Concert Reviews

 Chaz Bear aka Toro Y Moi packed the Corona Theatre alongside his band and Channel Tres. 

Jónsi and Alex perform their ambient album Riceboy Sleeps in its entirety featuring a 40 person orchestra!

Club Soda hosted the band Mashrou’ Leila last Wednesday for a night of performances, music, dance and video projection. The group did not disappoint using years of experience to entertain their fans, who tightly filled the small venue. 

Every now and again, a performer stops through Montreal bringing not just a prowess and artistry that impresses, but a living, embodied history. On Sunday, September 29th at the Rialto Theatre, POP Montreal offered one such show. Mavis Staples - a woman who worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King alongside her father and sisters as part of The Staples Singers, sang in President Obama’s White House and has collaborated with everyone from Bob Dylan to Hozier - graced the Montreal audience with the divine power of gospel, soul, and blues.

Sitting in the back of the room in Montreal’s Bar Le “Ritz” PDB, I got the perfect picture: a crowd full of hipsters, multi-colour lights swirling, and five musicians performing in perfect tandem. Accompanying them was a projection which included collages containing images of, for one, their Samoyed altered by psychedelic visual effects. 

A Guerilla Toss show is more of a ritual than a performance. The band wants you to party and dance, but they make sure you listen to the broader message. Lead singer and violinist Kassie Carlson uses her love of poetry and literature to compose lyrics that tackle serious topics such as depression and mental health. 

“Neurosis” is an archaic psychological term used to describe a variety of mental ailments, forgone nowadays in favour of other terms. Depression, anxiety, chronic stress, obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc. are what “neurosis” is most often associated with. So fitting is that word as the band name for Neurosis, one of the world's quintessential avant-metal bands. Their music explores the deep crevices of the mind, scratching away at the walls of your darkest feelings… only to suddenly burst out with an explosion of primal rage leaving you in a dizzied haze of grief.

Florence + the Machine returned to Montreal once again and brought their unique sound and the incredible vocal stylings of lead singer Florence Welch. While the Bell Centre may not have been as full as the last time they came to town, the air was electric and the crowd was ready to give it their all; we all knew Welch was about to put on a fantastic show.