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Pop Montreal - Saturday

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Pop Montreal - Saturday
Today is the final installment in my series of reports from this week'''s Pop Montreal festival. If you'''ve been reading the fantastic coverage of Pop Montreal over at Chromewaves, then you'''ll know that Frank thinks he was at the best show of the night on Saturday, but I beg to differ. If anyone missed out on the show at Le National, they missed what was probably the best performance of the entire festival. Even though I only caught two acts last night, I couldn'''t have asked for anything more.
Beirut @ Theatre National '' 10pm:

By now, I'''m sure most of you have heard of twenty-year-old Zach Condon and his Balkan gypsy orchestra, Beirut. Given that they haven'''t really done any North American touring until now though, you might not be familiar with their live act. Put simply, it'''s informal and kind of a cluster-fuck at times, but it'''s absolutely thrilling. Backlashers can talk about cultural appropriation all they like; Condon and his band channel the spirit of these songs of life, love, death and persevering through sorrow, and it resonated with the audience. The exclamation of this point came at the end when they jumped into the crowd to play their final song, and the love just came pouring in. If their New York shows ''"made''" Beirut, then this show in Montreal confirmed it.



Beirut - Elephant Gun

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Akron/Family @ Theatre National '' 11pm:

I know I wasn'''t completely sold on Meek Warrior, but make no mistake about it: this Brooklyn foursome is putting on the best live act in the world right now. Yes, I realize the implications of what I just said, but having seen them twice now this year, I feel confident in my analysis.
There'''s really nothing I can say that properly captures the feeling of unity between band and audience that occurs at Akron/Family'''s shows. The band has an essence about them that can get even the most jaded hipster to uncross their arms, and dance to Michael Jackson playing on the sound system, or participating in the wave. The band threw their hearts and souls into a two-and-a-half hour set, with highlights including a twenty-minute rendition of ''"Raising the Sparks''" with the members of Beirut and Born Ruffians, and audience members being invited onto the stage for an interpretive dance session during ''"The Rider (Dolphin Song).''"
The band also played a ton of new material that'''s expected to be on their next album this coming spring. From what I heard, I can tell you that this is going to be an absolutely mind-blowing release. I couldn'''t have asked for a better way to finish my Pop Montreal experience. We need more bands like these two in the world. This is what music should be about.
So, you might be asking ''"Isn'''t there one more night left of Pop Montreal? Well, yes, there is, but I have a date with Massive Attack on Sunday, so I won'''t be attending any of the night'''s festivities. Overall, I have to say that Pop Montreal was a huge success from what I took in, so kudos to the organizers for putting on a great festival.






Akron/Family - Raising The Sparks (live)

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