Birds in Row bring sharp sound to Cabaret Foufs, along with Single Mothers and Botfly

On September 10th, 2024, Birds in Row made their third cross-continental journey to Montreal, all the way from Laval. Laval, France, that is. Exploding onto France’s Hardcore Punk scene with their debut album You, Me and The Violence in 2012, they’ve evolved to a more atmospheric sound with noise-rock and 90s alt-rock influences over the course of two more albums and a handful of EPs. The trio, guitar/vocals, bass/vocals, and drums brought their evolved music style and culmination of experience to deliver a sound-perfected experience that was at times intense, at times emotional, and entrancing throughout.

If you’ve never been to Foufounes Electriques, let me paint you a picture. There’s exposed brick wall with posters for upcoming shows, metal structures on the ceiling and walls, and dark lighting. The upstairs bar is cash-only, and every inch of the bathroom has graffiti. It’s a place perhaps best known for metal and punk shows, and you can find most of the patrons wearing band tees -  usually some impossible-to-decipher logo on a black background (it’s an if-you-know-you-know kinda thing). The evening started with Halifax-based Botfly as openers, a two-guitar, one-bass, drummer quartet that described their sound as “east coast hardcore”, and their live performance sounded at times like classic noise rock. It was a fun, energetic set, notable for its intense bass that could be felt way in the back of the room.

Second, as co-headliners, was the band Single Mothers, which is made up of - you guessed it! - four dudes. They were playing their 2014 debut album, Negative Qualities, in its entirety, as well as much of their first EP. The album consists of ten tracks, with punk, post-hardcore, and pop-punk stylings to them, with rock n’ roll tinges. Frontman and singer Andrew Thompson had an easy-going, friendly, and cynical humour about him. The album, he explained, was from a dark time in his life; you can immediately feel this from looking at the lyrics, or even the song titles, which he explained to us before each one “This song is called Overdose, and it’s about an overdose”, “This song is called money, and it’s about being broke”. Only for the song Blood Pressure did he elaborate further; “this song is about knowing that alcohol is killing you, and choosing the red wine anyways”. He’d been sober since 2016. “I’m not telling you that so I can get applause.” He said in response to the audience’s cheering. “I’m saying it because, if you know that you have to make a change, but you don’t think you can, you can. You just have to try.” Despite the rough content of the lyrics, the songs are fun and catchy, and delivered with an incredibly high-energy performance from all the members - I could see the sweat flying off of Thompson even from the back. You can tell there’s a synergy and genuine friendship between them, from the way they play around with each other, and the inside jokes that we didn’t quite understand, but were lucky to be a part of nonetheless.

Birds in Row were up next. The trio, consisting of Q on bass, frontman B on guitar, and D on drums, are founded in counter-culture and revolutionary ideologies. Beyond just being punk in their music, they’re also punk in their ethos. Musically, they were able to make the Cabaret Foufs soundsystem shine, which is not easy (Cabaret Foufs is, shall we say, not known for its sound system). Employing massive amps, ample pedals, crazy reverb on snare and vocal, and effects plugged directly into the PA system, each spot in the room gave a different musical experience. Up close, the amps dominated, giving it a loud, intense feeling, while further back, the PA effects came through more, giving it a shimmering, enveloping feeling. Their set consisted mostly of songs from their latest album, Gris Klein, starting with more intense hardcore-focused tracks (and moshpits in the audience), and ending with softer, emotional tracks (you can find the whole setlist here: link). Towards the end, I was able to just close my eyes and take in the experience. B talked to us between tracks, sometimes in English, sometimes in French. He spoke about how lucky they and we are to be able to gather like this and form community, the importance of civil unrest, and the political situation back home: “In France, fascism isn’t just knocking at the door, it’s sitting in the living room watching tv.” After an immense applause following the last track on the setlist, they decided to do an impromptu encore, performing a song from their first album. Q explained that the song was about coming home to Laval after touring and seeing people living normal lives, and feeling angry that everyone is complicit with the system. It took time before they came to terms with how lucky they really were, but they look back on it now and understand that, really, they were angry about being angry. So, for their last song: You, Me and The Violence.

Birds in Row, Single Mothers, and Botfly continue their journey across Canada and the States, and personally, I am already looking forward to their next visit to Montreal, though I may have to wait a few years before their return. Until then, you’ll find me revisiting their Bandcamp pages, again and again.

Listen to Birds in Row's 2022 album, Gris Klein, here https://open.spotify.com/album/19DOARmoP1fongIfEjg80g?si=4Wo8vm56T4u2yYvA6R61pw