Faux Real gets ready sweaty with art-pop pilates at Foufounes Electriques

High-energy Franco-American art-pop brother duo Faux Real graced the floors of Foufounes Electric with their toe shoes this week with openers Lola 1:2 and Sean Nicolas Savage.

Lola 1:2 is a fresh Montreal popstar with one released single and a sense of perfectionism holding back the rest of her set. Lola’s performance was energizing and fun, she ran circles around the stage while effortlessly untangling herself from the microphone cord. She struggled with her new sampler machine and explained to us that she hadn’t performed since October, I wouldn’t have known as it all sounded so cool. After announcing that she had one more song she spotted her friend in the audience who just arrived, “oh, okay I’ll do two more songs”, everyone cheered, “do you want trippy or emo?”, “trippy!!” the audience responded.     

Recovering from a health scare of almost-chopping-off-the-tip-of-his-finger-while-chopping-tomatoes-the-night-before Sean Nicolas Savage was so happy to be alive and well on stage with his fingers intact. His smiles and energy were big and wide and shining, twirling around on stage and again, untangling from mic cords. He has a new album coming this spring, from which he opened with the song ‘The Awakening’ which he described as something like a spell, as this is the time for spells. The energy of his performance and vocals, almost Caroline Polachek-ish, blew away the slow acoustic melodies of the music behind him. Although he filled the empty stage well, my ears did not feel saturated with sound to the degree he deserved. But what can I say, I’m a maximalist and not one for piano ballads.

Faux Real’s performance was more polished and annotated than when I saw them open for Cecile Believe at POP Montreal last October. Maybe they’re just tired from all the high kicks as this show wrapped up their North American tour leg, or they feel more confident in their music’s ability to capture an audience without an entire Pilates class. Their high-intensity performance is mesmerizing to watch, every move is analytically choreographed and practiced from switching coloured covers on stage lights to rugby-inspired moves of flinging each other into the air. The level of physical exertion they put out is really impressive, and they continually lose pieces of clothing as the show goes on, but the toe shoes stay on. The brothers are really good at using up every bit of space on the stage and when that's not enough they come into the pit with the audience, which is really fun until I’m worried I’m going to get hit in the head from a lightbulb on a rope getting spun around. 

The brothers were very excited to be back in Montreal, the use of Franglish makes it feel like home, and they love the snow. “We’ve never spent this much time in Canada” they told me, but they’re excited to continue their tour in Europe.