Pouzza V – Pouzza Fest – Montreal Live Review

Pouzza Fest Breaks Walls and Brings the Party to the Punk-Rock Scene

The Planet Smashers – May 16th 2015 – Pouzza Day 2

Municipal Waste – Foufounes Electriques – Pouzza Day 3

In it’s fifth iteration of Pouzza Fest, Pouzza V has shown that the organizers are no spring chickens and that with every passing year, the weekend-long punk festival is simply improving on their already high quality formula.

Fewer venues were chosen to participate this year, but that did not detract from it – quite on the contrary. Not having to travel from one end of the city to the other to catch a show definitely made it more accessible. Having added a new outdoor stage to the game also helped. The newest addition was mounted in the park on Maisonneuve & Clarke Streets, where people could see many big bands absolutely for free. Our definite highlight from that stage had been none other than Montreal’s own The Planet Smashers.

The lights, the upbeat ska music, and the overall party feel made The Planet Smashers one of the definitely funner acts. They even included people running out onto the stage and throwing bags of balloons at the crowd, with the logo Pouzza Party on it. These Montrealers definitely brought the life of the party to the festival. Playing an hour long set at the end of the second day, they played many classics like Life of the Party, Super Orgy Porno Party, The Hippopotamus, and You Guys Are Assholes, Let’s Party. We’re starting to see a theme here. It was absolutely impossible to stand still during the set, either being engulfed by the moving crowd or by your own volition. Overall, the set brought down the house and left the crowd cheering.

Next up on the second day highlights list came Success, a Seattle-based party punk band that played at TRH Bar. Amidst the skateboarders and a smaller crowd, the show was very intimate and perfectly suited for the band. It was a small venue, with a small crowd of people partying, dancing and skateboarding, which made for the perfect backdrop for jumpy and pumped up pop-punk. This is a new discovery with definite style, worth checking out for fans of The Menzingers (who’s record label Success is signed to).

If pop-punk is not your jam and you’re more into something a bit harder pressed, then Powernap is the band for you. Describing their motto as “Pop pills not punk”, the stance is pretty clear. The band started in 2012 in the underbelly of the Pouzza offices, while Hugo Mudie (ex-Sainte Catherines, Miracles & Pouzza organizer) was bored because his musical partner was on vacation somewhere warm. Whether or not that’s actually completely factual or with a lot of fiction behind it doesn’t detract from how fun this band actually is. Their chemistry alone is awesome, with everyone always smiling and simply having fun. And hey, the music ain’t half bad either. Overall a fun show, that just goes to show that boredom goes a heck of a long way when you’re creative.

Now if you’re into the more mellow side of things, Laureate is a band for you. The live sound can easily be equated Jimmy Eat World’s first album. Overall, this band is just a group of three guys and a girl who love what they do and are not afraid to show it. Labeling themselves as emo shows just how ballsy this band is, seeing as real Emo hasn’t been around in a while. The lyrics are very in touch with emotions, talking about subjects like marriage and breakups, and overall made for a lovely contrast between singer/guitarist Giancarlo Talarico’s raspier vocals and bassist/singer Erin Power’s more melodic tones. Overall the band is definitely in sync with each other and shows a lovely cohesion on-stage.

It’s hard not to mention the big hitter that Pouzza Fest brought in this year, and that is Municipal Waste. The band, mixing aptly thrash metal & hardcore, played an outstanding set at Foufounes Electriques. The crowd simply ate it up. The moshpit broke out instantly, and nothing stopped moving until the last note was played. The crowd cheered enthusiastically, sang along, and, of course, stage-dived like crazy. There was even a guy with an inflatable killer whale, which he managed to throw up into the balcony, literally nailing two of us in the head. Totally worth it? We think so! The set was definitely one of the best of the weekend.

Another new addition was added to the festival this year was the feature of a comedy show. Sadly we had to miss it, but from the sounds of a completely sold out show (and some frustrated clients not being able to enter the venue because of that), it was a smash hit on it’s first iteration.

The final and most obvious highlights were the infamous Pouzza Fest secret shows. For those who didn’t know, Pouzza’s Instagram page often features information on where to catch a secret show. Sometimes there are tickets, others it’s a “bracelet-only” exclusive show. This year’s secret shows featured two amazing acoustic performances. The first one was Joey Cape’s. He played a guitar/keyboard only acoustic set. There were many heartfelt moments throughout the performance, but the most sentimentally wrenching was his two-song tribute to ex-No Use For A Name’s frontman Tony Sly, who passed away in 2012. The next was his song written about Montreal, aptly named Montreal, which he performed with Hugo Mudie. The secret show was a great way to catch the performance if you had missed it the day before. The second secret show was the final performance of the weekend, delivered by Vancouver’s folk punk singer Jesse LeBourdais.

Although it was at the same venue, the final performance was a stark contrast to the full-to-the-brim venue the night before. Add to that the fact that the sound tech was not there, meaning that LeBourdais had to perform with no microphone nor an amp, and you have a recipe for disaster. Quite on the contrary though, the performance was the furthest from a disaster, showing how well LeBourdais can think quickly under pressure. He got off stage and just played to the small crowd that was there, and was even helped by a very dedicated fan that sang along to every song. At the end of the night, the show went on without a hitch and the festival ended with everyone happy.

Originally written for The Scene Magazine

All images & words by Andrej Ivanov

All Copyright belongs to Andrej Ivanov & Andrej Ivanov Photography (C) 2015

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