As you all likely know, the Pop Montreal festival is taking place October 4-8 this year at various venues throughout the city. Our series of reports where I'''ll be giving my thoughts on the shows that I caught the night before continues today. Don'''t look for this to be an exhaustive list, of everything that went down every single night; I don'''t get paid nearly enough to go zigzagging across the city every night so I can see ten minutes of every show. Instead, my goal is to catch three sets every night, and provide you with some details, a few pictures, and maybe a few other goodies. Enjoy!
More Pop Montreal Coverage at Chromewaves and Zoilus

Last night I checked out the lineup at Les Saints, but it might as well have been called The Bait Shop. I was lost in a sea of asymmetrical hair and band t-shirts and was half expecting Seth Cohen to pop out at any minute. It was pretty ridiculous. I'''m not sure how some of these kids got into a venue that serves alcohol. A group of girls were playing tag in front of the stage before the first act started. Playing tag. I'''ll give you a moment to let that sink in''¦
Moving on, while the crowd last night was horrendous, the music actually more than made up for it, with all three acts putting on entertaining sets. A note on the pictures: point and click'''s plus a hormonal crowd do not make for good photo ops.
Miracle Fortress @ Les Saints '' 10pm:

Miracle Fortress is the solo project of Think About Life'''s Graham Van Pelt. Those who can'''t get into his band'''s output should definitely still give this a chance, as it'''s worlds apart from Think About Life. Van Pelt churns out soaring pop tunes while simultaneously playing the guitar and drums, which are bolstered by a sampler and looper. Van Pelt is currently working on a full-length, and I'''m eagerly looking forward to it.

Miracle Fortress - Forgiven

download

The Big Sleep @ Les Saints '' 11pm:

These guys are loud. Real loud. Gotta thank Frank from Chromewaves for passing me a Kleenex to stick in my ears, because these guys would have been the death of me. Last time I forget my earplugs at home. These guys were absolutely fierce onstage, burning through a set of high octane, ear-shredding, post rock. This was apparently their first time in Canada, and I for one, hope they come back soon.


The Big Sleep - Murder

download

Islands @ Les Saints '' 12am:


It was out with the old and in with the new for Islands last night. Nick was sporting a new haircut, and the band ripped through a bunch of new material, which sounded great. Even the old standards were given new twists, like ''"Swans,''" which was transformed into a twelve-minute prog-rock marathon. These guys have received a lot of flak for shambolic live performances before, but this is honestly the tightest I'''ve ever seen them live. It'''s too bad then, that most of the crowd seemed more concerned with checking out Nick in his tight white pants, and screaming out that they wanted his babies. Still, this was a great performance, and for all their obnoxiousness, at least the crowd was enthusiastic, especially when Subtitle and Cadence Weapon hit the stage during the encore.


Islands - Rough Gem

download