It’s been the warmest day of the year — fourteen degrees and full sun in the afternoon, a rarity for Montreal winter — but onstage Nep exclaims, “it’s so cold here!”
Despite the chorus of dissent, it’s an understandable reaction from someone whose home state currently sits at a sizzling twenty-eight degrees Celsius. At her first headline show outside of the United States, Nep’s Florida Girl Goes To… tour celebrates her complicated relationship with her hometown of Daytona, Florida.
Running onstage in a baggy white tee, with glitter on her cheeks and star-shaped acne stickers on her chin, Nep embraces her roots with an offbeat authenticity. “Being a Florida girl is a mindset. Maybe you don’t really like your hometown, maybe you do. Maybe people there call you crazy.”
Although the tour moniker references the debut album Noelle she released in November, which is heavy with references to her Floridian roots — Daytona Beach, annual motorcycle rally Biketoberfest, and “big ‘ol trucks” — the setlist leans heavily on her earlier material. Nearly every song from Nep’s Storybook, a quirkier acoustic EP, makes an appearance. Some of it has been “rockified” for the tour, trading their original acoustic charm for distortion and gut-punching emotion. This heavier sound is where Nep shines. Updates to songs like “Teddy” stand out for their psychedelic groove, while a rock version of “Marmalade,” a song she wrote at fifteen, gives room for her voice to darken and amplifies the maturity of her musicality and lyricism. They complement album tracks “The Soundtrack” and “Scar,” which stand out live for their desperate intensity and expansive guitar lines.
This textural sound is carried by her band, who are also wearing glitter on their cheeks and are clearly close-knit. Her guitarist, Jake Sonder, is an entertainer in his own right. Every part of his body shakes and stomps as he plays, as if moving to a rhythm only he can hear. His guitar work is just as animated — quick, spiraling licks that cut through janky layers of sound with clean precision. He is also Nep’s roommate and producer, which explains the clear chemistry they have performing together.
She also has an easy rapport with the crowd. Before playing “Pup,” a song she admits makes her sad because “it’s about getting cheated on,” she comes up with a game to lighten the mood. Whenever she says a canine word — dog, pup, or puppy — the audience is instructed to bark. The crowd obliges enthusiastically. Later, during “Florida Girl,” the crowd interjects unprompted with the backing vocals from the studio recording, and for a moment the venue feels less like a Montreal bar and more like a backcountry bonfire party.
It’s still a balmy ten degrees when I step out of Bar le Ritz at the end of the night. I don’t know how she’s done it, but Nep has brought a little bit of Florida to Montreal — weather and all.
Support came from IMANI GRAHAM
Review – Irene Wang
Photos – Sienna David
