Karkwa’s absence over the past 12 years has contributed to his myth. The group unplugged its amps after its album Les chemins de verres (2010) had won the Polaris Prize and at the end of a tour that had taken it far from Quebec. Karkwa left at the height of his glory at the time.
The love rating enjoyed by Louis-Jean Cormier (guitar and vocals), François Lafontaine (multiple keyboards, backing vocals), Martin Lamontagne (bass), Stéphane Bergeron (drums) and Julien Sagot (percussion, guitar) has not diminished , but increased in recent years. The proof: on Thursday, the quintet performed in a packed MTelus. This was only the first of four nights these days and an additional one has even been added in November 2024…
The time that has passed also means that the group we had before our eyes and in our ears is much better than before. Louis-Jean Cormier and François Lafontaine remain the anchors and flights of Karkwa’s songs, but we felt a more “horizontal” energy on stage. Never have these five musicians seemed more in tune with each other, playing their explosive rock with incredible power and precision.
The magic began to happen even before Karkwa entered the scene. A little before 9 p.m., the curtain rose, revealing a disheveled head seated in front of an upright piano. No, it was not François Lafontaine, but Patrick Watson, who came to perform four songs (including a duet with Marie-Pierre Arthur) to remind us that when he started out, he opened for Karkwa. It was beautiful and airy. Exceptional, too: he is not supposed to sing during the next concerts at MTelus.
Karkwa took the stage shortly after and began his show as his album Dans la second begins, by linking Ouverture and Perfecte on the screen. It was already obvious that we were going to witness a great evening: the cohesion of the group was perfect, the flights controlled and the strike force intact. Shortly after, during Pyromane, we were also able to savor the finesse of the sound system (by Mathieu Parisien, the sixth Karkwa), particularly due to the clarity of the choruses sung by François Lafontaine, an indispensable and astonishing vocal ally of Louis-Jean Cormier.
For a good two very compact hours, the quintet took the audience on a journey through its repertoire, drawing from all its records (except Le pensionnat desestablishés), bringing out both Moi-léger and Le coup d’état (brilliant, as an encore), but also Escape the Fate, The Cold Shoulder, and many others. Point blank, pushed by an electronic loop, was breathless. Gravité was ferociously percussive and throughout the concert we felt a freedom and excitement on stage which translated into rich, but well-defined musical flights.
As a solo artist, Louis-Jean Cormier has become a better frontman. Not so much in his interventions, which are still messy, but in his general attitude. And this, even if he does not seek to attract light to himself. On Thursday, on the contrary, he readily blended into the group when he was not singing, physically indicating that he is only one link in this chain made up of five impeccable musicians.
The one who always stands out the most, it must be said, is François Lafontaine. Omnipresent even when he wants to be discreet, he is the poet of Karkwa’s songs. The one who underlines the subtext, the one who brings out the emotion by tapping out a few notes, the one who does the most rock solos, the one who can also propel the pieces into the stratosphere, as was among others the case during The Counter .
Karkwa is 25 years old, Louis-Jean Cormier pointed out on Thursday, before specifying with humor that the group has “done nothing” for half of this quarter century. “We are now the five best friends in the world who are here, on vacation, for the pleasure of playing songs, for the pleasure of making music together,” he added. And the strength of this comeback is this: this group has nothing left to prove. He is at the top of his art, completely free from his youthful influences (Radiohead, obviously) and totally uninhibited.
Yes, Louis-Jean Cormier scrapped the first part of Oublie pas, which should have been touching. Yes, he seemed messy when hesitating in the lyrics of some songs. Yes, after two hours, we said to ourselves that Karkwa could tighten up certain pieces which were stretching out, bordering on complacency. But this return, illuminated by expressive lighting of great beauty, was above all great. So big that we will really regret it if Karkwa then stays silent forever.