When it comes to music festivals, we've been selective. NXNE and London's Home County Arts & Music Festival have perfectly suited our schedules, wallets, ability to travel and the way we like to consume live music. But after meeting
M pour Montreal's Mikey Bernard at NXNE, we decided it was time to dust off our high school French, venture out of our comfort zone and head to M pour Montreal.
How we got there: Porter Air from Windsor to Toronto Island to Trudeau Airport. Reasonable price, and landing on a small island is pretty amazing. We even had time between flights on our way home to grab lunch at
Wvrst in Toronto.
Good to know: Budget $40 for a cab to and from the airport to downtown Montreal if you don't want to take the bus.
Where we stayed:
Trylon Appartements at Ste. Famille and Milton. Except for incredibly lousy Wi-Fi-- a challenge not limited to Trylon, we discovered chatting with other M for Montreal attendees-- also very reasonable. Great staff and location, highly recommended.
Good to know: Everything was within walking distance, although we cabbed it a few times because of the cold (around -9 C) on Thursday and Friday.
Where we ate: Thanks to Montreal resident and fellow Radio 3 blogger Hedgehog Friend, we had the inside scoop on great iconic places to eat in the city, including
Amelios (bring your own beer);
Juliette & Chocolat;
Schwartz's;
Beautys;
La Sala Rossa; and our favourite, spruce beer and tourtiere at
La Binerie. We also had the best coffee (we ordered Americanos) ANYWHERE at
Pikolo.
What we didn't do: We missed Betty Bonifassi's show and Py Py due to logistics; sad panda, because we love them both. We didn't have time to make our pilgrimage to
Breakglass Studios or be tourists. But hey Montreal, we'll definitely be back.
(Click on a photo for the slideshow)
Who we saw:
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Kandle Osborne of Kandle and the Krooks |
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Jeff Innes of High Ends |
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Le Trouble; check out their CBC Beetle Roadtrip
session with Grant Lawrence at cbc.ca/beetleroadtrip. |
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Canailles. We were sold when we saw that the drummer
had a trash can lid as part of his kit.
They had the whole room line dancing. |
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Peter Dreimanis of July Talk. |
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Leah Fay of July Talk. |
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Banjo oh my darling Lisa LeBlanc |
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So, our beloved Parlovr is no more. But Alex, Jeremy and Louis
are still making music. We saw Alex's new
band, Holy Data, at L'Escogriffe. This is Jordan.
You might know him from Sunset Rubdown and Miracle Fortress. |
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This is Alexis Dionne |
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This is Reg Kachanoski |
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And this is Alex Cooper. |
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We never thought we'd get to see a Unicorn--
Alden Penner-- performing Unicorn songs. |
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Badbadnotgood was anything but. |
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Yup, supreme just about sums up their M for Montreal show. |
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Michael Feuerstack |
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Doomsquad @ Divan Orange |
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How Sad made us happy again at La Sala Rossa |
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Hilotrons were a hit with us.
Michael Dubue sang the vocals for Animal, Master |
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Alex Moxon / Hilotrons |
Photos: Russ Gordon/N2D Images