Local promoters Extensive Enterprise and L’écurie brought together a great bunch of performers in the folk-punk line of tunage and I can’t thank them enough for putting on this show.

The evening opened with the frontman from  The Loved Ones – Dave Hause who delivered- even if the crowd was really lukewarm. I adored his set and was so stoked when he rocked out on an acoustic Tegan and Sara song.

You owe it to yourself to check out both his bands as well as his solo material. His voice is distinct and carried throughout the walls of the narrow bar. Amazing.

Cavaliers were up next and admittedly were a bit too radio-friendly for my taste. They did have a few songs that caught my attention but sadly, after a little too long of a guitar solo in the first song they opened with, I was already a bit biased and anxious for the more of the solo (and acoustic) acts to continue performing.

Tim Barry, the frontman from Avail was up next and he made me cry. Oh man. I cried. Talk about honest and earnest stage performance. His no-bullshit approach to living, his stories about the suffering he’s seen all added up to pluck every single last one of my heart strings. I bit my lower lip throughout his set for fear of bawling my head off. Best listen to his new album in private. It’s a beauty.

The crowd went wild when Chuck Ragan, from the glorious Hot Water Music performed a duet with Tim and then launched into some of his own solo material. As gravely-voiced as ever (or maybe even more than ever), Chuck brought it.

I have to thank the so very wonderful Eli Bissonette from Dare to Care records for hooking me up with tickets to this sold out show after hearing my pleas on Facebook. Do visit the Dare to Care website and support this great label with a great ethic as witnessed from this quote from their site:

“We try to keep a friendly and laid-back approach while working to expand our company, and this challenge influences our decisions,” explains Eli. “We could choose to release certain albums with the goal of making a lot of money; however, we are not prepared to put out music that doesn’t reflect who we are. To us, the important thing is not to sell a lot of records, but to release truly authentic music. Given the current state of Quebec’s music industry, this authenticity may not allow us to become rich, but it can be profitable. It’s all about finding the right bands.”

Rounding out this longwinded post, if you’re in Montreal make sure to check out Leatherface and Yesterday’s Ring on February 28th. I cant’ wait.