Angine de Poitrine sells out Montreal jazz fest site

Timing is everything. The Montreal International Jazz Festival had the perfect band in the perfect place on the perfect night Saturday: Quebec’s Angine de Poitrine is the biggest indie music act on the planet at the moment, and our city’s biggest fest just happened to have them playing its biggest stage on opening weekend, for free. The site was as packed as it ever gets, as a massive crowd came out to see what all the fuss is about. The polka-dot-costumed Chicoutimi duo went viral

in February when a video of their Live on KEXP performance at France’s Trans Musicales festival was shared by the Seattle radio station. The 28-minute clip has since been viewed 16 million times. Their fans include rock stars Jack White, Dave Grohl, Sean Lennon and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. Guitarist Khn de Poitrine and drummer Klek de Poitrine are sonic adventurers from another universe. They speak in an absurdist alien dialect and have a thing for thrillingly funky, high-speed math-rock jams. The pair’s second album,

Vol. II, was released April 3, with the leadoff single Fabienk topping Spotify’s Viral 50 Global chart. The song has been streamed nearly 12 million times. The band’s largely sold-out European tour this spring garnered rave reviews, with the Guardian calling the Leeds performance “hypnotic, harebrained and 100 per cent worth the hype.” An hour before showtime Saturday, Jeanne-Mance St. was crammed with people of all ages staking out a spot at the outdoor TD Stage. Fans Antoine Geoffrion, 31, and Joe Hutson, 29, sported

polka-dot face paint. Hutson said he likes Angine de Poitrine because “they’re original and they’re québécois. There’s nothing like them in the music world. They’re rock, alternative, progressive, microtonal, they do (guitar) looping.” Geoffrion said he tried to see the band when it played Club Soda in April but couldn’t get tickets, so the fact that they were playing the jazz fest for free made it a no-brainer. Hutson said getting dressed up for the occasion was “like wearing a Canadiens jersey when you go

to a hockey game, to show support.” “And be part of the movement,” Geoffrion added. McGill chemistry grad students Sam Jee, 27, and Zach Katz, 26, came down with a half-dozen lab mates for the occasion. “For me, it’s about the spectacle,” Jee said. “They’re really gimmicky, so I wanted to see them in person.” “It’s cool they’re from here,” Katz said. “They’ve had so much international acclaim, to get to see them in our own backyard for free is amazing.” Pablo Rodriguez, 39, and

Maya Shyamprasad, 38, aren’t Angine de Poitrine devotees, but they were in attendance “to see their presence, the show,” Rodriguez explained. “They put on a visual show, and musically it’s fun.” “The energy of the crowd is going to be insane,” Shyamprasad predicted. “It’s 8:30 and people are already here. And I’m spotting a lot of polka-dots. I feel under-prepared.” Alexandre Boudry, 32, brought crowd participation to the next level with his polka-dotted papier mâché mask. “My friend made it,” he said. “She’s an art

student.” Getting dressed up is part of the experience with Angine de Poitrine, “so why not contribute to the experience?” Boudry was expecting “lots to stimulate the eyes and the ears, a real party. I don’t think I’ll be disappointed.” Anticipation grew as the clock ticked down to showtime. Inflatable dice — some might call them polka-dotted — were tossed through the crowd, while polka-dot projections covered a UQÀM building behind the stage. There were successive waves of cheers and clapping as the 9:30 start

time came and went. “We’re living a historic night,” jazz fest programming director Maurin Auxéméry told the crowd at 9:40. The band performed to 2,000 people at last year’s festival, he said. This time, “the festival site is sold out!” That’s right: As it has done only on rare occasions, the jazz fest stopped admitting people to its site, having reached capacity. When Khn and Klek broke into an off-kilter jam a few minutes later, the audience clapped along giddily. As the groove intensified —

Khn building layers of loops on his double-necked, microtonal guitar and Klek pounding out complex rhythms in lockstep with his partner — the result was met with a roar of approval. Each new song garnered renewed enthusiasm. And these guys were not softening their sound for the occasion — this was hard, heavy, rollicking stuff, with influences ranging from jazz to punk, Middle Eastern and heavy metal. People loved every minute. In fact, the wilder and weirder it got, the more everyone ate it up.

To glance out over the sea of people was to witness legions of heads bobbing and arms in the air. Between songs, Khn and Klek grunted and bleeped, eliciting laughter. When Khn raised his hands to form a triangle, the tens of thousands in attendance did the same. The band never relented. And though many curiosity-seekers had their fill and left before the end, the bulk of the crowd never lost interest. Au contraire. This was a night for celebration as these local boys done

good brought their internationally acclaimed, absurdist rock carnival home. Speaking of which, it was a home run for the jazz fest: presenting a Quebec band at the height of its hype on the main stage and drawing the biggest crowd in years for a show that will go down in history as the night festival-goers were abducted by aliens.

Angine de Poitrine, Montreal International Jazz Festival, TD Stage, Jeanne-Mance St., polka-dots, Khn de Poitrine, Klek de Poitrine, Vol. II, Fabienk, KEXP, Quebec indie music