Europeans invaded Montreal and nobody noticed

Annie used to be the only girl to take it seriously. At Club Lambi on Wednesday March 22nd, she was rather relaxed, appearing in a tank top and jeans, with brown suede fuck me boots and her cute looks. Some bands were opening for her, but we missed all of them, opting instead to put our money where our mouth is and soak it in vodka.

The Arctic Monkeys were in town the same day, making it hard to fill the room for a rather unknown norvegian pop singer on a week night. There were about 30 or 40 attendees, but most of them jumped in front of the stage when the pretty blonde appeared and told us to "please come closer". The Greatest Hit was played early on, as well as Chewing Gum, featuring some guest vocals from a belly potted rockabilly also on duty at the machines (he played keyboards and pressed "start" on the Midi device at the beginning of songs). A drummer with dreads completed the trio.

The crowd was responsive, and it's safe to assume that only fans were in the house. Annie doesn't have a very varied attitude onstage; she either sings in front of the mic or dances at the back of the stage. She threw herself on the stage ground during Me + One but it didn't look very natural. We also heard Heartbeat and The Wedding, but unfortunately not "Happy Without You".



It was an overall fun show, but it didn't last for long and it definitly lacked pace. I still hope to see Annie come back to Montreal with new material in the future, in a perhaps more adequate venue ?

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On Thursday the 23rd, our favorite belgian duo, the Glimmers, were appearing at SAT alongside local Jordan Dare. The event was called "An intimate evening with the Glimmers", and it sure was !

Mo Becha and David Fouquaert appeared behind the decks at 12:30, after a solid set by Jordan Dare, looking rather scruffy. They have been mixing together for close to 20 years now, so they are no strangers to tag teaming and taking a crowd's pulse. Their mixed CD's are an orgy of ecclectism, and they served us some rather dark sounds, far from the usual madness they're known for. But it still kicked ass, and they even included Tiga's "Move my Body", just because they're nice !



Only half the SAT was opened to dance, which is a decent room, but if you think about it, almost a disappointment : The Glimmers deserve better. So the current trend to be observed in Montreal is this : big names are coming down, but no one's showing up. Do we really deserve our reputation of being a party town ? Are international electro and house artists, when not part of the "mainstream", taking a risk when they're coming here ?



Just think about the Kiko and Savas Pascalidis night thrown by Diskho six months ago. Even with a lack of effective promo, two household names like this should have made more people come to check them out, in ANY reasonable and culturally curious city. What happened ? Minimal house is big around here, of course, and electro as well, but are we so used of seeing our locals that we don't even consider this as being exceptionnal when someone from out of town shows up ? Do all the eventual guests have to go to Parking's Overdose to get some exposure and credibility ? Are there any other venues where DJ's or performers outside of the post-rock or post-punk mold can play ?

These are the questions raised by the two events I attended this week. I personally had a blast, but I'm not sure these artists were impressed by the lack of attendance. If you people want Montreal to stay a priority destination for bands or DJ's passing by, get your sweet asses out of your couches and fuckin' represent !