An evening of shoegaze seems like the perfect soundtrack to an uncharacteristically grey, chilly late-May evening; seriously, when is the warm weather gonna set in?!
First up is New York-based singer-songwriter Margaret Dewey Sohn, aka Miss Grit. A camera broadcasts a creepy black-and-white video of her on the back screen, but with colours inverted like the negative of a photograph. Her vocals are reminiscent of Mitski, and the sound isn’t too far removed either, her moody electric guitar strumming over a drum machine, which varies from simple snares to Radiohead-level creepy effects. It’s a great 30 minutes that sets the mood for tonight’s opener perfectly.
Irish five-piece Just Mustard are finally back in Montreal in support of last year’s stellar third album We Were Just Here, and Bar Le Ritz is pretty packed by the time they arrive on stage in near darkness. In fact, the light levels rarely get above “near darkness” for the duration of the 70-minute set, as befits their dark shoegaze sound. The set explodes into life with a flurry of distorted guitars on Endless Deathless and drums so heavy my hair bounces. The creepy dim red lighting morphs into pale blue for Silver, guitarist David Noonan adding soft vocals to the angelic whisper of lead singer Katie Ball, which is always a perfect foil to the apocalyptic sound. David’s vocals become a full-on scream on Deaf, appropriately titled, as surely anyone without earplugs will be leaving with said medical condition; Seven is also so loud that my innards resonate!
Shane Maguire’s drums are also a prominent part of the sound. His hi-hat drum outro on I Am You is absolutely monstrous, while the rolling drums of That I Might Not See merge into a veritable drum solo. Frank and The Steps are a minimalist contrast, with just Katie’s vocals over a hum of feedback and the occasional scratching guitar; there’s a spectrum to their brand of shoegaze that you don’t see often.
After a predominantly moody setlist, triumphant penultimate song We Were Just Here delivers a moment of absolute euphoria, as if everything is going to be OK after all… until the set closes in a flurry of dark distortion with Seed, much like that last five minutes of a Stranger Things season finale, where actually all is not well after all…
It was quite a ride. You can be sure I’ll be there for the next episode!
Setlist
- Endless Deathless
- Silver
- Out of Heaven
- Seven
- I Am You
- Deaf
- Frank
- Dandelion
- That I Might Not See
- Pigs
- The Steps
- Pollyanna
- Still
- We Were Just Here
- Seed
Review & photos – Simon Williams
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