Concert Reviews

The Brooklyn-based indie rock band, Geese, has been the subject of contentious discourse in the last year amongst music critics, chronically online indie-rock-heads, and that one friend you know who can’t help but tell you their new music hot-take. Stop by the CJLO station office and check out our “Geese Discourse Jar” (25 cents per mention) relic as proof. The band took to the Forest stage at the OSHEAGA Music and Arts Festival on Friday, July 31st, to perform for a crowd of both die-hard fans and curious festival-goers passing by the last set of the night to see what all the fuss was about.

On July 30th, 2026, La Sala Rossa was filled with a large audience, varied in ages and styles, all there to see an epic lineup of indie-alternative bands essential to the current moment in Canadian music. Toronto’s PACKS, Montréal’s Ribbon Skirt, and Halifax’s Nap Eyes may never again be all together in a small venue, playing to Montréal’s young music lovers.

Tuesday July 28 was a pretty dark and rainy evening, but that’s not what the crowd at La Sala Rosa noticed during the KT Laine / boyhood / Eliza Niemi performances that night. As the audience grew throughout the night, it felt like a microcosm of the Plateau culture – with a mix of people in their 20s to 30s in classic Montreal styles. Before anyone took to the stage, it already had the intimacy of a university dorm show.

Neon, black and snapbacks colored the crowd around the booth this Friday night for the TECHG1RLS set at Bar le Ritz PDB. With support from whyhaze and beamskii, the Miami-based DJ duo of Paris and Rosey brought high energy, and despite playing to a relatively small crowd they made it an iconic night – bringing a set that felt like the afters you never want to leave.

The rain trickled its steady stream in one of the most classic, heat-breaking Montreal summer storms outside of the Sala Rossa concert hall this Thursday night, where Fireball Kid, Frownline and Knitting took the stage to celebrate Knitting’s release of their latest album, Souvenir. It takes a pretty phenomenal bill to pack the ballroom of the Sala Rossa, but I can say with full certainty that this bill was one of them. Equal parts millennials, sporting shag cuts and tote bags, along with cotton candy-colour-haired Gen Zs with wired earbuds made up the crowd. The commonality was our tepid slightly-dampness which brought our spirits together for the show we were about to see. 

Tuesday evening marked the first North American stop for Black Country, New Road on their 2026 tour – lucky for us, the first show was here in Montreal at MTelus.

To start the show, everyone arrived early to catch Horsegirl – a Chicago indie-rock trio consisting of Nora Cheng, Penelope Lowenstein and Gigi Reece. Their sound felt true to their album name, with a phonetic-like beat marching alongside iterative lyrics. The set was tight and playful, a perfect intro to a lovely evening with Black Country, New Road.

Photo Credit: ZaneBurkoMedia

The city towered beneath the cold weather in the midst of May–an unfortunate but regular occurrence during the Montreal spring. Yet, splatters of an unspoken but mandatory tartan, red and blue painted the streets, brightening the ordinarily bleak sidewalk of rue Sainte-Catherine in preparation for UK singer-songwriter and producer PinkPantheress. Shivering hands gripped onto umbrellas in line, awaiting the OK to be welcomed into the contrasting heat of the Theatre L’Olympia and to rush to secure their barricade spots.