The Stoned Poet

Le 12 août, c'est un soir calme, je vais au Quai des Brumes voir Le Bon Vent . L'espoir de voir un nouveau vent me chatouille l'esprit. Ils disent qu'il existe des vents du sud si chauds qu'ils nous font voyager sans jamais avoir quitté les lieux. J'espère bien qu'il ramènera ce bon vent chaud dans la salle.  En arrivant je croise  connaissances et collègues de travail, la fête est au rendez-vous. Il y a dans l'air une frivolité, je la sens dans mon cortex cérébrale, ça me chatouille les os.  Sur la scène, les musiciens embarquent, ils accueillent la foule et puis le spectacle prend forme. Un sorte de country folk alternatif s'empare de la foule. La dynamique des musiciens se sent, ils sont décidément emportés par un vent chaud, un vent qui souffle à débroussailler toute personne présente. La foule répond avec extase, plus les chansons avancent, plus la foule saute, danse, rie, crie. Mon verre à la main ne tien plus, la bière revole, les notes m...

I came in, quai des brumes, another night of late night drinks and loud music while waiting for a note or riff that'll shake me to the core. On August 2nd, the bands onstage were Valken and Horse .  It was Sunday, I was tired, burned out, aching for sips of beer that could wage away my worries. A friend lifted me to the show. Upon arrival, I met other friends we talked, we laughed and by the time we were inside, I managed to get what I came for, a drink, two, maybe more. Suddenly, a loud thundering riffs breaks through. My eyes runs around looking for the source, and there it is, on stage, four guys, looking like a cross over from Gun's N' Roses and Led Zeppelin. The singer has short hair with a bandana, the lead guitarist pises woth his magnificient Alice In Chains like long dark hair. The drummer has a Dazed andConfused hippie hard looking style. The name of the band is Valken. The meaning behind the name is falcons in dutch. Their set would prove me one thing, they sure...

 I arrived at the venue around 7:00pm. My mind was well unaware of the upcoming side effects of a microdose of shrooms, recommended by a good doctor who'd told me it could fix my dance issues on the dancefloor.Should you ever happen to have lazy uncoordinated feets, I can now guarantee you that no drugs could fix such problems. I'm making sure everything is going according to plans, since I was organizing the night, the space on stage was very limited, thus I had to plan and reassure everything would work. Back in the 60's a lot of bands would've fought making sure they got their amps on stage, but luckily, in 2026 violence has been alienated and talking it out was the solution. An hour before the show starts, Matteo, singer and guitarist for Mildew, asks me if he can smash his guitar on stage. I look at him and respond, '' It's your show, you are the pilot, fuck whatever they say, fuck the rules, fuck everything, it's all about impressing the spectators...

Good Morning folks, here's a short review of a show that happened on 24th July at la Toscadura featuring Ramure, Serial Milk and Somet. It had been a while I hadn't been to any local show since I'm working in festival's and other God damn idiotic occupations, but on the 24th, I was quite ready to go see a show and have more than enough alcohol and some of the strangest adventures.   I took a lift, arrived in Montreal, got to cross path with a homeless person who freestyled for some money which left a sour impression upon my ears. I get it, he did it for the bucks, but honestly, he could've simply ran away with the money and never look back. For a first musical impression of the night, it was quite dire. But nonetheless, we travelled on, went to La Toscadura, a crowd of shimmering fools was waiting. They danced, they laughed, they drank, awaiting patiently for the show to start. The time comes, everyone's inside, Ramure are onstage and nothing is going to stop th...

  DoomsDay festival , a festival only two years old, yet they've made quite a place for punks and rockers and mostly moshers to go hang out and forget all about the outside world.  Their first edition was such a great success last year, they had the courage to restart it this summer. This year's lineup featured, CIDB, BRAINDOWN, HIGH ANXIETY, CITIZEN VICIOUS, TAXI GIRL, DIVINE BLOODLINE, HOOD RATE, LA GACHETTE, RATPISS, POSTLUVEN, VAS-Y LINE, CHÛZO, WODOS, CRACHAT, SMOKESPELL, DOWNTOWN FIASCO, SELF CONTROL, JAIL, MORSURE, REACTION, THEE SOREHEADS, SCARLET WIVES, PSYCHOTIX, THE LAST ROCKERS and finally BARBE A PAPA. A lineup featuring bands who have been around the ranging from the last five years to new formed bands. This said, the festival is only accessible for those who knew the location, there's only an Instagram page about it so it's fair enough to say that they want it for the people, no posers no bullshit and they want to stay local and I would add underground in...

  Coco Rose shone as bright as the sun as they performed at the Havana Club Cabaret.  I saw them on the 30th of June, it was hot, damp but even the clouds were kept away as Coco Rose beemed onstage. The Cabaret , as seen on the picture above, is so small, they're nine onstage, and they filled every bit of the stage with their presence and sheer talent.   Their set featured covers like Squeeze from Maya Delilah , Abide with Me from Thelenious Monk and Broke Down from The California Honeydrops but it also included some older and newer originals like Ambulance , Song of Us and Lovelight to name a few. On the 30th, their main singer couldn't be there so they had someone else fill in. Marianne, the replacement, was simply stunning, not only did she have a range that had me thinking of Amy Winehouse, but she also just owned every song as if she'd always been the main singer of the band. I think this feat is quite impressive knowing many bands have had...

  Il y a des shows où tout est calculé. Et il y a Choses Sauvages. Aux Francos, le groupe montréalais a transformé la scène en piste de danse sous tension, quelque part entre le funk détraqué, le rock nerveux et une transe presque club. Dès les premières secondes, le ton est clair : ici, on ne regarde pas un spectacle, on y embarque. Leur force, c’est le groove. Une basse omniprésente, des guitares qui découpent plus qu'elles enrobent, et une batterie qui refuse de rester tranquille. Tout est en mouvement, constamment. La musique avance, rebondit, s’étire, puis explose juste assez pour relancer la machine. Il y a quelque chose de presque obsessionnel dans leur façon de construire le rythme — comme si chaque pièce cherchait à te garder captif quelques minutes de plus. Sur scène, Félix Bélisle ne tient pas en place. Il ne “performe” pas au sens classique — il habite complètement l’espace. Entre le chant parlé, les cris contrôlés et une gestuelle imprévisible, il agit plus comme un ca...

On the 30th April, a special gathering was happening at La Sottorenea . Bands who book shows on week days are always on a gamble. Who knows how many people will show up after work, knowing they have to come in to work on the next day. But as summer approaches, people tend to go out more and that means that every booked shows week or weekend can benefice a larger crowd. I was one of those people who was working on Friday but decided that the beautiful weather and sun was enough to get me out of my basement for the night. So I grabbed my suit, ran to my car and drove right up to La Sottorenea in a hurry. Serial Milk , a band who's gaining more attention following the release of their brilliant EP titled Animal Disguise, where celebrating their new music accompanied of In Headlights and Escape. I was quite curious to see Escape as I'd never heard of em', In Headlights I'd seen at B7 previously but was not quite familiar with their sound. Upon arrival, parking found, and ...

 On May 2, at La Toscadura, there happened to be a mass of children and adults who all came to worship music, good times and witness some of the wildest musical display's I'd personally seen in a while. I'm talking about like Iggy Pop's wild stunts or insane feats pulled off stage back when Heavy Montreal use to be a thing. Moments where band members are in such trance on stage that anything can happen in the name of entertainment. God knows, these are the best shows one shall ever see. SewerSpewer Guesting with Feartilizer  I arrived after the first band, Unsucked, had finished playing. I talked outside with showgoers, it was around 9:30 and the place already seemed to be going wild. I'd barely drank one sip, I saw a kid being transported outside the venue, barely conscious, seemed to have ingested some kind of powder or stimulant related drug or an insane amount of alcohol. Whatever it was, his body now demanded rest and water. To my left, another one was laying ...

  It's early. I wake up feeling strung up. On my floor lies a Bowie book, a Black Sabbath magazine on their elastic fazed out career, a Beatles vinyl and many more relics from the past. Lately, I know that I have to hang on to the present. No amount of old memories will help me seek my freedom of mind and body. The world runs on fuel and god knows fuel burns fast. To look upon the old days is futile. As I brush my teeth, I ask myself what has come out recently in terms of music, what can I listen to, to get a grip of the new age. As a critique or whatever it is I do, I've desperately need to let go of my Beatles Idolization, I can't constantly compare everything to the Beatles. Times have change, the only similarity is the imminent threat of war. War never changes, innit what the old folk say? As I prop my phone screen open, I open Spotify, and bang, a notification comes up, Serial Milk have released a brand new EP titled Animal Disguise . Is my phone listening to my though...

Seum , a stoner sludge doom metal band from Montreal have recently released a new album titled Parking Life . To celebrate the new release, the band decided to perform four shows in metro stations around Montreal just before their performance at La Sottorenea on May 2nd. It's a bold move, unique, unforseen, wild and most of all satisfying for us fans to have such crazy times in the metro. Their performances were wild, packed with action and nasty riffs, people even moshed at times. The question remains, was it a good idea? Was it worth the hustle? Will it happen again? First of all, two famous acts have done so in the past, Yo Yo Ma a world renowed cellist, and Stromae in 2013 which saw his performance start in the metro and gradually move to Place des Arts. Around the world, Jimmy Fallon helped U2, Miley Cirus, Ed Sheeran and more to perform undercover around New York's subways. What makes these performances so special is the element of surprise and the fact that usually so...

  C'est une soirée chaude, une humeur dans l'aire qui nous colle un sourire. J'arrive, après treize milles nids-de-poules, des travaux et des ponts par-ci par-là. N'oublions pas, j'arrive de la Rive-sud de Montréal, et ce soir, je suis à Sainte-Thérèse pour voir un groupe nommé Picbois , qui ouvre pour Cordial . La soirée prend son envol aux alentours de 8h30, tout le peuple ce présente. Ce peuple, c'est les amis des amis. Des jeunes étudiants du Cégep Lionel-Groulx qui est tout près de ou se tient le spectacle. C'est aussi les habitués du Saint-Graal qui viennent, curieux de savoir quel surprise les attends sur stage. Je parle des habitués parce que le Saint-Graal, c'est pas juste un pub, c'est un lieu de rassemblement au tour de la musique. Il y a les lundis jazz, il y a des spectacles, et une population d'étudiants qui ne cessent de vouloir jouer. Le Saint-Graal est un point central d'exposition pour les musiciens qui gravitent dans le coi...

 Word of introduction, this article took a long time to write, because of indecisions. Should I speak truth, spit out what I felt and saw or write what people want to hear?  The show with Dievanse, Prowrestling and Armoire back in  was a great show, but the timing was wrong, some bands exploded of energy, other agonized and somehow an opportunity to make a bang was missed. And like anything in a society, with no rules or boundaries comes chaos, boredom, lost of sense and no progress. We see signs such as, kids outside of the Batiment 7 drinking more alcohol than there'll ever be of decibels in the room. Sold out shows with half the crowd giggling and photoshooting outside the show. So are the kids simply bored out of their minds or are the bands blame and tame? I can't tell, dpeneds on the nights, depends on the setlists and more, but hey, I'm only here to tell stories, so here's goes another story, a story of cold, of high voltage, a story about bands who wrestled agai...

On the 24th of January, t'was a cold, minus thirty fucking degrees, outside weather. Luckily, no need for any speedball, downers or uppers or whatsoever creative cocktails or drugs to warm up. For the news came to my ears, Oddcharm were playing at Quai des Brumes alongside Rien D'alarmant . So I drove up to Quai des Brumes, arriving at 9h30 exactly, as the first band started. I bolt in, a guy in a Hawain dress welcomes me. I can't help but think, well he's unaware of the cold outside. Turns out, as I fix him a bit more, I realize it's Thomas the singer of Oddcharm. Having seen the band once, I now believe the dress is all about a stage play, something is brewing in the back of his mind. I get pass the stage, rumble is echoing on the scene but I dart towards the bar, I'm thirsty and I'm freezing, what better than a beer? Pause, is that what defines an alcoholic? To find every reason possible to have a beer? Maybe so, I don't know, I've been everythi...