CM Goes POP! Day 1 @ POP Montreal
Thursday, September 20th, 2012
Salut! Canadian Musician correspondents Candice Dugas and Melanie Cheung are in Montreal covering the 2012 edition of POP Montreal. Stay tuned to the blog for updates from each day of the festival.
Pop Montreal Kicked off yesterday and there’s definitely a buzz in the air. A local Montreal newspaper dubbed it “Hipster Christmas,” which is a fairly accurate description. This is a time where music lovers unite and old household names are joined by new talent to make some noise throughout Montreal’s largest to smallest of venues. We picked up our passes, eager to get out to the first show. The great thing about having a pass is the freedom to hop around from venue to venue; however, with so many great acts scheduled, logistically seeing everything is just not possible. Deciding who to see is definitely the tricky part. Our conflicting schedules were relieved yesterday when a last minute venue change landed K’naan at the same show as Antibalas – two acts we did not want to miss.
We arrived at Corona Theatre, a beautiful old school venue complete with original moldings and elaborate details. Antibalas soon hit the stage and their set-up alone was impressive. They are a Brooklyn-based 12-piece (of which 10 were performing last night) complete with trombones, saxophones, trumpets, conga drums, a drumkit, and festive outfits. Each member brought their own personal style and energy to the stage; the young drummer, reminiscent of an 18-year-old Jay Baruchel, impressively held down the group while the lead singer wore a printed onesie pant suit and war paint on his face. The positive energy of the crowd was infectious. Scanning the venue, everyone was on their feet dancing to the percussive afro-beat music. The performers themselves seemed to be having so much fun that we wanted to jump up on stage to join them.
After Antibalas left the stage, the atmosphere changed a little. The 30-something crowd was replaced by high school students and fresh University frosh. Is this the K’naan crowd? Regardless, the eagerly anticipated K’naan exploded with energy, banging his drum and backed by a five-piece band. At one point K’naan introduced his band referring to many of them as his “oldest friends”; this is exactly the vibe that they brought to the stage – old friends having a good time jamming together. As K’naan eased through set transitions from insightful spoken word to energetic dancing to his more mainstream hits, his energy level never went down. The Somalia-born Torontonian seems to have dealt with a pretty heavy past, yet his optimism and playfulness are what really shine through on stage. His songs are lyrically impressive, dealing with topics of growing up in a tumultuous civil war in Somalia, stating in one of his songs “If I rapped about home and got descriptive, I’d make 50 Cent look like Limp Bizkit,” (He actually shared with us a story about meeting 50 Cent, who ended up being a very nice guy.), yet his music is still accessible and catchy. Perhaps that’s why the highschool kids like him so much.
Needless to say, K’naan and his band delivered a solid performance complete with surprises including a cover of Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold.” We definitely were not anticipating K’naan’s harmonica playing capabilities. He had a fresh take and definitely did great justice to Mr. Young’s song. The last song of the night was the crowd favourite “Wavin’ Flag,” which K’naan and his band seem to have played one too many times as this time around, he suggested we all sing it in our best drunk voices and slightly off-key. He wrapped it up with the same energy maintained during the rest of the show, leaving on a high note.
At the end of the night, we quickly dashed over to the Divan Orange in the central part of town to catch the end of the Yukon Blonde Set. We were happy to get there in time for an awesome James Brown cover. Our last stop, in true Montreal fashion, was the local landmark The Main to recap our night over poutine and pickles.