Concert indie Live Music Photography Show Review

Pop Montreal 2015 – Day 2 [September 17, 2015]

By Ming Wu on Wednesday, September 23, 2015

So here is the second of five series of acts that I saw at Pop Montreal.
Bands I saw were Country, Chuggo, Quebec premiere of Arcade Fire’s Reflektor Tapes, Tasseomancy, Ought, Chevalier Avant Garde, Last Lizard, She-Devils, Empress Of, Braids.

Country @ Pop Montreal BBQ Show — Started off my Thursday by going to Pop Montreal HQ for their BBQ show. Finally caught the Montreal act Country. Mix of synth pop rock music, would have wanted to see the lead singer wearing his beaver costume. But I guess it was really early in the day. They do have a loyal fanbase.

Chuggo @ Pop Montreal BBQ Show — You thought Ottawa was worst when it came to noise bylaws but Montreal is even worst. For a day show like this, apparently someone was not having it. So there was some confusion if rapper Chuggo was even going to perform. I will leave to your imagination to what his music sounds like. Finally the show was happening but it had to be reduced and Chuggo performed three songs.

Arcade Fire's Reflektor Tapes @ Rialto Theatre — At Rialto Theatre it was the Quebec/Montreal premiere of Arcade Fire’s Reflektor Tapes. You can tell by the line up that people were curious to see it.

Arcade Fire's Reflektor Tapes — This being the Quebec premiere that the whole thing was in French. The host and Regine spoke in French and came to no surprise that Win spoke in English. If you spent most of your time in Montreal, you could have learn some French. Anyways I mostly caught about 15 minutes into the movie. I felt it was more of arthouse take on their Reflektor tour and not much about the history on making the album Reflektor. There was some mumbling from people who I talked to saying they were somewhat mislead by the title or something. I dunno! Reflektor Tapes was more like “Damn I am kicking myself for not going to their concerts”.

Tasseomancy @ Ukrainian Federation — The reason I didn’t want to sit my ass for about 90 mins for Refkletor Tapes was I didn’t want to FOMO this show happening at Ukrainian Federation. Got there half-way during Tasseomancy’s performance. Besides being very hot inside the venue, the band performed a lovely dark electro-pop folk music. Mostly material from their album Palm Wine Revisited.

Ought @ Ukrainian Federation — Here comes the joking tagline! Ought was hot at Ukrainian Federation *literally*! Again they pull off a awesome set! Tim told the audience that he wanted everyone standing than sitting. In all the times being at this venue this is probably the third time I stood up. Literally it was so hot I couldn’t take it but still a great show!

Chevalier Avant Garde @ La Vitrola — Headed over to La Vitrola which was the Fixture Records showcase. Chevalier Avant Garde was performing. Luckily I got into this showcase since it was literally sold out.

Last Lizard @ La Vitrola — The reason why it was sold out was the return of Alex Zhang Hungtai. Formerly as Dirty Beaches, his new moniker is Last Lizard. The music was more experimental avant-garde jazz. More like going back to his early Dirty Beaches from Horror or Night City. Somehow the style bought back memories of watching TVB (Hong Kong channel) late 80s drama series where there is a scene in a bar and someone is playing the sax. Can’t wait for when the finished product will be released.

She-Devils @ Le Late Night Little Burgundy (Piccolo Rialto) — It was the late night show at Piccolo Rialto and starting off the set was Montreal’s She-Devils. There is something about their music is truly wonder. It’s like mellow electronic lo-fi pop music. Just found out that the guy used to be in Pop-Winds! No wonder there is a connection to Majical Cloudz!!

Empress Of @ Le Late Night Little Burgundy (Piccolo Rialto) — I was very excited to see Empress Of. She recently dropped her debut album “Me”. Totally performed a energetic and vibrant synth-pop dance set. It was something!!

Braids @ Le Late Night Little Burgundy (Piccolo Rialto) — To top it off was Braids. I just had to see them again this year after their Arboretum Festival performance. I felt more connected to their music probably it was indoors and very intimate. I had to dance myself crazy to Blondie and Miniskirt. Amazing Thursday night of the festival!

That was it for Thursday night at the festival.
Click below for more photos!

Pop Montreal 2015

300 photos

2015 alternative Arcade Fire band Braids Canada Chevalier Avant Garde Chuggo Concert country Dance Electronica Empress Of Experimental Group Hip-Hop indie Last Lizard Live Montreal Music Musicians Ought Photography Pop Pop Montreal Pop Montreal 2015 punk Quebec premiere of Arcade Fire's Reflektor Tapes Rap Reflektor Tapes Review Rock She-Devils show Tasseomancy

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.