It was a quieter night at Le Ritz, albeit it was a Monday after all. The younger-leaning crowd slowly made their way into the venue throughout Liam Benzvi’s dreamy opening set as Porches stood in the audience amongst everyone else – lining up for a drink at the bar or going out front for a pre-show smoke.
Montreal was the first stop on this tour, finally getting to play their latest album All Day Gentle Hold! live and Porches’ Aaron Maine approaches the mic like a man with a secret. He’s got an attitude that you either love or hate, but most people love.
Sporting jeans, a sweater, and a New York Yankees hat being thrown around, he kicked things off with well-known bangers, “Okay” and “I Miss That” before admitting how good it feels to be touring again.
Although Porches is solely Aaron’s stage name, the camaraderie of the 3-piece band he performs with is endearing to watch. Between the guitarist hugging and twirling his guitar when he is not playing it, and the pure joy on the drummer’s face – their energy works so well to ease the crowd into Porches’ distorted sound.
Maine is ambiguous by nature. His scrappy sound is hard to categorize, while his lyrics tell stories that are both vivid and vague. Like when performing “Watergetsinside” and everyone in the audience screamed “the water gets inside” a million times over and it just made sense.
He moved sporadically around the stage in sharp and unrehearsed movements – swinging the mic cord around while holding it close to nearby amps, intentionally creating harsh feedback noises. It is always nice to hear the unrecorded spontaneous ad-libs and pumped-up choruses that really enhance the Porches live experience.
The room eventually became a sweaty mess with a small group trying to mosh in the front, while chiller folks nodded heads in the back. The show was loud and chaotic as Maine told incomprehensible stories that only he seemed to understand, yet the crowd loved it.
It was over before it began, ending around the hour mark. Coming back out for the encore, someone had already taken his setlist off the stage as a souvenir when he politely asked to look at it one more time to remember which song to play next before giving it back again.
He asked the audience if he could crowd surf but did not think it was a good idea. Later during the last song of the night, he did it anyway and said thank you to everyone for coming out while casually walking backstage – cool and collected.
Porches may be shy, but he sure has a presence. Stumbling out of Le Ritz, it was a synth-pop fantasy to remember.
Review & photos – Ryley Remedios
