POUZZA FEST – DAY 1
It has finally arrived! Pouzza Fest 2012!
Kicked off the morning with a coffee and picked up our passes. I got this fancy guy:
A quick trip to the deppaneur and we were back at the UQAM Residence to predrink with Dustin and friends. Me and Bailey got a good buzz going and we were getting hungry so naturally we decided to start things off with some pouzza.
We didn’t want to miss out on the bands at Foufs so we went about an hour before doors opened. We were pleasantly surprised by their beer specials; $4 tall cans of PBR and 4 bottles of Molson for $10.
Doors opened at 5pm and everybody funneled into the venue. We met up with a fellow friend from Ottawa, Jeff Seguin and caught the first few bands together. I should point out that The Hunters and Dig It Up are fucking rad. Much better than what I was expecting as opening bands. They will definitely be going on my post-Pouzza playlist.
The Menzingers took the stage after The Blacklist Royals. The Menzingers are one of my favourite bands and this being my first chance to see them in concert, I rushed up to the front of the stage. The first chord was strum and the crowd went nuts! My glasses were knocked off my face and were instantly lost in the sea of legs that surrounded me. Jeff lost his plugs during the same song and another unfortunate concert-goer that was next to me also lost his glasses. But that didn’t stop us from enjoying the music. People were like popcorn rushing up on stage to dive into the crowd, while others moshed and started to crowd surf.
I left near the end of their set to rush over to L’Absynthe to catch Dustin in Stay Home. Their set list was cut short by the sound guy due to the previous band finishing late but they still played a fun set of fast, catchy punk rock. Click their name above to check out their music.
I wanted to get back into Foufs to check out The Flatliners, Bouncing Souls and Hot Water Music but the venue was packed and there was no chance of getting back in. I guess these things happen for a reason. Next up after Stay Home was Pentimento from Buffalo, NY. This 4-piece rock outfit reminds me of Polar Bear Club and Against Me.
Apparently there are some student protests that have been happening over the past few months in Montreal. From what I gather, they’re protesting the rising cost of tuition in the province. It was amazing to step outside of the venue and run into this:
I’ve got some words and photos of the next two bands, The Snips and Junior Battles, but I’ll just let the videos do the talking. Great energy from the crowd. Amazing night.
The Snips. Can somebody please tell me what hit Ricky in the eye? I can’t tell from the video, but it definitely doesn’t look like the mic.
Junior Battles featuring Matt from Dig It Up doing a bit of screaming.
Of course, everybody gets hungry at the end of the night. While me and Bailey ate pizza, this guy decided to munch on something else.
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