Mtelus, which I still call Metropolis, had a line down and around the block on a cold Tuesday night.
Joji, formerly a famous YouTuber turned musician, would finally be playing in Montreal. After releasing three albums since his start in 2017, Montrealers were surely excited to finally see him live.
SavageRealm
Class was in session as SavageRealm entered the stage. He told the audience he has been called the “professor,” and for good reason. I have never seen an opening act interact and control a crowd so well. He started by asking everyone in the audience to say their name out loud at the same time, then formally introduced himself.
Before playing his first song- that he was DJing off an iPod Classic- he asked everyone in the audience to take out their frustrations from the week and get rid of all the bad vibes in the venue by booing him.
With that out of everyone’s system, he started the show.
At one point, while we heard the clicks of Savage scrolling through his iPod, he asked the audience to make a circle…as if to start a mosh pit..but chose two people in the crowd to have a rock paper scissors showdown. He got the crowd to cheer for each side, even the losing one.
SavageRealm had a positive, genuine attitude with a chill demeanour and great stage presence. He got the crowd to call fellow concert-goers beautiful and give each other high fives, and he encouraged everyone that didn’t feel like they were good singers to sing anyway.
By the end, the positive vibes ran rampant, and everyone eagerly awaited the next opener.
Dhruv
Frontman Dhruv, who gained popularity from his song “double take” going viral on Tiktok, walked out on stage to loud applause.
They immediately played music from their album “rapunzel” released this year.
Dhruv impressed the audience with his smooth and comforting vocals over engaging beats.
Dhruv’s guitarist and drummer had so much energy and their smiles were wide and contagious. You got the impression they were all passionate musicians who were ecstatic to be sharing their music.
Along with the music from their album, Dhruv played a cover of “Don’t Know Why” by Norah Jones.
Dhruv had a chill atmosphere but left the crowd with excitement for the main act.
Joji
Through the roadies setting up Joji’s stage, the crowd saw a familiar face walk up to the elevated DJ mixer and soundboard. It was SavageRealm back on stage to accompany Joji for his set!
The duo with similar beginnings- comedians turned Soundcloud musicians- were truly a pair.
Before playing the opening song “Sanctuary,” Savage showed off his soundboard that perfectly accompanied their jokes.
The song from Joji’s 2020 album “Nectar” was a crowd favourite; everyone sang the words at the top of their lungs.
Having seen Joji a few years ago in a small venue in Toronto, I recognized his cheesy puns to introduce each song. At heart, he is still a comedian and wants to make people laugh.
After Joji and Savage bounced jokes off each other Joji said: “Yeah right”…and you guessed it…played the song entitled “Yeah Right.” This kind of song introduction continued throughout the night.
After a few fan-favourite songs, Joji and Savage got the crowd to chant trebuchet as a red outline of a trebuchet came on display behind them. It only took a moment to realize that was in fact, a merch weapon but not the only one from Joji’s arsenal. He also fired out merch from a t-shirt cannon.
Later, between songs, Joji briefly walked off stage to pick up his Postmates (Uber eats) order. He excitedly showed the crowd his fillet o-fish he had ordered from McDonalds.
Savage got the crowd to boo the order and Joji, for revenge, had the crowd cheer for savage to eat it. Which he reluctantly did.
Many of Joji’s fans had been following his tour and knew at the recent Toronto show he had also ordered fillet-o-fish as well as hired a Tony Stark impersonator on stage.
This show was no different, but Joji had a Quebec-catered pick for his fans: Elvis.
They got him on stage and asked him a few questions. Elvis answered while shaking his legs and swinging his hips, he even sang for us with his hand on Joji’s shoulder, “you ain’t ever caught a rapper; he’s definitely a friend of mine.”
The crowd loved him.
Joji’s show was full of surprises and fun. A few trebuchet interludes, the Elvis impersonator, jokes between Joji and Savage, even a proposal during the song “you suck charlie” which surprised Joji so much he stopped singing to congratulate them!
For Joji’s encore, he played an acoustic version of “Slow Dancing in the Dark” then the original version of it afterwards.
Joji showcased his improved vocals all night, though sometimes hard to hear over the audience singing along.
The crowd loved the mix of old and new songs being played, but he didn’t play any unreleased songs…though he fake-teased it earlier in the show.
He walked off stage again, but the crowd knew better. They chanted “glimpse of us” and “ole ole ole”, stomped their feet and cheered till Joji returned back on stage for his final encore, “I think we forgot one more song!!”
He finished off the night with his recent viral single: “Glimpse of Us”.
The sad song encapsulated the bittersweet feeling of the end of an incredible concert.
The night left us in Smithereens… his upcoming album set to be released on November 4th.
Review: Breanna Wark
Photos – Ryan Rumpel
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