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Pop Montreal & Partners in Health Haiti Benefit Concert – Club Lambi – January 17th, 2010

January 18, 2010 in Show Reviews

Last night, Club Lambi hosted Pop Montreal’s benefit show for Haiti, with all proceeds going to Partners in Health. Partners in Health is a United-States based organization that supply health services to Haitians for over twenty years ago. Not only do they focus on the citizen’s health issues, they try as much as possible to create a safer, healthier living environment to improve their overall quality of life. This night at Lambi embodied everything that PIH stands for.

There was quite a variety of musical styles at this show, with acts ranging from spoken word to hip-hop to indie rock. To start things off the beautiful Katie Moore backed up Hanako Hoshimi-Caines, who danced to one of her songs. The dance was contemporary, with the girls using each other almost like props, rolling off and picking each other up. Stars front-woman Amy Millan slowed things down a bit with her brand of country inspired acoustic folk, singing softly as drums backed her up. The highlight of her set was a very pleasing duet with Arielle Ingle.

Dom Lebeau brought a message of hope to the discouraged Haitians as he read his poem, “Je Marche”. As he was reading there were tears in eyes, however he had a growing smile on his face. Although he was very emotional, he was able to look past it all and see the light. Doody Le Tigre brought the funk to the house, and got the crowd dancing and grooving as soon as he began his Bob Marley-inspired songs. As soon as Doody cried out, “On va vous faire chanter! On va vous faire chanter en Creole!”, the entire crowd was singing along. The energy was high as Doody Le Tigre left the stage, and Tony Ezzy’s appearance only fueled them even further. ‘Tony E’ walked on stage with confidence, as he strutted his stuff in a full brown suit, complemented perfectly with a hole in his fly and a nice thick moustache. “Who’s gonna teach the hybrid babies?” he asked the crowd, who all burst out in laughter. With him he had a gym bag full of keyboards and pedals, which he used to create his one-man band, full of crazy weird looping, echoes and noises. After a couple minutes, he informed the audience that he was actually just messing around, and he actually didn’t have anything prepared. He managed to pull off one hell of a improvised show! Definitely the most original and entertaining performance of the night.

Montreal’s own Plants and Animals took the stage next, busting out songs from both their Polaris Music Prize and Juno nominated debut album, Parc Avenue and a few new songs from their forthcoming album. Their performance was a thrill to watch, with bassist and backup singer Nicolas Basque dancing back and forth on the stage a la Angus Young and lead singer and guitarist Warren Spicer sweating like a madman all over the stage.

Montreal’s Shapes and Sizes had a tough act to follow, and their music definitely didn’t pack as much punch as Plants and Animals. A song or two into their set, the crowd began to die out and it was beginning to feel as if the night was dying down. Random Recipe, however, made sure to keep the night going, bringing a little hip-hop beat to Club Lambi. Two women led the four-piece with incredible talent, ranging in vocal styles from singing to rapping to beat boxing. Random Recipe was simply a thrill to watch.

The show ended with Haiti’s own Vox Sambou, who brought along an incredible backup band. Two gorgeous women sang backup vocals, alongside a full 4-man band with a trumpet and a trombone as an added bonus. Throughout their entire set, they raised awareness about different aspects of the Haiti tragedy, including what is going on in and around the city of Montreal later on this week. Although the band was really happy with the turnout of the event, they made sure that it was clear that this concert, along with all of the other charity events going on in Montreal in the upcoming weeks, will not end the troubles of those affected. He stated that it is up to us to realize that this problem is not only a problem of the people of Haiti, but a global problem that affects us all. By the end of their set, the audience began to understand what it was all really about, and really see how it has affected so many of those around us.

By the end of the show, Pop Montreal had raised over 10,000$ for Partners in Health to support the Haiti earthquake disaster. There were many more Haitians who participated in the concert than I had imagined, and it made the event much more memorable. It was easy to feel their pain, their loss and their suffering through their passion that they put out in their music. The fact that those musicians were actually touched personally by the event made it all that much more personal and closer to the heart. A wonderful thing about this concert was the way that people of different race, culture, views and ideas were united to support those in need. Although there were several acts that did not speak in a language that most of the audience understood, the crowd was still able to connect and fully experience the music and passion attached to them.