Les Deuxluxes

Si certains festivaliers se sont réfugiés à l’Espace lounge Hydro-Québec dans le but d’éviter le déluge, d’autres l’ont affronté pour aller voir la prestation de Les Deuxluxes dans un garage de la 7ème rue. La foule impressionnante ne s’est pas fait prier pour s'agiter sur les rythmes fous du duo montréalais formé par Étienne Barry et Anna Frances Meyer.

En pleine forme, le groupe rock - qui peut faire penser à feu White Stripes - a lancé les pièces de son EP Traitement Deuxluxes EP, un enregistrement qui semble carrément d’un autre temps. À travers On the Road, I’m in Love et Tell Heaven, les artistes ont réussi à confirmer l’évidence: ils rockent vraiment. Et que dire de la voix de Meyer? Exceptionnelle. Un talent à suivre absolument. - Huffington Post Quebec

L’ouverture de cette soirée revenait au couple Anna Frances Meyer-Étienne Barry que je voyais sur scène pour une première fois, après avoir été intrigué par leur EP que l’on peut écouter sur leur Bandcamp. Leur rock’n'roll est foutrement efficace. Déjà, la fougue d’Anna a de quoi hypnotiser par moments, avec cette question: «ça prend combien de temps de pratique arriver à bouger comme ça avec de tels talons?»

Derrière cette énergie aussi sexy que fiévreuse se cache toutefois une belle exécution musicale. Étienne se trouve à être un excellent homme-orchestre, qui réussit à créer des ambiances et des envolées, avec seulement une guitare et ses percussions. J’ai pensé aux Whites Stripes, non pour la virtuosité similaire sur la six cordes (bien qu’il n’a aucune raison de pâlir), mais parce qu’on sent que les deux formations pigent dans des influences similaires, un rock de la vieille école, un brin de western et beaucoup de blues. Ça déménage, ça sent le Jack Daniels et les bars crasseux. D’autant plus qu’Anna Frances Meyer ne sait pas seulement bouger, elle chante avec ses tripes. - voir.ca

All that to lead up to the main point that, far and away, the real show of the evening was not The Balconies, or Say Yes, but the openers for the openers, a local bluesrock/soul power-duo called Les Deuxluxes, consisting of AF Meyer, another badass, high-energy female singer/lead guitar (O’Neville’s cousin, incidentally) and Etienne Barry, a guitarist who, through no fault of his own, ended up being totally unmemorable (post-concert research revealed that he is a remarkably talented multi-instrumentalist.) Les Deuxluxes didn’t yet quite have that cohesion, seasoned confidence, and easy rapport of the Balconies, but Meyer’s talent was indescribable. Literally. It is impossible to convey the enormity of her skill. Standing at the foot of the stage and in that tiny, still-fairly-empty-at-9:30pm bar, listening to this caliber performance was utterly surreal. She belted out upbeat, high-tempo, saucy bluesy songs (in French and English) with awesome power and vocal range, dancing all over the scale in melismas and Willie-Mae-Thornton-esque vocal effects. A nouvelle Elvis, she switched ever-so-cleanly from gravelly-as-anything to crooning crystal clarity in the space of one note. Above all her voice definitely brought to mind Janis Joplin, and Meyer had a similarly captivating stage presence: boundless energy, cheeky smile, and total commitment. And she was shredding on a bright red electric guitar the entire time. The unrelenting dedication to the fun and showmanship, despite the lameness of the crowd, was admirable. Honestly, the juxtaposition of that screaming talent with the cast of catatonic Neanderthals lurking around the stage was almost comical. (Not that a certain audience member that comes to mind was helping the vibe at all, standing dumbly with mouth hanging open and only semi-rousing from the shell-shockedness every few minutes enough to turn to a friend and intone, “What...?”)

Seriously, what? Who is this person and why isn’t she already famous? - examiner.com

When the large crowd of eager faces walked through the doors of the beautiful Cabaret du Mile End on the night of November 22nd, they expected to see talented up-and-coming musicians perform for the last night of the M for Montreal festival. Little did they realize, that stepping through those doors would actually be like stepping into a time machine. The night consisted of four Montreal bands; Les Deuxluxes, Eagle Tears, Caravane, and The Damn Truth, most of which had a retro flare.

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Les Deuxluxes

Les Deuxluxes kicked off the night with a completely breathtaking performance. They’re a bilingual blues-rock band with a 70s look and drumming style, and a psychedelic 60s rock quality. If you were to take Jefferson Airplane and turn them into a two piece-band with vocals even stronger than the already strong voice of Grace Slick, you would get Les Deuxluxes. The vocalist, Anna Frances Meyer was energetic and seemed to never stop moving, making the crowd move right along with her. In mere seconds, they had the entire room enamoured by their unique and powerful classic sounds. Though only two people, they were loud enough to sound like seven. Meyer played the guitar while she sang, and Barry sang and played the guitar, drums, and the tambourine all at the same time. The technique of having the tambourine on the symbols was similar to the Led Zeppelin playing style and is one we don’t see often enough anymore. As their set went on, they began sounding like 50s blues artists, with so much soul emphasized in every note. Meyer showed a massive vocal range, able to go from sultry to powerful in moments. With their song “Turn the Heat Up” came a new drummer and a lot more singing from Barry. Meyer and Barry’s voices went along perfectly together and the set was flawless to the end. - Franca G. Mignacca

The endless parade of cultural opportunities in the Plateau Montreal makes it easy and cheap to buy a ten dollar ticket for whatever random little concert happens to be playing at small St. Laurent bars like Divan Orange and be totally blown away.

On Saturday, Febraury 8, the headlining act was The Balconies, a Montreal-based indie/punk rock band. The audience was fidgety waiting for them to go on, and, with the pair of gormless-looking young dudes with guitars and matching shiny brown haircuts loping aimlessly on and off the stage, it was easy to be nervous they’d be a repeat of the opening act, Say Yes. Although assuredly talented, certain attendees Said No to this last; to unrefined tastes they seemed like an over-grown high school garage band. The crashing, melodramatic metal sound, accented by lackluster vocals from two plaintive-looking male singer/guitarists, was tiresome, but the drumming was amazing. Sure, it was incessant and intense and usually that vibe is no fun outside Foufounes, but it was also remarkably tight and crisp. And paradoxically, pleasantly hypnotic when one found oneself lulled into a nostalgic reverie.

That being said, wariness about more of the same for the main act was merited, so it was delightful when the lights went up and this totally badass rocker chick jumped on stage and led the band into the crashing, head-banging spectacle that would be the set for the night (it actually was fairly similar in genre to Say Yes, but more up-tempo, inspired, and engaged with the audience.) The dissonance and warped electric noise between pieces (and the excess of denim and feathers) lent a note of psychedelia to the rock-metal vibe, and indeed, there was something a little Grace Slick about Jacquie O’Neville’s intense-but-zoned-out, ethereal stage presence. But if Slick preached White Rabbit with an air of valium-serenity, O’Neville (backed by Liam Jaeger and brother Stephen O’Neville on guitar and Theo MckGibbon on drums) was straight-up manic. Jumping, lunging, whipping her hair around, rocking rhythm guitar, and all the while maintaining an insane, wide-eyed stare at the audience (like in School of Rock when Jack Black tells the kid guitar protégé, “Now smile and nod your head and let me see your eyeballs wide like there’s something wrong--yeah!”), she looked both diagnosable and utterly inexhaustible. The lyrics were basically indiscernible (except for a lot of “WHOO HOOO”s), and she screamed every single one of them All in all, it was an impressive, high volume, and high energy spectacle. Certain audience members not accustomed to punk rock volume might have preferred if the aggressive instrumentals were quieter vis-à-vis the vocals—the head-banging pure noise of it all got a little exhausting—but the tunes were actually quite pretty on the rare occasion you could hear them (especially when Stephen and Liam sang harmony).

All that to lead up to the main point that, far and away, the real show of the evening was not The Balconies, or Say Yes, but the openers for the openers, a local bluesrock/soul power-duo called Les Deuxluxes, consisting of AF Meyer, another badass, high-energy female singer/lead guitar (O’Neville’s cousin, incidentally) and Etienne Barry, a guitarist who, through no fault of his own, ended up being totally unmemorable (post-concert research revealed that he is a remarkably talented multi-instrumentalist.) Les Deuxluxes didn’t yet quite have that cohesion, seasoned confidence, and easy rapport of the Balconies, but Meyer’s talent was indescribable. Literally. It is impossible to convey the enormity of her skill. Standing at the foot of the stage and in that tiny, still-fairly-empty-at-9:30pm bar, listening to this caliber performance was utterly surreal. She belted out upbeat, high-tempo, saucy bluesy songs (in French and English) with awesome power and vocal range, dancing all over the scale in melismas and Willie-Mae-Thornton-esque vocal effects. A nouvelle Elvis, she switched ever-so-cleanly from gravelly-as-anything to crooning crystal clarity in the space of one note. Above all her voice definitely brought to mind Janis Joplin, and Meyer had a similarly captivating stage presence: boundless energy, cheeky smile, and total commitment. And she was shredding on a bright red electric guitar the entire time. The unrelenting dedication to the fun and showmanship, despite the lameness of the crowd, was admirable. Honestly, the juxtaposition of that screaming talent with the cast of catatonic Neanderthals lurking around the stage was almost comical. (Not that a certain audience member that comes to mind was helping the vibe at all, standing dumbly with mouth hanging open and only semi-rousing from the shell-shockedness every few minutes enough to turn to a friend and intone, “What...?”)

Seriously, what? Who is this person and why isn’t she already famous? The numbers were fairly obscure and she might get her feet off the ground a bit more by covering some that are slightly better known of the same genre. One audience member expressed the hope Meyer wasn’t marginalized in the industry because she was French-Canadian. Suppressing the initial urge to scoff righteously, it’s a fair point; how many French-language well-known pop/rock stars are out there? Hopefully the reason they’re an opening-opening act is because they’re new. A download of a demo track doesn’t sound too good; the vocals are too soft, the music is too loud and tinny, etc. It seems like they haven’t quite yet translated their technical skill and live energy to the polish of the studio, but talent like that will assuredly speak for itself, and soon. It better. Hang on to your tickets to show your grandkids (even though Les Deuxluxes’ name isn’t even printed on them…) - Laura DeFazio

Festival season is now well underway in Toronto with more opportunities to check out amazing music coming out daily. With that I’d like to take a look back on the fest that started it all this year, Canadian Music Week.

The weather was stunning for CMW this year, reminding us of the great move the masterminds behind the fest made a couple of years ago to move it from a usually frigid March to a far more tolerable weekend in May. This year’s CMW was, for me, just as much about new musical discoveries as it was about celebrating the rise of bands and artists that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and loving for a little while now. Check out my faves from CMW below!

Les Deuxluxes

It was a rainy night in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec when I happened upon les Deuxluxes playing to a small audience out of the back of a truck for Festival de Musique Emergente. It was freezing, the rain was coming down hard but they didn’t let it phase them. On the contrary, les Deuluxes rocked so hard they forever cemented themselves in my conscious, making me a fan for life. I made sure to seek them out at Pop Montreal and I was thrilled to discover they were playing CMW this year in their first Toronto appearance. Their music is irresistible and awe inspiring at the same time: how can only two people make so much glorious noise, and look so fabulous while doing it? Singer/guitarist Anna Frances-Meyer is a goddess, her fierce vocals matched only by her brash and beautiful style. Not to be outdone, drummer/guitarist/singer/jack of all trades Etienne Barry was decked out like a gentleman cowboy, astounding the crowd with his mad skills as a multi-instrumentalist . Bluesy guitar licks meld with soaring gospel inspired vocals in a sultry and soulful combination, singed by the fire of rock and roll. Your hips move, your arms wave and you’re drawn in by the spell cast by les Deuxluxes - NADIA ELKHARADLY