Before the doors to The Pearl even open, downtown Vancouver is already starting to look a little different. Polka dots begin appearing in the crowd; one person here, a group there, until the black and white, circular patterned fits become almost impossible to miss. As more and more people make their way toward the venue, it becomes clear that something very strange is brewing.

That could only mean one thing: self-proclaimed space-time voyagers Klek and Khn de Poitrine are in town, and things are about to get weird.

After blowing up and going viral at an almost ridiculous rate this year, thanks in part to their KEXP appearance just down south in Seattle, Angine de Poitrine’s shows coming to town have become highly anticipated. And it’s not just prog fans showing up. Their strange, theatrical world has something for everyone: weird music lovers, fans of live visuals and performance, and anyone curious to see exactly what all the fuss is about. Seeing the alien brothers live in person, we can confirm that they do live up to the hype!

The show opened with fellow Montreal musician René Lussier, a jazz guitarist with a flair for theatrics as well. Accompanied by drummer Robbie Juster, the two performed some funky, jazzy tunes, complete with a few wonderfully weird gimmicks, including René wielding an electric toothbrush against his guitar to create some truly crazy sounds. It was a very fitting opening act for the wonderfully strange spectacle that was about to follow.

Angine De Poitrine is a band to experience up close and personal, which is why catching them at the Pearl was the perfect opportunity to see this band in their current form: strange yet intriguing, predictably unpredictable, theatrical and chaotic, and all while being completely and wonderfully bizarre in the best possible way. They know exactly who they are and what they are about.

They played a solid eight-song set over the course of about an hour and a bit, and that was all they needed to completely capture the room’s attention – not that the alien outfits didn’t do that already! What was cool to see was Khn de Poitrine’s brand new custom Godin microtonal double-neck guitar that only took 38 days to build – very impressive! From the bizarre sounds and wild instrumentation to the visual theatrics unfolding onstage, there never really was a moment to look away. The moment you did and looked back up again, they were either busting out a little hoppy dance, contacting the mothership through their glowing eyes and triangular-shaped honing mechanisms, or doing something else that made you question whether you were still at a concert or had accidentally wandered into some kind of intergalactic transmission.

Angine De Poitrine exists somewhere between experimental music, performance art, and an alien transmission that somehow learned how to groove. Thank you to Angine de Poitrine for being their truly authentic selves and for being the kind of gloriously wacky beacon of light this world could use a little more of right now!

Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!

ANGINE DE POITRINE

All Photo Credit: Heather Horncastle

There is a point where a band stops being simply a band and becomes part of the architecture of rock music. AC/DC crossed that line a long time ago.

At BC Place on August 13, the Australian hard-rock institution brought its Power Up Tour to Vancouver for a night built around the things AC/DC has spent more than five decades doing better than almost anyone: giant riffs, simple choruses, loud guitars and absolutely no interest in pretending it needs to be anything else.

The Pretty Reckless had the unenviable job of warming up a stadium full of people who had come primarily to see one band. Taylor Momsen and company handled it well. The band had already played BC Place with AC/DC the previous year, so the venue was familiar territory, and their dark, muscular rock gave the evening a harder modern edge before AC/DC took over.

Momsen remains a compelling frontwoman. She has the kind of voice that can go from a rough growl to something surprisingly controlled without losing its bite. The Pretty Reckless worked through songs including “Death by Rock and Roll,” “Follow Me Down,” “Make Me Wanna Die” and “Going to Hell,” making a solid case for their place on a tour where the headliner could easily swallow an opening act whole.

Then it was time for AC/DC. The opening notes of “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)” were enough to make the point. There was no elaborate buildup or some cinematic explanation of what was about to happen. Angus Young walked out in his schoolboy uniform, picked up his Gibson SG and started playing.

That’s the AC/DC trick. They make the obvious feel good. Young is 71 now, and Brian Johnson is 78. Those numbers are hard to ignore for about five minutes. Then Young starts moving. He still has the strange, almost cartoonish physicality that has made him such an effective performer. The duckwalk remains intact. So does the ability to disappear into a guitar solo and somehow make a stadium watch one small figure instead of the enormous production surrounding him.

Johnson has changed more noticeably. His voice carries more wear than it did decades ago, and some of the higher passages have lost a bit of their old bite. Yet there is something fitting about hearing that weathered voice attack these songs now. “Back in Black” doesn’t need to sound exactly like the 1980 recording. Neither does “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.” Johnson sings them like someone who has lived with these songs for most of his adult life. The audience knows every word anyway.

“Thunderstruck” turned BC Place into a sea of raised arms. “Hells Bells” brought out the giant bell and all the expected theatrics. “Highway to Hell” needed almost no encouragement from the band; the crowd did most of the work. This is where AC/DC has an advantage over younger stadium acts. There is no learning curve ast hese songs have been sitting in people’s heads for decades.

The Power Up material, including “Demon Fire” and “Shot in the Dark,” fits into the set without disrupting its momentum. Still, the older songs are where the night really catches fire. “Shoot to Thrill,” “Sin City,” “High Voltage,” “Riff Raff” and “You Shook Me All Night Long” are simply too deeply embedded in the band’s history to compete with.

“Let There Be Rock” became Angus Young’s playground. His extended solo was indulgent and ridiculous, but that’s exactly what it needed to be. A shorter version might have been more sensible, but nobody came to AC/DC for sensible.

There is something almost refreshing about how little the band cares about reinvention. AC/DC has no new sound to unveil and no grand statement about where rock music is going next. It knows where it came from, knows what its audience wants and has decided that is enough.

By the time “T.N.T.” arrived, BC Place was already primed for the inevitable finale. Then came “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You),” with the cannons firing and the stadium turning into one enormous, deafening salute.

AC/DC isn’t trying to prove that it is still the future of rock. The band has become something more stubborn than that: a living reminder that a great riff doesn’t age nearly as quickly as the people playing it. Five decades in, Angus Young still wants you to turn it up. Vancouver was happy to oblige.

Check out our favourite photos of the night below or head to our Facebook page for the full gallery!

Upcoming Power Up Tour Dates:
Thu Aug 27     Atlanta, GA                 Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Mon Aug 31    Houston, TX               NRG Stadium
Fri Sep 04       South Bend, IN           Notre Dame Stadium
Tue Sep 08     St. Louis, MO              The Dome at America’s Center
Sat Sep 12      Montreal, QC             Parc Jean-Drapeau
Wed Sep 16    Toronto, ON                Rogers Stadium
Fri Sep 25       East Rutherford, NJ   MetLife Stadium
Tue Sep 29     Philadelphia, PA       Lincoln Financial Field
More information here.

AC/DC

THE PRETTY RECKLESS

All Photo Credit: Caroline Charruyer | @frogphotography