Concert Reviews

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.

Founded in 2017 in Minsk, Belarus, MOLCHAT DOMA stands at the intersection of post-punk, new wave, and synth-pop. Their 2018 album Etazhi quickly became a cult classic, with its hypnotic blend of guitar and synth melodies that manage to get stuck in your head long after the music stops. This tour focused on their latest release, Belaya Polosa (2024), showcasing their growth as a band while retaining the signature sound that has garnered them a global following.

Last Thursday, bilingual singer-songwriter Nico Play played a short and sweet set at La Sotterranea. The intimate setting of the venue paired beautifully with the serene sounds of the artist’s music, where he performed on stage solo with an acoustic guitar. Not only did this make the show more personal and raw, but it emphasized his honeyed vocals and vulnerable lyrics. 

Machine Girl, the brainchild of Matt Stephenson, emerged from Long Island, New York, in 2012. Drawing inspiration from Japanese media, notably the cult classic film The Machine Girl, the band has carved out a distinctive niche in the music world. Over the years, Machine Girl has released 11 albums, each brimming with energy and novel, genre-defying sounds.

Who better to profoundly convey the disquieting turmoil of our recent times than Montreal post-rock legends Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The collective played the second of two nights at Montreal’s venerable MTELUS, in support of their eighth release, the sobering and instantly dated, No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead. A direct reference to the death toll in Palestine at that date, the title is exemplary of Godspeed You!

I’m pretty sure it's physically impossible for JPEGMAFIA ever to disappoint me. Currently riding a monumental wave of productivity, the New York rapper has just wrapped up the North American tour for his 3rd album released this decade, I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU. Lucky for us, Peggy’s final stop was here in Montreal, and even with my deep-rooted distaste for MTELUS, it was a show I will brag about for years to come.