Think About Life Top M For Montreal Night One

Cabaret Juste Pour Rire

Montreal, QC

on Nov 19 2009

Erik Leijon (CHARTattack)

11/20/2009 1:10pm

A tragic yet ultimately inevitable thing has happened to the yearly M For Montreal musical showcase, now in it's most biggest-ever fourth edition: the music has been upstaged by the city.

While earlier editions of the shindig (designed to expose out-of-town music industry decisionmakers to the city's deep musical bench) could tout the introductions of Patrick Watson and We Are Wolves to the world, last year's seemed more like a party than anything else.

Hey, mangling work and play is a time-honoured Montreal custom, and no doubt the music biz vets who visited from foreign lands have experience in networking with beverage in hand, but the act of congregating and having one of those "Montreal" weekends has become as essential to the M itinerary as the music. And let it be known: steadily-flowing booze is a tough act to follow.

Still, this year's lineup is vastly improved compared to 2008's decision to parachute in some of Toronto's least interesting acts as a means of making the homegrown talent look better by comparison. There was already one band who seemed destined to follow in the footsteps of Watson and the Wolves as well.

If this or this, or this, or finally this didn't give a hint already, Think About Life are far and away the best band to come out of Montreal in some time, and if there was any tension among locals at M, it was only the slight fear the international delegates wouldn't feel the same way.

Think About Life capped off the night and it's hard to say how official the coronation ceremony went. The floor of the small Cabaret Juste Pour Rire studio stage was by far the most active, and the delegates perched overhead in the balcony certainly must have caught at whiff of the infectious plebian enthusiasm from below.

With a packed lineup beforehand, opening cocktails and an imminent after-party (oddly enough being DJed by Think About Life), there was certainly a worry that synaptic overload would cause each act to blur into the other, dulling each individual experience. With rigid, 30-minute sets one after the other, one couldn't help but find themselves thinking about what was coming up next mere minutes into the set currently playing.

Did the delegates notice when the uber-awkward court jester, TAL's Martin Cesar, delivered his most impassioned vocals of 2009, primal screaming as if doing so would part the ocean? Did they find the balloons too gimmicky? Or the Nas sampling intro too hipster-ish? The cameos from The Stills' Liam O'Neil and Cadence Weapon excessive? The interpretive dancing too frightening? I couldn't read their poker faces.

Oddly enough, it may have been a Graham Van Pelt overload that potentially doomed Think About Life's victory lap. The lanky redhead guitarist/sample player for the group also fronts Miracle Fortress, who performed earlier in the evening. To describe the Miracle Fortress of old — the group that released the highly acclaimed, Polaris Music Prize short listed Five Roses — would be useless because Van Pelt has completely overhauled the operation.

Other than a Beach Boys sample being played during the set, the Brian Wilson influences are no more; if anything Miracle Fortress' entirely sample and loop-based compositions sound more like his other gig. The other three members of the group have been jettisoned, replaced by pre-recorded beats, a snazzy pair of stunner shades and a lamp.

The new Miracle Fortress has become performance art-meets-Bronski Beat. Van Pelt controlled the illumination on the darkened stage with a combination of said lamp and assorted police lights. With his aching falsetto and his arms often outstretched and straining his fully buttoned shirt it was a magnetic image. If Van Pelt's ginger coif were any longer, the British delegates would have been convinced a more sinister version of La Roux had taken the stage.

Although this new Miracle Fortress bears no resemblance at all to the previous incarnation, it was a spectacular performance, and a hint at what the Montreal musical landscape will be yielding in 2010.

As for the other acts of the night, Final Flash continued their steady build up to their upcoming album launch with the most traditionally rocking set of the night. The francophone group sing in English, and play extremely British rock music, and when their record finally drops I expect — based on their continuously improving live set — many to be surprised by how well-developed it will sound for a debut effort.

The Luyas were the requisite McGill University band of the night, playing winding orchestral chamber pop aided by resident mercenary horn player Pietro Amato (Torngat).

The much-hyped Rural Alberta Advantage represented Toronto on this night, with emotive frontman Nils Edenloff providing melodic contrast to some pretty abrasive dual percussion work.

Vancouver's You Say Party! We Say Die! blended murky dance with Go-Go's style new wave-era punk. Their spirited performance belied their rough travel schedule, although that experience explains why they seemed to be the most comfortable of all the night's performers.