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Friko Freaks Out at Bar Le Ritz
Any show which can rouse me from my Monday mid-afternoon, post-Hive free lunch nap better be one worth writing home about – Starcleaner Reunion and Friko’s Monday night show at Bar Le Ritz was worth every second and the near 40-minute trek it took to get home. In my anxiety over (somehow) never having been to Mile-ex’s indie darling venue, Bar Le Ritz, and my fundamental distrust for the 55 bus’ schedule (or lack thereof), I got there so early I saw the band arriving. I quickly settled into my corner post and scanned the sea of oversized-glasses-wearing, proud mullet sporting crowd that brimmed with Marché Floh warriors, and readied myself for a night ripe with all that these bands had to offer.
As Starcleaner Reunion filed onto the stage, I was immediately throat punched by the overwhelming power of the drums of Sam Unger, winding me so hard I was nearly knocked off my feet from this incredible first blow. But the punches kept rolling, as I attempted to catch my breath from this full-body drum-ambush, the reverb and distortion surrounded me in an almost claustrophobic wall of sound so thick and impermeable it was as though I was placidly suffocating. Starcleaner Reunion’s undeniable melancholic groove, in combination with the wiggly guitar and keyboard, created this sense of distorted time, as though the venue's air had a heightened viscosity to it. Whether it was Bar Le Ritz’s propensity to overuse the smoke machine or the sound quality emanating from Starcleaner Reunion, time seemed to move differently during their set. As the Stereolab-esque tracks like “Plein Air” and “Snowfeel” droned on, I felt the sensation of falling in a dream, that never-ending black hole, stomach sinking moment just before your body jolts you back awake. The fragmented poetic lyricism of singer Jo Roman, whose corporeal command of the mic literally pulled words out from her, as they hung in the air surrounded by the 5-piece band’s near orchestral quality. Before ending their transportive set, they got the crowd jumping with “Ribbon Le Chou” which left me buzzing and jittery as if having just downed one too many vodka redbulls.
No sooner had Starcleaner Reunion’s set finished than Chicago’s own four-piece band Friko exploded onto the stage with an ear-splitting post-punk sound and spirit. Lead singer Niko Kapetan’s voice pierced through the all-encompassing scratchy guitar and chugging bass like a needle straight to the vein, injecting the audience with his guttural, aching lyricism. In near comical fashion, as the emotional potency of the songs poured out of the band, their convulsive onstage writhings only intensified to the point of near possession – Kapetan looked like he was having a vision, with his eyes even rolling back in his head.
As the tinnitus-inducing wall of sound assaulted my poor ear drums (and I kicked myself for not taking my personal ear protection more seriously), I took a second to re-collect myself and remember where I was. By the time I had gotten my bearings, just nearly shaking the residual disorientation of tracks like “Hot Air Balloon”, I was knocked off course for the third time as Kapetan approached the keyboard with “For Ella.” A tear-jerkingly raw and hauntingly ethereal song, whose throbbing ache is only magnified tenfold when experienced live. In a time when everything seems to be coated in a thick layer of irony, the earnest beauty which poured from Friko transformed the humble venue into a Sunday mass, the audience in rapt reverence of Kapetan's modest prayer.
The audience was whisked once more into an experience I can only describe as “a stretchy galactic sound” (which is all I wrote in my notebook), with songs such as “Statues,” “Cardinal” and “Where We’ve Been” which rang with a hollow nostalgia as each pang from the lonesome keyboard seemed to swallow me whole. The oceanic, fluid quality of Friko’s tide pulled the crowd back and forth like the moon. As they oscillated from genre to genre, toying with emotional highs and lows, Friko explored a full spectrum of human emotions in their hour-long set.
Much like the mantra of Friko’s latest album, Where We’ve been, Where We Go From Here, I’ve been drawn into the band's gravitational pull and will certainly follow where they go from here. With my ears still ringing from the show, I fished my wired earbuds out of my pocket and immediately pulled up Friko’s discography, not wanting my experience with the band to evaporate. Any band that inspires me to listen to only their music all the way home is a concert worth seeing in my books, and in this case both Starcleaner Reunion and Friko left me utterly entranced.
Golden Tickets, Poutine and a Gift Card to Chilli’s: Welcome to a BBno$ Show!
If you didn’t already know, this Vancouver-based artist’s self-titled world tour made its last Canadian stop this past Saturday. “It’s Pronounced BABY NO MONEY” is a play on the internet’s constant mispronunciation of his stage name. I, too, am guilty of such violations. It wasn’t until OSHEAGA 2023—seeing him live for the first time—that I realized how wrong I’d been to insist on calling him BB-NOS.
Experiencing the concert as both a fan and from a more critical angle was exciting. I have to be honest—it wasn’t the most polished, industry-professional show I’ve been to, but it also wasn’t as chaotic as I expected. The best way to describe it is that I walked in as an outsider but left feeling like part of the BBno$ family. The show felt surprisingly intimate—so much so that I forgot we were in MTELUS. While it’s not as massive as the Bell Centre, it’s still a large venue. Let me explain.
The show began with DJ Dan, the hype man introducing each act and dropping some mad ad-libs throughout the night. Opening for that night was Jungle Bobby, a fellow BC-based electronic hip-hop artist. His style isn’t what I typically seek out, but that didn’t matter. Despite his outlandish fit and psychedelic vibe, he was one of the best openers I’ve ever seen. He brought the energy, got the crowd moving, and had us raising our hands in the air, forming hearts and peace signs as we chanted:
“This is not a CULT; This is not a CULT—
This is a FAMILY; This is a FAMILY!”
If this was a reference to his art, it flew over my head, but I participated nonetheless. He ended his set with his newest release, Just a Feeling—a perfect closer after his uplifting message about spreading love and peace in these tense times. He truly made the audience feel something other than the excitement of seeing one of your favourite artists live, it evoked something deeper than just a feeling.
When BBno$ finally graced the stage, an intro video played. With MTELUS’ brand-new video wall—launched less than a month ago on February 20th—the visuals made the show even more interactive, letting us experience his artistry beyond just the music. The intro was a chaotic, hilarious compilation: clips of people mispronouncing his stage name, bizarre internet moments, and colorful imagery of himself. You had to be there—describing it wouldn’t do his humor justice (and might be a little inappropriate for this platform).
He came out rocking a snazzy Canadian tuxedo, opening with It Boy, performing both old and new songs. Between each track, he’d pause to chat before making a smooth transition into the next. Even though the music would stop, the screen would fade to black, and the stage lights would come on, it never felt choppy—it felt like a listening party, something similar to CJLO’s own.
At one point, he pulled a fan onstage to play the role of Yung Gravy for C’est La Vie, Goodness Gracious, Whip a Tesla, and Welcome to Chili’s. Afterward, he sent Jenna (the lucky fan) back into the crowd $25 richer—in the form of a Chili’s gift card.
The show never had a dull moment. There were Willy Wonka themed QR code contests encouraging people to buy merch for a chance to win a golden ticket (entry to a future concert), a random signed cookbook giveaway (something he does at every show), and even a one-on-one poutine-eating contest hosted by his friends to entertain us during his ‘pee break.’
But my favorite moment? It wasn’t the nostalgic throwbacks to his older music or even the lighthearted Canadian vs. American banter. It was his performance of Meant to Be.
A slower, more emotional track, Meant to Be is a departure from his usual rap-heavy, upbeat style. While BBno$ may not have the strongest singing voice in the industry, his delivery felt raw and personal. He seemed to momentarily disconnect from the crowd, getting lost in his own world. Behind him, the MTELUS screen illustrated the song’s story in the aesthetic of Diary of a Wimpy Kid—a clever and unexpected touch.
I hope there’s no record of me saying this in previous reviews, but honestly? This was one of the best concerts I’ve been to. Despite not knowing a single person in that room, I couldn’t have felt further from alone.
Feeling FOMO? Don’t worry—BBno$ is coming back to Montreal! More importantly, he’s returning to OSHEAGA 2025 on Saturday, Day 2 of the hottest music festival in the city. Don’t miss out—I know I won’t!
Tesla dealership vandalized in CDN-NDG
Activists spray painted a Tesla dealership in Côte-des-Neiges NDG the morning of Wednesday March 19, spraying the facade and doors of the building with pink paint to protest Elon Musk’s involvement in climate deregulation in the USA, and demand Canada establish stronger climate protections.
Two people, Valérie Lachapelle and Marcel Paré, both 21 years old, were arrested for the act of vandalism and are expected to appear in court in May with conditions. They represent the group Last Generation Canada, a network of climate activists mostly aged between 18 and 21 who aim to bring attention to their cause through illegal means.
CJLO interviewed Paré to understand why he vandalized the plant and press the reasoning for his tactics.
Discordia 07: The 2023 CREW Union Campaign
As of March 10th, 2025, Concordia Research and Education Workers Union (CREW Union)m have announced that their membership will be on strike on March 12th in pursuit of their first collective agreement with the university. This episode an exploration of the union's origins and it's ongoing fight for better working conditions for teaching and research assistants at Concordia.
This project is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.
Art by James Fay
Milk & Bone, a thirst for coconut water, and a climate warrior pop star at the SAT
Montreal’s Milk & Bone, an electro-pop duo integral to the local music scene, celebrated the 10 year anniversary of their debut album Little Mourning at the Société des Arts Technologiques (SAT).
To open the show Lia Kuri brought us to a scientific conference on environmentalism, climate change, and humanity. Dressed in an oversized blazer over a tiny crop top and sitting at a desk with piles of books and notepads, Lia addressed the crowd regarding our shared issues of overconsumption and mistreatment through a language of ethereal left-field pop music. Kuri’s debut album Motherland released last fall functions as a letter of love and regret for our Earth and the humanity that lives on it. With environmentalism and grief as leading themes, the album is surprisingly upbeat, though I would not go so far as to say that it's a happy album. The poetic lyricism, sultry vocals, and grandeur of the electronic music inspire a sense of hope and wonder bordering on desperation; Kuri’s work is asking, begging us, to take a breath and realign with our values, how do we want to live on this Earth together? And what do we need to do to get there? I was thoroughly impressed by her performance, every move seemed planned and practiced with her climbing over rolly office chairs and the beat-matched PowerPoint showing climate-related graphs and maps, memes about recycling, and photos of nature. She asked us to think about destruction and natural regeneration, wondering what the world would be like after humans are gone, and how she hopes that won’t happen. I find her art and her performance so courageous in a culture that feels like it’s avoiding the large and increasingly hot elephant in the room, especially when the audience is loudly chatty during her set. I really appreciate when artists imbue their politics and values in their work, and I’ve struggled with the lack of vocal climate consciousness in music. I hope that Kuri’s music will inspire more to address the existential threats we collectively face.
Milk & Bone’s show was both a celebration of 10 years of working together and a retrospective of their debut album Little Mourning. The dark and dreamy synths and textured electronic music followed Lia Kuri’s opening set beautifully, but I found Milk & Bone’s energy to be less captivating after being enraptured by Kuri’s PowerPoint performance. The duo was very cute and happy to be on stage together, giggling after telling the audience they hadn't performed some of these songs in 8 years. I was impressed by how well they mixed their voices together and navigated the layers of synths and beats and autotune, but I couldn’t get drawn in by them standing behind a folding table with an array of electronic musical appendages. About 15 minutes into their show I started to get incredibly overheated. The audience was very crowded, with the low ceiling of the SAT and complete lack of air circulation, I got frustratingly hot and thirsty during the song ‘Coconut Water’. It took me a ridiculous amount of time to push through the audience from the front of the crowd to the bar in the back of the room. Further into their set the two came in front of their table and danced together, and I was grateful to have found space to breathe and dance. At the end of Milk & Bone’s set, they gave a little speech about their 10-year journey as a band but I struggled to hear any of it because the neighbouring Cafe SAT venue had a very loud and bassy DJ that even through the concrete walls was overpowering the low-quality speakers at the SAT. I would love to see Milk & Bone at a larger venue that can comfortably accommodate the large crowds that inevitably show up to their shows and has an architecture that can accentuate the complex depth of their music.
Jasper Cobb is the host of The Castle, on air every Friday 1-2pm
Underdressed at the MTELUS Symphony
Last Saturday night, Faye Webster ignited Montreal at the jam-packed venue that is Mtelus. The crowd was filled with 20-something indie kids dressed to impress in Pinterest-worthy outfits, ready for Webster’s return to Montreal. Attending the show with my 16-year-old sister, we were especially excited as March 1st marked the one year anniversary of Underdressed at The Symphony. Many fans knew this and the signage represented that. Other fans were dressed similarly to Webster in the album’s cover with blue form-fitting tuxedos. Prior to the show, members of the crowd filled the bustling street of Saint-Catherine chanting her songs and oozing excitement.
I had the great opportunity to see Faye Webster in 2022 for her tour for I Know I’m Funny Haha. However, this show demonstrated Webster’s commitment to her album concept with the illustrations for each song. The album’s concept uses clothing and lack thereof as imagery to describe the vulnerability of making music. Being underdressed at the symphony can be interpreted as Webster revealing too much emotionally in her artistry. To emphasize this theme during the performance, the stage was set up with washing machine visuals and blue-coloured laundry as seen on the album and singles cover. Every song had its own set of lights & corresponding visuals. Faye Webster and her band were introduced by a minion emulating Webster and a group of minions singing along to “But Not Kiss” replacing the words with the word spaghetti. This greatly amused and sounds of laughter echoed through the Montreal venue. She began the concert with her single “But Not Kiss” blending the instrumental with coruscating flashing lights. Her single “Lego Ring” was introduced with the same video game intro used in the music video. Webster added things to the show that true listeners like myself would notice and enjoy.
However, in my opinion, an artist’s band can make or break a live performance. Webster's band electrified the night. The group offered various instrument solos such as a drum solo, violin solo & bass solo. The crowd was enamoured by the group that the cheers for the band’s musicians were almost equal to those for Webster.
Pitchfork Readers Rejoice: Benjamin Booker and Kenny Segal Live in Montreal
Living in Montreal as a second-year university student, I am only exposed to very specific demographics: students, aged 19-24, almost all broke and opinionated. These are the people that make up my circles, and the circles of my friends and their friends, the only demographics I really have any reason to interact with. That’s why, when walking into Bar L’Escogriffe last Saturday, I felt transported into another world, a world far removed from my own. Filling the St. Denis nook were millennials from bar to wall, all toting Doc Martens and second-hand Carhartt vests. The smell of beard oil and sandalwood filled every corner of the room, broken up only by hints of IPAs and old leather. These are the Pitchfork warriors, leftover harbingers of the Blog Era, and they populated L’Esco last Saturday for two reasons and two reasons only: Benjamin Booker and Kenny Segal.
Though Booker and Segal both tote the same knitted toque-wearing audience, their similarities stop there. Sonically, Segal and Booker hail from wildly diverse soundscapes; Booker is a new-age rockstar through and through, citing T. Rex and Blind Willie Nelson as the biggest influences to his bluesy garage rock sound. Segal resides on the other end of the musical spectrum, known in hip-hop circles for his jazz-fueled instrumentals over which emcees like billy woods and E.L.U.C.I.D. have made names for themselves. While it is one of my all-time favourite things when musicians with wildly different sounds meld together to create one coherent piece, I couldn't help but feel a little worried about this collaboration. Not that either of these artists wouldn't work well together, or that they’re untalented in any way whatsoever, I just have a hard time getting behind the whole rap-rock idea. The subgenre historically dances a very fine line between corny and cool, and leans to the former in 9/10 cases. Thankfully, after only the first song, it's blatantly obvious that calling Booker and Segals collaboration rap-rock would be a glaring misread of the entire sonic situation. Segal’s jazzy, boom-bap-esque beats nestle perfectly below Booker's aching, shoegazy guitar, fashioning a sound so distinct that to align it with any pre-existing genre should be considered a crime. The sound pulsing from Segals kicks is eerily familiar, like a dark home during a summer night, and it fills any room it comes near, pulling Booker’s dreary, atmospheric songwriting with it like some sort of moody, RnB-powered black hole. Moments of the duo's music feel entirely untouchable by outside forces, hidden behind a sample-infused veil, while others open up manically, practically begging to be heard and sung and danced to.
This disjointed sound translates beautifully to the stage. After a 30-minute opening consisting of Segal mixing a handful of his iconic beats for us live, Booker joined him on stage for an hour-long cathartic release. It’s a marvel of modern music to see Segal and Booker perform together, the live dissonance between each artist's respective background meshing beautifully into a boom-bap / proto-rock hybrid. While Segal mans a table of hardware like some sort of hipster mad scientist, shifting sporadically from drum loops to sample pads, Booker stands tall and calm, like a shining beacon of garage punk greatness. The sound that radiates from Booker as he plays feels like a guitar dancing in an empty room, the perfect “close your eyes and let it take you” music. Dreary seems like the wrong word to describe it, as it has more life than that word allows, but an undeniable ache is present in every note of the music. In moments I even felt compelled to grab onto the bar behind me, so as to not get swept away by Booker's guitar into some melancholic oblivion.
I find I always have something to say about a specific part of a performance, a certain song or moment that stood out to me. However, I think to limit the idea of this concert to one single moment, to describe a 3-minute clip in relation to the entire hour, would be frankly dismissive. The music, much like Booker and Segal, operates as a whole, working not as one thing or another but as a mass of drifting, reverb-soaked sonic beauty, pulling listeners effortlessly from whatever dimly lit bar they once inhabited into a shoegaze void of Booker and Segal’s creation.
You can listen to Benjamin Booker’s album Lower here, and Kenny Segal’s newest collaboration with K-The-I??? here.
Sam Kitch is the magazine editor for CJLO. He is also the host of I Think You Might Like This, a concept-heavy hip-hop showcase on air every Tuesday at 2 pm
That Jonathan Feeling: Jonathan Richman Jives at La Sala Rossa
Inside the crowded, cozy room of La Sala Rossa, Jonathan Richman and Tommy Larkins played to a crowd as eclectic as the cobbled-together, endearingly DIY-ed decor of the venue. It was as though the wind had blown Bar Star Bar’s Lord of the Rings trivia attendees from right next door straight into the mezzanine; their polite concert etiquette far outdid any of the other shows I’ve been to recently. As I stumbled inside from the dreary and drizzly evening with my dad, filled with dumplings from Harbin Dumpling next door, I was met with a crowd filled with other apparent father-daughter duos and lifelong Richman-heads who'd probably seen him no less than 8-times, minimum. It was as if there was a quota at the door, a requirement in fine print on the ticket, and I only nearly scraped through on the press list.
As the old-head crowd was milling about, Jonathan took to the stage with a rendition of an instrumental classic from his Modern Lovers days, “Egyptian Reggae,” lulling the crowd into their designated floor spots and kicking off the evening in a rather spaced-out fashion. Introducing tour mate, Tommy Larkins, on the drums – who was dressed in bedazzled Elton John-esque sunglasses and baby blue Sergeant Pepper-style army jacket, the spitting image of a cartoon rockstar drummer in his 70s – the set kicked off with a bang, literally. The New England-born artist serenaded the 514 crowd in French with an accent so shockingly fluent it could placate even the most hardcore Quebec separatist. Switching seamlessly from French to English to Italian sung through the thickest Boston twang, there seemed to be no stone the 70-something-year-old Richman left unturned.
Richman’s stage presence only improved as he warmed to the crowd, taking breaks from singing into the mic to shake his hips, jive and groove with the crowd, showing off his guitar swinging manoeuvre and two-step on more than one occasion. Channeling the energy of that old man you might encounter on the 55 bus at 11 am on a Tuesday, who is singing to himself and in his own world, bothering no one except those without joy and whimsy in their hearts.
The show really took flight when he played his hit song, and one of my personal favourites, “I was Dancing in a Lesbian Bar” from his debut solo album, I, Jonathan, which elicited shrieks of joy and instantaneous hip sways of excitement from crowd members, both young and old. In a beautiful moment which united both the off-duty Irish Studies Professors and the 20-something diehards (who likely grew up listening to his music on road trips, as did I) in attendance, Jonathan playfully switched the lyrics of his iconic song to incorporate lyrics from Chappell Roan’s hit “Pink Pony Club” as he played a three chorus encore, whipping out a cowbell which he gleefully banged along to the tune.
Playing classics like, “You Can’t Talk to the Dude,” “That Summer Feeling” and “Pablo Picasso” from both his solo career and from Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, Richman played with the joie de vivre and unironic dad-jokes only found in a 70-year-old rockstar. Over his decades-long career, Richman has tapped into an unparalleled niche carved for himself, somewhere between SNL musical skit and childhood sleep-away camp songs, which have the ability to bond the masses – exactly what is needed in such a turbulent time as now. Jonathan’s palpable charm endeared him to the eager audience of lifelong fans and casual listeners alike, leaving me with a new sense of childlike wonder, joy and unabashed glee.
As quickly as it had begun, the set was over in just over an hour, which for a tour put on by a 73-year-old guy, I can’t exactly complain about. As my dad and I left his eighth and my first Jonathan Richman live concert experience respectively, I can safely say I’m fully indoctrinated into the cult of Richman. I look forward to catching him the next time he’s in town if he makes it out again!
SXSW Preview: World Music at the fest
CJLO World Music Director, Kelly, is back on the air for SXSW 2025 pre-festival coverage! Listen in for OneDa, O'summer vacation, Sly5thAve, Ki!, Quebec Sun, El Sonido Live!, and cumbia cumbia cumbia!
Originally aired: March 8, 2025
Inhaler ignites Mtelus with a high-energy performance on their Open Wide World tour
In the dead of winter, at a bone-chilling -20 degrees on Sunday night, an army of dedicated fans defied the cold to pack Mtelus, awaiting the performance of Dublin's very own Inhaler for their second headline show in Montreal promoting their third studio album Open Wide. Wrapped in layers upon layers, the fans' unwavering passion transformed the harsh weather into a palpable, electrifying celebration of live music.
The crowd erupted, immediately matching the band’s intensity, shouting back every word as the quartet took over gripping their instruments like they had something to prove. There was no slow build—it was full throttle from the start.
The band opened with “My Honest Face”, immediately drawing the audience in with energetic riffs and a confident vocal delivery that set the tone for the night. The transition into Eddie in the Darkness was seamless, with every instrument locking into a tight rhythm that amplified the raw intensity on stage.
"Where the f*ck did all this energy come from?!" Inhaler's frontman, Elijah Hewson, asks the crowd within the first half of their set. The back-and-forth between the band and the audience makes their live shows feel more like a shared experience than a one-sided performance. The crowd was locked in from the start, singing every word and matching the vibrant energy, which only seemed to push them further.
The band fed off that energy, delivering a performance that felt raw but controlled, tight but never rigid. The atmosphere shifted effortlessly between high-energy moments, like the pulsing “When It Breaks”, and more introspective tracks like “A Question of You”, where the room seemed to breathe with the band.
As the night moved into “Little Things” there was a noticeable shift—moments of intimacy emerged, giving the crowd a brief respite before the energy ramped up again with “Totally” and “The Charms”. The band’s performance during “Who’s Your Money On? (Plastic House)” — supported by a captivating bass, thanks to Bobby Skeetz — and X-Ray was particularly impressive; the intricate guitar work by guitarist Josh Jenkinson and pulsing drum beats effortlessly sounded by Ryan McMahon created an almost hypnotic effect that had the audience completely captivated.
A brief, soulful interlude in “My King Will Be Kind” showcased a softer side, allowing the band to connect on a deeper level before launching into the crowd favourite “Dublin in Ecstasy”. The crowd knew what was coming from the first few notes, their cheers swelling before the song even kicked in. The track’s euphoric build and release felt tailor-made for a live show, and the sheer volume of voices singing along proved just how much the band’s older material still resonates with their fans.
That carried over into “Love Will Get You There”, a song that felt lighter on its feet but no less impactful, its melody rippling through the venue like a wave. The later part of the set, featuring “Billy (Yeah Yeah Yeah)” and “Just to Keep You Satisfied”, was a masterclass in building momentum, culminating in the uplifting energy of “Cheer Up Baby” as the main set came to a close.
The encore supported the high level of performance with “Open Wide” sparking immediate excitement, followed by the reflective “It Won’t Always Be Like This,” which added an emotional depth to the night. The final number, “Your House,” served as a perfect farewell, leaving fans with a lasting impression of a night filled with both precision and heart.
The band's chemistry was evident throughout the performance. In addition to showcasing their musical range, their smooth transitions between bursts of intensity and slower, more contemplative periods produced an exciting and intimate shared experience. Every note and lyric was delivered with a sense of purpose, making it clear that Inhaler is a band worthy of taking over your Sunday night.
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