For this eighth day of the Coup de cœur francophone 2024 festival, Zouz was able to offer us a masterful performance for the launch of Ash Day at Club Soda. There is a big departure in style at the opening, starting with the experimental and improvised music of the always dashing and captivating guitarist and Quebec icon René Lussier. It was then with La Sécurité and its music very anchored in the 1980s and its post-punk accents, that the evening continued, making the room dance.
Zouz at the top of his art
I had already seen the firepower of the Zouz band as the opening act for Gros Méné and Karkwa but it was with joy that I finally found them headlining at Club Soda with an audience already well warmed up by La Security and René Lussier.
The trio launches their new album this evening Days of Ash and begins with dark and heavy opening tracks, all accentuated by alarm-style red lighting with black and white projections of brick walls and leafless trees. If it’s not really funny, the guitar patterns are rich and surprising supported by a powerful rhythm with a very melodic and complementary bass.
The group’s music navigates between Malajube for its big guitars and its vocals in the background and Queens of the Stone Age for the improbable riffs and the polished writing of the titles. I will also add a hint of Led Zeppelin for the sometimes monolithic drums and the guitar in non-standard tuning for original textures.
The trio is made up of David Marchand (vocals, guitar), Étienne Dupré (bass, keyboard, backing vocals) and Francis Ledoux (drums, backing vocals). Tonight, singer Shaina Hayes adds her clear, calm voice to the mix. If you don’t know Hayes yet, I highly recommend her album Kindergarten Heart released at the beginning of the year where we find among others the members of Zouz.
Subtly, the leaden atmosphere of the beginning gives way to a more luminous stoner-leaning rock with always surprising guitar riffs revived by a complementary bass. The cohesion of the group is impressive and they deliver original and uncompromising rock that knows how to touch the audience.
One of the strengths of the whole is this play of contrast in the titles and effects as well as on the vocals where we go from direct singing to an abundance of reverberation effects or transpositions. The compositions are worked and are based on a complementarity of musicians rarely expressed so well.
At the end of a thrilling and particularly intense performance, the group’s potential was fully expressed this evening. It is a joy to have finally seen and heard Zouz in his full potential and to express himself freely. Their unique style deserves to be heard more and recognized for its power and mastery of compositions.
L’album Days of Ash by Zouz was published last month:
René Lussier surprises and turns the audience on its head
René Lussier is an iconoclastic monument of Quebec avant-garde music. With a 50-year career and 25 albums including the iconic The Treasure of Language (1990), it’s always an original experience to see him on stage, especially since he is accompanied by drummer Robbie Kuster, another major musician on the Quebec scene.
Obviously, the link between Lussier and the two other groups of the evening La Sécurité and Zouz is far from obvious. However, Lussier is not afraid to appear in front of an audience that is far from established: he has already opened for Voïvod in this venue and still had the audience in his pocket!
Arriving on stage, René Lussier seems not to age with his eye still as lively and provocative and begins the evening with the title Friday’s suitcase with a very beautiful brand new luthier guitar, with some original features obviously. Very comfortable in this type of improvisation, it is Robbie Kuster in perfect control of his drums who rolls out a carpet to welcome Lussier’s guitar notes and noises and his vocal bursts.
Wearing a sweater bearing the image of Hendrix, Lussier performed a Hendrix-leaning version of what he presents as a potential Canadian anthem rejected during the competition. Was it pure sarcasm? Nothing is less certain but we appreciated the big sound full of fuzz and the inspired feedback!
The duo’s complicity and ease in interpretation and improvisation with an experimental tendency surprisingly make their music accessible, joyful and enjoyable. They surely surprised the vast majority of the public who did not know him but visibly gained the attention and appreciation of a good part of the audience.
We will undoubtedly find René Lussier for an exceptional concert which will celebrate his fifty years of career with regular collaborators (Julie Houle, Robbie Kuster, Guillaume Bourque, Hugo Blouin…) and surprise guests (Jean Derome perhaps?). It will happen on Sunday, December 8 at the Ministry. Don’t miss this!
There is also the excellent latest album by René Lussier To the green devil (2022) which can be listened to and purchased on bandcamp:
Security and the heady scent of the 1980s
La Sécurité is a predominantly female Montreal quintet whose influences seem strongly anchored in the 1980s, with the spray net in less. With titles in English and French, we find ourselves somewhere between the light pop of Elli and Jacno and the assertive post-punk of the British group Au Pairs.
Obviously, the guitars are piercing and their parts repetitive, the bass is round and flexible with bouncy rhythms. There are also synth sounds closer to analog than to the legendary DX-7 of the time. Éliane Viens-Synnott’s voice alternates between a flirtatious, even childish side and a more mature and committed side.
If the group’s music is danceable and festive, the titles seem redundant to me at the end of their 45-minute performance and the time travel aspect is a bit annoying for those who experienced the 1980s and did not retain much of this decade apart perhaps from Jean-Michel Jarre and Start of Soirée…
Detour is the latest title available from La Sécurité and is highly recommended:
Bulk photos
Zouz
René Lussier and Robbie Kuster
Security
