May arrives with festival season knocking and the touring calendar finally bursting open. Sepultura kick the month off with their farewell tour at MTelus, Dethklok and Amon Amarth turn the Bell Centre into a metal cathedral, and Biffy Clyro finally make their way back to Theatre Beanfield. The shoegaze and indie crowd has plenty to chew on too — Dry Cleaning at Foufounes, Chapterhouse reviving the dream-pop hymnal at Fairmount, and Just Mustard bringing their slow-burning gloom to Bar le Ritz.
There’s pop royalty (MIKA, Pink Pantheress, The Kid LAROI), tech-death savagery (Archspire, Cryptopsy, Shadow of Intent), folk heartbreakers (Leith Ross, Searows), and a Red Hot Chili Pepper showing up under his own name (Flea). Toss in Amenra‘s ritualistic post-metal pilgrimage and Chet Faker‘s velvet electronic soul, and you’ve got one of the most stacked months Montreal has seen in a while. Here’s a glimpse of the outstanding concerts coming to Montreal this month. Which performances will you be attending?
Sepultura
Sepultura roll into MTelus on their long goodbye, Celebrating Life Through Death farewell tour, ripping through nearly four decades of Brazilian thrash and groove metal. With Exodus and Biohazard providing crossover muscle on the support slots, this one’s a generational summit for anyone who came up on Roots or Arise.
with Exodus, Biohazard
Friday, 1 May @ MTelus || BUY TICKETS HERE
Archspire
Vancouver’s Archspire are arguably the fastest band in tech-death, and their Theatre Beanfield stop on the heels of Bleed the Future successor material is going to be a clinic in inhuman precision. Undeath bring the old-school death metal filth as openers.
with Undeath
Friday, 1 May @ Theatre Beanfield || BUY TICKETS HERE
Dry Cleaning
Dry Cleaning are the post-punk band that turned spoken-word deadpan into an art form, and Florence Shaw’s flat, observational delivery over Tom Dowse’s coiled guitar lines hits especially hard in a room like Foufs. YHWH Nailgun’s noise-rock spasms make for a perfect tension-and-release pairing.
with YHWH Nailgun
Saturday, 2 May @ Foufounes Electriques || BUY TICKETS HERE
Leith Ross
Winnipeg’s Leith Ross has built a quiet empire on whispered, devastating folk songs — “We’ll Never Have Sex” alone has racked up hundreds of millions of streams — and Le Studio TD’s intimate setup is exactly the right room for that level of vulnerability. Wyatt C. Louis opens.
with Wyatt C. Louis
Saturday, 2 May @ Le Studio TD || BUY TICKETS HERE
COBRAH
Sweden’s COBRAH makes industrial, hyper-physical club-pop that sounds like Peaches reborn for the post-Charli XCX generation, and Theatre Beanfield is going to feel like a sweat-soaked Berlin basement for the night.
Saturday, 2 May @ Theatre Beanfield || TICKETS HERE
Dethklok + Amon Amarth
Dethklok — yes, the cartoon band fronted by Brendon Small that became a real, fully operational metal monster — co-headline the Bell Centre with Amon Amarth‘s Viking death metal pageantry. It’s an absurd, glorious double bill that has no business being this fun.
Saturday, 2 May @ Bell Centre || BUY TICKETS HERE
Lowertown
Atlanta duo Lowertown make hushed bedroom-pop that morphs into something stranger and sharper live. Le Ministère’s small-club setting will let the dynamic shifts on songs like “Bucktooth” land properly.
with villagerrr
Saturday, 2 May @ Le Ministère || BUY TICKETS HERE
Biffy Clyro
Scottish trio Biffy Clyro have spent two decades perfecting their alt-rock-stadium-anthem-meets-prog-weirdness formula, and Simon Neil’s voice still cuts through everything. Theatre Beanfield will struggle to contain “Mountains” sing-alongs.
Sunday, 3 May @ Theatre Beanfield || BUY TICKETS HERE
Gladie
Philadelphia’s Gladie craft jagged, melodic indie-rock built around Augusta Koch’s commanding vocals — Don’t Know What You’re In Until You’re Out was one of the great underrated records of recent years. Casa del Popolo is the perfect intimate setting.
with Noun, puberty well
Sunday, 3 May @ Casa del Popolo || TICKETS HERE
MIKA
MIKA‘s candy-coated baroque pop has aged into something genuinely beloved, and “Grace Kelly” still detonates a room. Place Bell will be a glittering, joyful wreck for the night.
Monday, 4 May @ Place Bell || BUY TICKETS HERE
Corrosion of Conformity
Crossover legends Corrosion of Conformity bring their Southern-fried sludge-and-thrash hybrid back to Fairmount, with the always-furious Whores. and ritualistic doom outfit UUBBUURRUU rounding out one of the heaviest bills of the month.
with Whores., UUBBUURRUU
Wednesday, 6 May @ Fairmount || BUY TICKETS HERE
Flea
Yes, that Flea — Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, jazz devotee, memoirist — touring under his own name with a band steeped in fusion and funk. Expect a wildly different beast than the arena-punk-funk you might be picturing.
Sunday, 10 May @ Theatre Beanfield || BUY TICKETS HERE
Searows
Searows is the project of Alec Duckart, whose fragile, finger-picked confessional songs have quietly soundtracked everyone’s worst nights for the past two years. Le Studio TD will be hushed and devastating.
with Jordan Patterson
Monday, 11 May @ Le Studio TD || BUY TICKETS HERE
August Burns Red
Pennsylvania metalcore institution August Burns Red are 20 years deep and tighter than ever, and they’re bringing The Amity Affliction along for a co-bill that should turn MTelus into a wall-to-wall pit.
with The Amity Affliction, Boundaries
Tuesday, 12 May @ MTelus || BUY TICKETS HERE
Electric Callboy
Germany’s Electric Callboy turn metalcore into pure, unhinged comedy-pop spectacle — confetti, color-coordinated tracksuits, and breakdowns all coexisting peacefully. Place Bell will be wholly unprepared.
with Polaris, Scene Queen
Thursday, 14 May @ Place Bell || BUY TICKETS HERE
Pink Pantheress
Pink Pantheress turned bedroom-pop drum-and-bass nostalgia into a global phenomenon, and her live show has grown into a proper pop event. L’Olympia is going to feel intimate for an artist of her current stature.
with Cece Natalie
Thursday, 14 May @ Olympia || BUY TICKETS HERE
The Kid LAROI
Australia’s The Kid LAROI has spent the last few years being one of the most listened-to artists on the planet — “STAY” alone — and the Place Bell stop is one of the more arena-scale pop events of the month.
Saturday, 16 May @ Place Bell || BUY TICKETS HERE
Shadow of Intent
Connecticut symphonic deathcore unit Shadow of Intent have built a near-fanatical following with cinematic, lore-heavy concept records, and the support bill — Angelmaker, Mental Cruelty, Synestia — is itself a gauntlet of modern extreme metal heavy hitters.
with Angelmaker, Mental Cruelty, Synestia
Sunday, 17 May @ MTelus || BUY TICKETS HERE
Ashnikko
Ashnikko is the blue-haired, genre-blurring chaos agent who turned hyperpop, rap, and pop-punk into her own sonic kingdom. Expect the MTelus production to be a full-on theatrical event.
Monday, 18 May @ MTelus || BUY TICKETS HERE
Fleshgod Apocalypse
Italian symphonic death metal titans Fleshgod Apocalypse turn Theatre Beanfield into a baroque opera house with blast beats, and Frozen Soul’s Texas-style death metal grind is the perfect cleanser between movements.
with Frozen Soul
Monday, 18 May @ Theatre Beanfield || BUY TICKETS HERE
Good Kid
Toronto’s Good Kid are one of the great word-of-mouth Canadian indie rock success stories of the last few years — their EPs have tens of millions of streams and their live shows have a tangible, fans-singing-every-word energy. MTelus is going to feel like a hometown gig.
with Glitter Party
Tuesday, 19 May @ MTelus || BUY TICKETS HERE
Chapterhouse
Reading dream-pop and shoegaze pioneers Chapterhouse — yes, the Whirlpool and Blood Music band — are touring again, and Fairmount is the right kind of room for those reverbed-out swirls. She’s Green’s shoegaze opens, which is a perfect generational handoff.
with She’s Green
Wednesday, 20 May @ Fairmount || BUY TICKETS HERE
By Storm
By Storm is the post-Injury Reserve project of Nathaniel “RiTchie” Ritchie and Parker Corey — same restless, glitchy, genre-shredding experimental hip-hop DNA, but with the freedom of a fresh start. Their debut album My Ghosts Go Ghost dropped earlier this year, and La Sotterenea is exactly the kind of low-ceilinged, sweaty room their sound demands.
with Lerado Khalil
Friday, 22 May @ La Sotterenea || BUY TICKETS HERE
L.A. Witch
Los Angeles trio L.A. Witch trade in fuzzed-out, desert-noir psych rock that sounds like it was beamed in from a David Lynch film. Theatre Beanfield is going to feel reverberant and smoke-machine ready.
Saturday, 23 May @ Theatre Beanfield || BUY TICKETS HERE
Just Mustard
Dundalk, Ireland’s Just Mustard make slow, oppressive shoegaze that moves like tectonic plates — Heart Under is a record that rewards loud volume and physical proximity, and Bar le Ritz is going to deliver both.
Sunday, 24 May @ Bar le Ritz || BUY TICKETS HERE
Chet Faker
Australia’s Chet Faker (a.k.a. Nick Murphy) has made a career out of smoky, late-night electronic soul, and the MTelus run is the perfect setting for that velvet-and-bass aesthetic. Bring someone you like.
Sunday, 24 May @ MTelus || BUY TICKETS HERE
Superheaven
Pennsylvania grunge-revival heroes Superheaven — Jar turned a generation of teenagers onto downtuned, melodic heaviness — are back together, and Le Studio TD is going to be a sweaty, in-your-face gig. Modern Color and All Under Heaven complete a near-perfect emo/shoegaze bill.
with Modern Color, All Under Heaven
Sunday, 24 May @ Le Studio TD || BUY TICKETS HERE
Amenra
Belgium’s Amenra treat post-metal as religious ritual — Colin H. van Eeckhout’s tortured vocals and the band’s slow, crushing builds turn every show into a kind of ceremony. Theatre Beanfield is going to be eerie and quiet between songs and devastating during them.
Wednesday, 27 May @ Theatre Beanfield || BUY TICKETS HERE
Cryptopsy
Hometown legends Cryptopsy play Fairmount for a night of Montreal extreme metal — None So Vile is a Mount Rushmore tech-death record and the band is in tremendous form. Necrot, Fulci, and Blood Monolith make this an absurd value-for-money brutality bill.
with Necrot, Fulci, Blood Monolith
Thursday, 28 May @ Fairmount || BUY TICKETS HERE
Witch Club Satan
Norwegian black-metal coven Witch Club Satan stage genuinely confrontational, theatrical performances that draw on witch-trial history and feminist black metal lineage. Fairmount is going to be lit by candles and intent.
Saturday, 30 May @ Fairmount || BUY TICKETS HERE
Photo – Melih Nehir
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