The Marathon festival showed off what the Montreal music scene has to offer

The 2024 edition of the Marathon music festival, the public-facing component of M for Montreal’s industry showcase series (which ran from Nov. 20 to 23), provided local fans with a little something for almost every musical taste and concert vibe.

Here’s some of what we witnessed, in words (by Dave MacIntyre, Darcy MacDonald and Stephan Boissoneault) and pictures (by Cindy Lopez).

DVTR

“This song is called ‘Cops are Shitbags!’” 

That’s the first bit of banter those watching local punks DVTR at Café Cléopâtre were hit with on Thursday from frontman JC Tellier, while introducing their song “Les flics (sont des sacs à merde).” Such an intro pretty well set the tone for the rest of their 20-minute set to come.

Composed of two members of le Couleur, this duo’s style of music is notorious for short song lengths, and their set feels like it whizzes by (“We have no merch, just fast music,” Tellier jokes at one point). Both Tellier and bandmate Laurence G-Do wore warpaint, there were two chairs onstage shaped and designed like sushi for some reason, and their bassist was sporting a balaclava the entire way through. Their set was made up of tunes full of raw, ferocious energy, but with obvious melodic skill embedded within. It was my first time seeing them, and they delivered despite the tight runtime. (Dave MacIntyre)

Truck Violence 

Truck Violence was lucky to play on the famed Mothland middle stage during M for Montreal, so all three floors at la Sala Rossa became one glorious mosh pit. The band’s sludgy post-hardcore stylings were as volatile as ever and a few newer tunes (following up the heavy Violence LP from earlier this year) are continuing to dig Truck into an even heavier pit. The projections, on four screens hanging overhead, were simple but effective, featuring night-vision green rotoscopes of each Truck member as they whirled about on stage. 

Karsyn Henderson puts one of the crowd members in a headlock and screams in their face, as a rain of discordant guitar rhythms and hypnotic blast-beats punish thickened air. There is no escape from the mosh at a Truck show, as Karsyn leads into every song like a wrestling announcer trying to start trouble. The only moments of reprieve are banjo interludes, which act as transitions into more of the madness. The only aspect of Truck that is constantly shifting for the live show is their drummer, who makes up a huge portion of the noise. Ever since the departure of Ryley Klima, Truck has tried out a few replacements, and with this M for Montreal show, they might be getting close. (SB)

Malaimé Soleil

Being reasonably certain there would scarce be room to move at MTelus by the time headliner P’tit Belliveau took the stage, I decided to arrive at the venue an hour before the opening act and secure some choice seating in the balcony. But first, I made sure Malaimé Soleil passed the smell test as a support act worth witnessing. Some time spent with their 2023 LP, Tempête, closed the deal. 

The St.Hyacinthe-based foursome of modern rockers looked the part,  a generation of Québecois kids raised on credible indie rock released after the glory days of the province’s major label “star system.” Malajube was already a legend of the past by the time these boys came of age, when bands like les Cowboys Frignants co-existed easily with a wave of American acts such as Kings of Leon and Tame Impala, the latter of whom Malaimé Soleil are quite obviously inspired by. Putting their own signature on easygoing psych-rock with moments of forceful intensity, the group delivered a solid 40 minutes deserving of the stage, and with enough of their own fans in the building to give them some energy. By the end, the chemistry between the members gelled. My only critique is that these guys could allow themselves a little more swagger on stage. They’re easy to enjoy but could be more fun to watch. (Darcy MacDonald)

TVOD

This post-punk six-piece must have a lot of pent-up anxiety and unresolved fury from living in the Big Apple because their performance at M for Mothland was anything but tame. Under a wave of guitars, synth, bass and drum hits to make your head spin, lead vocalist Tyler Wright presented songs filled with sordid humour and satirical takes, putting the audience under his spell — sometimes spitting water or beer right into a crowd packed like sardines. He also loves to lift up his shirt and flash his bare chest during moments of levity.

This type of punk from TVOD live felt dangerous but fun, the kind written about describing older bands like Ian Dury and the Blockheads, or even some less unruly Iggy Pop shows. With the chaotic projections of shapes and neon creatures, TVOD’s show felt more like performance art than a rock concert, and I think that’s the point. They might like to party, but it’s the kind of party you feel slightly unsettled by hours after. Powerful stuff. (Stephan Boissonneault)

P’tit Belliveau

The openers had soon packed up and so had the room. Wall-to-wall fans of beloved Acadian rock deconstructionist (and Cult MTL November issue cover star) P’Tit Belliveau were hootin’, hollerin’ and ready to get stomping from the moment an 8-bit graphic of our hero doing a Punch Out-esque ring walk began projecting on the stage’s backdrop screen. It almost felt more like we were about to watch a junior hockey playoff game than a concert. 

When Jonah Guimond and his trusted allies les Grosses Coques stepped out from the wings, the cheers hit encore levels before a single banjo string was plucked. 

P’tit Belliveau has sold out Club Soda easily several times over in past years. This self-booked MTelus debut holds the distinction as the first show the small town Nova Scotian has ever experienced in Montreal’s most prestigious mid-level concert club. That’s right, he’s never even seen a band there.

“Oh my God, Montréal!” exclaimed Guimond after breaking the ice with a couple of deep cuts from his first two LPs. 

“Do you know there’s about the same amount of people in here as one-third of the population of the municipality I’m from?”

For nearly two hours, P’tit Belliveau and the lads fed this feverish audience a steady diet of sped-up, dialed-up bangers from this year’s third, self-titled album alongside sizeable chunks of both its predecessors, Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and Un homme et son piano, by way of banjo, mandolin, distortion, percussion and even a little bit o’ FouKi.

Throw in unironic covers of Nickelback, System of a Down and an out of nowhere pile-driver attack from a massive wrestler, and there can be no disputing the claim spoken once this muscle-bound knucklehead, writhing in faux agony after being dropped by the scrote to the floorboards of Guimond’s private property for the night, was dragged unceremoniously off the stage by an outraged gang of Grosses Coques, at what was objectively the best show I’ve seen all year. 

“Don’t fuck with P’tit Belliveau!” (Darcy M.)

Unessential Oils

Plants and Animals’ Warren Spicer has made a new name for himself outside of his main band (just like bandmate Nico Basque has with Bibi Club), so it was inevitable that I’d want to see what Spicer’s current project Unessential Oils was all about last Wednesday evening.

Of course, a 20-minute showcases like the ones M for Montreal typically hosts aren’t usually enough for me to gauge someone as an artist, or what makes them unique. But the second floor of Foufs was a strangely charming locale for his brand of music, one that goes from psychedelic, experimental free jazz with reverb-heavy guitars and some truly dizzying sax riffs, to songs that are bluesier and more melodic by comparison. Regardless, it was quite an introduction to his solo work for me, and probably all the industry bigwigs around me, too. (Dave MacIntyre)

Population II

Seeing Population II in a small, dingy environment like the top floor of a downtown strip club is pretty great, and a stark contrast from times I’ve seen them play to a much bigger crowds at la Tulipe and in front of a woodworker’s garage outdoors in Baie-Saint-Paul earlier this year. Their musical elasticity is matched by their elasticity in live settings, and last Thursday night at Café Cléopâtre was no exception.

The trio, fronted by singing drummer Pierre-Luc Gratton, know how to make their proggy, spacey krautrock full of psychedelic, face-melting riffs, classic rock-style organs and hypnotic bass lines translate beautifully in a live setting. With Rose Cormier of local punk band Mulch joining in for their last two songs, the set could honestly never have been long enough. Best band in Montreal right now? They’re in the conversation. (Dave M.)

Slash Need

This wasn’t the first time I had seen Toronto’s experimental dark pop stooges Slash Need, but it was certainly one of the most memorable. A canvas held up by two dancers in pantyhose makeup masks sets the scene as a trickle of fog fills the stage. Out walks Dusty Lee, sporting a latex one-piece, a long latex glove, and a nightmarish face that looks like a kabuki mask that is slowly melting. It’s a ghastly scene, and a perfect one for Slash Need’s dark BDSM dance music. Dusty stands behind the canvas, so only parts of their body are seen behind the screen as their shadow grows larger and larger, gutturally singing and screaming in different voices. They sometimes push up directly to the screen, trying to escape. Think of the ghost TV scene from Poltergeist. It’s hard to really put into words, but the performance is one of wonder and agitation — feeling sometimes like a B-horror movie and others like a sweaty X-rated club in some Eastern European block. I think Slash Need has done somewhat of a disservice to themselves, because once the debut album drops, it’s going to be very hard to create the same feeling of kinky dystopia as their live show. (SB)

Lubalin

I’ll have to cop to the fact that I had no clue that Montreal’s Lubalin is an established internet celeb with millions of followers who has even appeared on The Tonight Show. This explained why there were scores of excited fans present for a standard 20-minute M for Montreal showcase set, which also served as Lubalin’s live performance debut.

To further prove I’m not ashamed to embarrass myself in the name of local music coverage, I’ll add that the only reason I caught his set was to get warm inside Club Soda between performances from DVTR and Population II across the street at Café Cleopatra. 

Elder that I am, however, I have a certain fondness for old school drum & bass. And because I don’t otherwise suffer from old-head syndrome, I found myself open to Lubalin, who sang emo-rap tinged soul over said d&b productions and carried himself with a promising stage presence. Judging by the enthusiastic reception of his in-built fan following, something’s in the water bottle he comically struggled with between songs. (Darcy MacDonald)

Jane Penny

TOPS frontwoman (and my fellow Albertan) Jane Penny proved back in April that she could hold her own as a solo act with her debut EP, Surfacing. She showed that once again at Foufs on Wednesday, even with the lack of a backing band, aside from a synth player. Otherwise, we only heard a drum machine playing behind her, but her voice and stage presence are both so distinctively spellbinding that pretty much anything else tends to fade into the background anyway. 

Her solo material sometimes has a country twang to it, as well as a whole-ass flute section during her last song. Sophisti-pop and quiet storm also loom large, as they both tend to do with TOPS, as well. All in all, it’s what I’d expect from a Jane Penny solo project, but with more of a kick to it. (Dave M.)

Le Cypher X

Packed to the rafters, Théâtre Fairmount was the proverbial full clip as Le Cypher celebrated a decade of off-the-dome jams and free-form musical expression with a party befitting its accomplished perseverance over 10 years of weekly parties, format experiments, side projects, personnel evolutions, cultural shift, venue closures and a pandemic.

Thinking back to when Le Cypher (then #LECYPHER) first broke ground on its initial live-band-hip-hop-meets-open mic-freestyle concept in 2014, it’s tempting to reminisce on the experiment, conceived by music scene vet and mainstay bandleader Vincent Stephen-Ong, as filling a void left by comparable movements that were winding down or moving on around that time.

While there is some truth to that, what was more important (then and now) was to build a space where musicians and would-be MCs and singers could create together in a collaborative environment and do it with a level of organization and style that would be sure to entertain an audience, no matter what direction each session brought the vibe. To make sure, as the cliché goes, to keep it fresh, which they’ve managed to do with grace and creative reinvention. 

As a result, Le Cypher and its players have become more than a hip hop party. They’re a go-to booking for festivals at home and away, a dependable backbone for Montreal nightlife and culture, and a guaranteed good time, every time, as hundreds of fans at the anniversary will agree. Presenting a musical banquet of regulars, friends and associates who’ve helped imagine and maintain Le Cypher X over the years, Friday’s birthday party was as much an homage to the past as it was a promise for the future. Yes, there are still way too many overexcited white dudes dancing off-time as though they had just discovered a new land. But hip hop is for everybody. And if you want to get somewhere, you gotta start somewhere. (Darcy M.)

More photos from M for Montreal’s 2024 Marathon festival

For more on M for Montreal, please visit the festival’s website.

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