Shauf. I caught a free show by King Abid. Mostly reggae and dancehall music which had people moving and shaking in the cold night!Over at Petit Theatre du Vieux Noranda. The Paris dance noise punk band Slosh was performing. It was kind of like in your face loudness.Montreal’s Atsuko Chiba with their prog-krau-psych-post rock music. It was like listening to a mix of Rage Against the Machine and Likin Park.Ending the first night of FME was no other than Duchess Says! Wild and crazy show! Who knew Rouyn folks can sure have a fun time moshing and dancing to them! This was the second time for myself to go on the stage and dance while performing a song! A show to remember!!
