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 The weekend of celebration took a turn for the worse as nine people died in a span of forty-eight hours in Quebec's highways.

A Surete du Quebec spokesperson says many of the crashes may have been caused by drunk drivers.

A twenty-three-year-old man died on Friday after a head-on crash in Trois Rivieres. On the same night, a speeding accident in St. Pamphile killed an eighteen-year-old driver. An accident involving a motorcyle and a separate crash between a scooter and a taxi also took place that night.

Saturday night saw four deaths in three different accidents. The worst took place in St. Edmond de Grantham, where a pickup truck crashed into a parked car off the highway, killing three of its four passengers. The two other accidents that evening, in St. Pie and Lachute, involved head-on collisions.

All the accidents are being investigated.

On June 16th, for the FrancoFolies de Montreal, I went to Metropolis to see Akhenaton and Faf Larage with Quebec rapper Anodajay opening. The show started at 21h, but by 20h30 the place was packed; this was going to be a good night.

21h00: lights go down, sound goes up and Anodajay comes on stage; his fresh beats and hip lyrical style coupled with his deep love for his homeland of Abitibi was a very refreshing combination. He performed songs from his newest album, ET7ERA, and had guest appearances from Samian, Koriass and Dramatik who are on the same record label, 7ieme Ciel, as well as Raoul Duguay with whom he performed his song "La Beat a Ti-Bi."

21h50: Anodajay thanked everybody with his famous 7 (reffering to his birthday 7th of July 1977) and exits the stage. Pressure built as the stage got set and the DJs came out preceding Akhenaton and Faf Larage. The crowd was getting really restless.

22h00: Akhenaton and Faf Larage came out and the crowd went wild. The dynamic duo started off by performing songs from their brand new EP, We Luv New York. The heavy beats started going and the two rappers were playing with an overexcited crowd. Their set list started with "On Revait de New York" and then "Euh...". The show had finally started and everybody was enjoying it and singing along as the beats kept dropping one after the other, each heavier than the last; the two artists gave a great show, talking with the crowd and getting the DJs involved. Halfway through the show, the duo started mixing up their repertoires, taking older songs from both artists such as "Le Faineant" by Faf Larage and some of IAM's (Akhenaton's original group) greatest hits, which really made the crowd go wild. During intermission, the DJs stayed on stage and kept the crowd on their toes while the artists got changed. When the beat for "Bouge la Tete" dropped, everybody started singing the lyrics. The artists came back on stage and finished the song with the help of the entire crowd; it was a great communion during an amazing concert with two talented artists. They performed one last song from their album before bidding everyone goodbye and exiting the stage. Akhenaton and Faf Larage made them wait, but after about five minutes they finally succumbed to the crowds cheers and came back to perform what was probably the best song of the night: "Petit Frere." At this point only half of the crowd was still in the concert hall and everyone was crammed against the stage to get the last few glimpses of their artists. For this last song only Akhenaton sang with the crowd backing him; he was happy and so were we. He thanked everybody once more and announced that he will come back on October 1st, 2011 with a new show and the rappers from IAM. Some minutes later the two artists stepped off stage to sign autographs even though only a handful of people were still in the room.

-Jordan Thibault hosts Greedy Graffiti on Thursdays from 1-2pm

Suoni Per Il Popolo, Montreal’s premier celebration of musical strangeness and the avant garde, brought (as always) a consortium of great acts to the stages of La Sala Rossa and Casa del Popolo this year. One of the premier events was the Constellation Records show headlined by your favourite experimental saxophonist and mine, Montreal adopted-son Colin Stetson. Stetson’s second album, New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges, has been one of my favourite releases this year. When one of my fellow CJLO DJs had to pass on the opportunity to review his performance, I immediately sent an all-caps email requesting it.

The show was completely sold out, and the room was almost completely filled even before the first act, Montreal’s Hangedup. Those in attendance were quite diverse, ranging from bespectacled fifty-something couples, to dusty hipsters, to Concordia jazz students. Stetson’s unique approach seems to evoke strong feelings of one sort or another from everybody – ranging from rabid fanboyism (like yours truly) to inducing angry, incomprehensible muttering. More on that later, though.

Hangedup is an experimental post-rock duo composed of Genevieve Heistek on viola and Eric Craven on drums/percussion. It was a pleasure to watch Heistek slowly build her loops, routed to amps strewn across the stage, while Craven held everything together with a solid rhythmic structure (even got heads bobbing a few times). Homemade percussion devices filled out the sonics. Their set lasted just over half an hour, the perfect amount of time by my calculations. It’s easy to overdo this kind of music, and I was glad they did not.

Then Colin Stetson took the stage. He performs completely alone, accompanied only by three saxophones (alto, tenor, and baritone). Make no mistake, this is no limitation. Microphones inside the instruments and taped to his throat create entire new dimensions of sound that are grotesquely beautiful. I came to the show knowing that his recordings are single takes, but what that meant was lost on me until I saw him do it live. Stetson is clearly in excellent physical shape, a complete necessity to perform his music. Throughout his fifty-plus minute set, he had to engage in combat with his instruments, wrenching out sounds that they are simply not designed to make. It was a spectacle to see him rock back and forth, dominating the four-foot brass behemoth that is a baritone sax with his inventive technique and mastery of circular breathing.

And I am not alone in thinking this. People talk over concerts in Montreal, it’s simply part of our culture. But not this show. From the first note to the last of every piece, the entire audience (packed house, remember) stood at silent attention, erupting as soon as he took his mouth away from the reed. The appreciation was mutual, as Stetson proclaimed at one point that he had “a total boner for this town right now.” He pointed out that he had chosen a particularly difficult set for his adoptive home town, and we all felt the effort he put in to make the show special.

If you haven’t heard Stetson’s records, check them out, but if you ever get the chance to see him live, DO NOT MISS IT. Even if you don’t care for the music, it is unlike any other live music experience.

-Lachlan F

Thousands came out to celebrate the Fete national in Quebec City Thursday night. However, new rules kept some party goers away. For the first time, people could not bring their own alcohol to the party site.

Heightened security checked searched every bag that entered the Plains of Abraham. Every member of Quebec City’s police force was on duty.

The city says the new rules are intended to make Saint Jean celebrations safer. Last year there were two stabbings and about a hundred arrests. They want the party to become a family event, like the Carnaval de Quebec.