The columns of the temple vibrated Thursday evening at Place des Arts on the occasion of the visit of the French group Louise Attaque, who was back in Montreal for the first time since 2016, where Gaëtan Roussel and his accomplices had come there again in the framework of the Francofolies.
This time, they crossed the Atlantic to present their most recent creative impulse – the album Planète Terre was released last November -, but it was also to stretch the celebrations surrounding the 25 years of their first homonymous album released in 1997 , which is to date the most popular album by a French group, with nearly three million copies sold.
Quite honestly, we doubted at the start the configuration of the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, watching everyone seated quietly on the floor of the largest amphitheater at Place des Arts. Because Louise Attaque is first and foremost the memory of frenzied dance floors where everyone was shouting at the top of their voices now unforgettable lyrics.
Doubt evaporated with the first love chords; even before Gaëtan Roussel took the microphone, the crowd was already on its feet, on the balcony as well as on the floor. “We’ve been coming here for 25 years, and despite being 5000 miles from home, you make us feel like home!” “Launched the singer and guitarist before announcing that the group was going to play its first album in full or almost – only The brunette and Your eyes are mocked. The already conquered crowd did not ask for so much. Near us, two young women – youth being of course in the eye of the beholder – sing at the top of their voices while giving each other knowing glances, we bet they did the same thing 20 years ago in a club on rue Saint-Denis.
In the first part, a quartet made up of young Quebec musicians from the group Allô Fantôme, i.e. half of the usual workforce, had the heavy task of warming up the stage with their baroque pop, a colossal challenge difficult to meet considering the energy that was going to be deployed by their French elders.
On stage, the band’s music has not aged a bit, Gaëtan Roussel’s voice is as characteristic and as powerful as it was 25 years ago – yet he could have taken it easy and left the work to the crowd , so much we sang in the stands. It was particularly touching on Léa.
The second part of the show started with the addition of two masked musicians for the duration of a song, the title track of the new album Planète Terre. The electric guitar and the keyboard added muscle to the new offerings of Louise Attaque, well received by an audience that followed with pleasure, especially on the danceable La frousse.
The most intense moments of the show came a little later, with songs from À plus tard crocodile, the group’s third album released in 2005. was hard-hitting, while If it was yesterday turned out to be the most rock, Roussel swapping his inseparable acoustic guitar for a six-string electric. The only track taken from As we said, Tu dis rien concluded the show in force with a reinterpretation tinged with techno accents which fell on the crowd like a real electric shock.
The encore, quite short in terms of titles, was however a marvelous example of generosity, the group again playing Je t’emmène au vent, but this time in an ambulatory format, bypassing the entire floor of Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier.
Everyone left the room smiling, with songs in their heads.
