The Stoned Poet

 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 ...

  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...

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...

 "Lastly, as I believed the night couldn't get any better, Lezart came on stage to blow the place up with  Thomas Simard  on keys and voice/guitar at times,  Odilon  on drums,  Kéo  on sax and traversial flute,  Jean-Alexis Lessard  bending notes on guitar and finally  Nicolas Péladeau  on bass . With their soul clothed through jazz pop formula, Sade-like atmospheric music with close intimite reminders to Jeff Beck's first album Truth where guitar, sax, piano and sweet ear candies  come and warm our soul; their music really transcendented the imaginary. [...] Their songs were rich yet unknown, to me, having been on stage for now only a year max, but it surely made an impact, a big one, as big as those who saw The Beatles on Ed Sullivan Show, as big as the first man landing on the moon, and many more. Every song was like a firework, Boom and then everybody cheered! By the end, Back To the Old House by the Smiths is played and th...

Sunday, Funday it was on November the 16th! I went down to l'Escogriffe to see Cordial a French multi genre band that have swept everybody's feet at every venue they played. Tonight, the opening band was Oddcharm , followed by Cordial and finally, Lezart played. I came, smoke, breezed and freezed my ass off. No intake of insane amounts of alcohol would be seen from my part tonight, but as the cold bit through my limbs, I was forced to admit I desperately wanted to warm my bones. So in we got, Fanny the picture taker was there, Cordial had arrived, Oddcharm were there patiently waiting and Lezart were roaming, unseen and seeking warmth, praying on us, waiting for the right time to strike. At the door, I greet the sax player of Lezart and we exchange a joke about having a line of coke in exchange of paying the ticket for the show, which I think is very inviting for the spectators yet I do reckon that now a days, everyone is broke and drugs aren't cool anymore. I go sit down...

"The place is full man sorry" - the man at the door "Oh nevermind that man, I'm here to write, and I haven't gotten high for a while so you better get me fucking in, I heard they were a hell of a trip!" Now that's not how I got in nor what I said word for word, do not worry. But I did have to sell my soul as a journalist to be allowed with my friend to come in, because unbeknowst to me, the place was sold out. Minutes before, I was watching by the window a homeless get in a rant about pastries in a garbage inside an Ultramar. What seemed like a goldmine to him, was property by the law to the clerk.  "Fuck it asti je veux mes pastiches tabarnak déjà que tu veux pas je rentre mon vélo, pi la tu veux pas me donner la bouffe dans poubelle, heille criss"  As he went out, he dropped one. Antoine came out shortly after with food and alcohol. I proceed to tell the homeless that he dropped one on the floor, he on the otherside tells me it's too dirt...