Pouzza Fest 9 – Live in Montreal

After nine years in downtown Montreal, Hugo Mudie’s fascinating creation of Pouzza Fest has now become a staple in the punk rock scene. It holds its own alongside celebrated festivals such as Gainesville’s The Fest and Belgium’s Groezrock and with each passing year, Pouzza Fest becomes more and more recognizable as it pulls in visitors from all around the globe. Despite still not being recognized by the government and awarded any grants which they so rightly deserve, the share holders of Pouzza Fest work tirelessly to create a three day festival that showcases the downtown core, unbridled optimism, hundreds of punk rock bands and what can be accomplished when well intention-ed folks band together to bring an idea to fruition.

Set across six venues, including a free outdoor beer gardens for the main stage, Pouzza Fest features non-stop music for three days straight.  Counting scheduled shows, secret shows, and last minute acoustic sets, this year had me watching just over 35 bands over May Long weekend in Montreal.

I saw old favourites (I’ve now seen Against Me! in at least seven different cities), new favorites (The Penske File continue to improve with each album and live show); and random bands based on friends’ recommendations (The Human Project and Hit The Switch proved that skate punk is still alive and well).

It was clear that no matter where you found yourself, there was always a band playing somewhere. There were conflicts, of course. Do you see Sincere Engineer play a packed show at Foufounes with a full band, or skank along with Montreal’s hometown heroes The Planet Smashers? Do you watch festival favorites Direct Hit! or catch the miscreant adventures of  Steveo & The Crippling Addictions? There were hard choices to make, but the comforting thing is that no matter what you decide, a solid show was always ahead of you.

The weekend, for me, began with the last few songs of The Cold Wrecks in the Foufs garage before You Vandal jumped onto the main Foufs stage- and from then on, it was a blur. Worriers tearing it up as the opening act on main stage and the bouncy pop-punk of Fat Heaven at Theatre Saint-Catherines.  The energetic vibrancy of Bad Cop / Bad Cop shone through the darkening night sky and segued into Against Me!‘s perfect collection of songs. A 20 song set that never relented, it was nice to see former bassist Andrew Seward back with the band; and I can’t help but think that running into old friends and singing Pints of Guinness Make You Strong somehow symbolizes what the festival is meant to be.

While the main stage was calling it a night, the smaller venues still had hours to go and the night was just beginning with some Edmonton friends in Fire Next Time before one of the most talked about bands at the moment, War on Women, came on with fiery angst.  Front woman Shawna Potter put everyone on blast with their politically driven lyrics, and had the audience eating out of the palm of her hand. It was nice to see that the band’s reputation of unrelentingly energetic live show was not overblown. Sadly, due to the aforementioned threats of conflicts, I was only able to stay for half the set as Arms Aloft were another must see act playing at the same time over at Katacombs. While it pained me to leave War on Women early, the final half of Arms Aloft (featuring a guest appearance from Guerrilla Poubelle) ensured the choice wasn’t done in vein.

As we crept into the early morning, day one of Pouzza Fest ended with the highlight of the weekend in Spanish Love Songs. The emotional pop-punk band from Los Angeles are writing some of the most heavy hitting songs around these days and their hour long set at one in the morning showed that they have no intention of slowing down. When they pulled out their new single Loser or cover of Phoebe Bridgers‘ Funeral, the crowd just opened up and sang along; but nothing compared to the raucousness that Buffalo Buffalo caused.

Nothing could top that set, so while it may have been nice to catch one of the two am secret sets that evening, it was time to call it a night.

After all, it’s all about balance isn’t it? The first day was done, a dozen bands, more than a dozen beers, a red eye flight the night before. You gotta sleep at some point and after some much needed rest, Day Two of Pouzza Fest began.

Despite the festival  having tons of activity in the early afternoon: the free Pouzza Bambino shows and games for  the kids in the main stage, the comedy shows at Theatre St. Catherines, the baseball tournament down the block and acoustic BBQ at Foufs; the hungover day started slowly for me. Catching up with old friends and doing a few interviews at Turbo Haus, we saw Joe McMahon do a surprise acoustic set and Gallows Bound play outside on the patio for anyone walking down Saint Denis to see. It was a mellow entrance to Saturday, but one a much needed one.

The first “official” Pouzza event for me was Ogikubo Station at the outdoor main stage – where I stayed for the next four bands. Milwaukee’s Direct Hit! (joined by The Dopamines‘ bassist) led the way for Boston’s ska-punk legends Big D & The Kids Table who kick started the ska events of the weekend.  Having formed back in 1995, Big D are one of the older bands on the line-up but had nothing on Strung Out who came next with almost thirty years under their belts.

Between the sets there were many beers thanks to the festival sponsors of Beau’s and Trou de Diable, a much better choice than filling your stomach with Pabst Blue Ribbon. While definitely stronger that the hipster beer of choice, the craft beer doesn’t fill you up as quickly and enables you to pace yourself. As many people are quick to remind you, it’s a marathon not a sprint; so having high quality beer was a god send.

The Strung Out set was cut short as I had to run to catch Bike Tuff at Katacombs followed by Smoking Popes before back to the main stage for Planet Smashers. The Montrealers were literally at home at Pouzza Fest and were excited to show their hometown crowd songs from their new album, Too Much Information.  Of course, that didn’t stop them from the fan favourites like Life of the Party, Missionary Downfall,  Too Much Attitude, J’aime Ta Femme, Raise Your Glass and Super Orgy Porno Party. As they often do, they got the entire crowd to crouch in the bridge of  Surfing In Tofino before exploding up into a dance party for the final crescendo, and it shouldn’t be any other way.

Once Planet Smashers ended, the fact that all the venues were so close to one another became a necessity as I tried to cram as many bands in as I could. We had the final bit of Samiam (hearing Dull live still gives me chills), a bit of Bong Mountain before running off to catch the Ramones parody band Ramoms at Cafe Cleopatra.  With songs like Going into 3rd, Gritty is A Punk Rocker, Lego Blocks and The PTA Took My Mommy Away, The Ramoms were Weird Al meets The Ramones and the fact that they played in the second floor of a strip club just felt right.

Day two came to an end with a trio of pop-punk bands at Katacombs: the last half of Timeshares followed by The Dopamines and a surprise secret show at 2:15 from Direct Hit!. They may have played the same set that they did earlier in the evening, but in the smaller venue it became more fun to sing and dance along to Snickers and Reese’s, Werewolf Shame, They Came For Me and Buried Alive. For a second night in the row, Katacombs played host to the final musical moments and it was hard to wrap my head around the fact that there was still one day remaining.

On Sunday, we made sure to start the day properly and attend the acoustic shows at Foufounes during the Merch Hall. We walked in as Lost Love‘s (and the festival booking agent) Guilhem began his comical acoustic set. With countless friends in the crowd, Guilhem interacted nicely with the audience and fostered the sense of unity and friendliness that Pouzza creates. Max Stern played next as people ate hot dogs and drank $2.50 beers in the spray painted patio overseen by hanging tiki heads.  It’s a sight to see, and something to experience if you get the chance.

After some much needed real food, we re-entered the festival for psychobilly act Gutter Demons before following my friend’s lead and catching The Human Project. Despite never having listened to them before, it was clearly evident that they were onto something. Picking up where the likes of Strung Out and Ignite left off, The Human Project is definitely worth checking out for any fan of skate-punk.

That’s the beauty of festivals like this, the discovery of random bands. So while I wanted to watch Guerilla Poubelle again after The Mahones, I ran into Katacombs to avoid the rain and was blown away by a secret show of Rotterdam’s Lone Wolf. You discover hidden gems when you’re not looking and they can serve as a hiding place to wait out bad weather before Subb and the headlining party animal Andrew WK.

Anyone who’s ever seen the king of partying understands that Andrew WK knows how to put on a show, this was no exception. His full band sounded tight as the white-clad singer screamed his songs of positivity and energy. No one alive seems to have as much enthusiasm built into their bones as AWK does, and it’s contagious.

The set was a tad short, just over a dozen songs; but man was it perfect.  Ready To Die, I Get Wet,  She Is Beautiful, We Want Fun – he played all the must haves alongside You Will Remember Tonight, Music Is Worth Living For and others. For the final track, he led the crowd in a 96-second countdown for Party Hard before he, appropriately, partied hard.

No one could close out the main stage better than he; and if the festival ended there, it would’ve been just fine. Yet it was early, not even 1030 – the night was young and still laid open for Kill Lincoln, the final half of Hit The Switch, Make War and a raucous punk rock set from The Penske File. Despite having their van stolen earlier that day, the three piece still utterly destroyed Foufs with songs from both Salvation and Burn It Into The Earth.  I’m hard pressed to find another three piece with such energy and enthusiasm as The Penske File as they somehow fill the entire stage despite being spread across it.

Smoke Or Fire was the official closing act of the Pouzza Fest 9. Even without a new album in almost a decade, Joe McMahon is focusing on his solo material more, the band still pulled a crowd.  They went on a little later than planned, ended a little earlier – but it was the ideal length and capped off the festivities nicely.

It’s sometimes astonishing to think back and realize how much music you consumed in one long weekend.  To see the shock on someone’s face when I say I saw 35 bands over the weekend is always comical. It doesn’t seem doable, and yet – Pouzza Fest makes it possible.

I was sore. I was hungover. My ears were ringing and I was tired; but it was worth it. Worth it to see so many bands, new and old favourites. Worth it to hang out with friends from all over North America. Worth it to eat a plate of poutine at three am and then devour some Chinese at four am. Worth it to try craft beer from the opposite side of the country.

Pouzza Fest is an escape from reality and one I’ll welcome every single year.

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Photo Gallery by Nick Dudar