FME 2025 - A Foreward

 The twenty-third edition of one of Quebec’s, if not Canada’s, best music festivals is set to get underway from August 28-31. Once a year, the Festival de Musique Émergente (F.M.E.) takes over Rouyn-Noranda. The mining town, better known for its toxic Horne Smelter and minor league hockey team, The Huskies, will vibrate with the amplified cacophony of music and mayhem. 

  Presenting local headliners, up-and-coming musical talent, and a standout assortment of international artists. With more than eighty performances that include exclusive concerts in the city's concert halls and unusual venues, F.M.E. hosts a plethora of discoveries for festival-goers.

  The festival gets underway early Thursday morning, with a kids' show by Les Petites Tounes, and doesn’t end until late into the night the following Sunday. Bibi Club, Adèle Trottier-Rivard and Nicolas Basque, warm up the festival with a showcase of their latest album Feu de garde. A radiant, communal work where warmth triumphs over hardship. Montreal's disco-punk pioneers We Are Wolves unveil their highly anticipated sixth album, Nada at Petit Théâtre du Vieux-Noranda. Then, putting a cap on the evening, Brooklyn New York’s Mary Shelley will initiate the festival crowd to their post-punk dance rhythms from across the border.

  The large outdoor shows, located in the heart of downtown, get started Friday night. Presented by SiriusXM, trio Population II draw from their subversive yet haunting full-length album Maintenant Jamais, which earned them a spot on the 2025 Polaris Music Prize Long List. Ariane Roy follows with songs from her excellent Dogue, "a restless second album, driven by shackle-breaking anger and inspired by sisterhood" (La Presse). The lineup concludes with Klô Pelgag and her powerful, soul-searching manifesto, Abracadabra (recipient of the Francophone Album of the Year at the 2025 Junos). The late-night indoor shows feature Montreal’s Les Breastfeeders, who make French-language rock n'roll that is tinged with garage, pop, yéyé, and psychedelia. Bad Waitress is an artsy, angsty punk band from Toronto, Ontario. 

  Throughout the four days, there are many free shows like the one by Poolgirl. Combining riot grrrl and punk influences with melodic indie rock, this five-piece alt-rock band based in Montreal hits the Fizz Stage Saturday night. Later on that evening, Bar du Curling hosts two after midnight shows that feature the raw, genre-blending sound of Cure-Pipe and Montreal’s Fangus, the freak-rocking cult that combines psychedelic rock, garage pop, hyperpop, and classic rock. 

  The Sunday night metal extravaganza is an icon of the festival. This year, the tradition continues with local heroes Digital Ghosts - a metalcore band from Rouyn-Noranda that brings together members from bands such as Archons, Evil Prevail, Decrepity, and Within the Abyss. From Montreal, Scorching Tomb blends old-fashioned death metal and modern hardcore. Closing out the evening is another band from Montreal, Despised Icon, who have long been hailed as pioneers of extreme metal.

  For those who prefer something a little less metallic, there is the closing event at The Paramount. Featuring Elle Barbara, an avant-garde singer-songwriter who combines elements of dance, disco, sophisti-pop, synth-pop, prog, jazz, and glam. Les Freaks de Montréal, an homage to the legendary Quebec band Aut'Chose, reunite to pay tribute to its two captains who passed away a few days apart in 2024. They will be accompanied by brilliant and scintillating guests. Putting a cap on the event, Montreal-based psychedelic rock septet TEKE::TEKE will be showcasing their latest album, Hagata. 

  For over twenty years, Festival de musique émergente en Abitibi-Témiscamingue has established itself as a fertile ground for emerging talent and innovative performances. True to its unbridled spirit, the festival returns in 2025 with an edition aiming to blur the lines between fiction and reality, rumour and revelation. Amidst a joyfully-orchestrated chaos, music remains the compass, the curators proposing a rich, surprising, and vibrant program, where novel sounds, leftfield artists, and bold propositions coexist. Once again, FME vows to transform the city into a living and breathing laboratory.