Discovering new music at St Roch XP, one weird venue at a time

For three-and-a-half days, Québec City’s Rue Saint-Joseph E is host to St-Roch XP music and food festival. Closed to vehicle traffic, the street vibrates with life, shops opening their doors for extended hours, food vendors spilling out on the street to feed festival goers.

From end to end, the street houses eleven music spots – spots because not all of them are venues per se. Most of the temporary stages are set up in odd locations: back of a family-owned supermarket, inside the library, under the stairs of an Urban Outfitters shop, inside a decommissioned toy store, at the front of an appliance shop facing the washer/dryer machines … The oddity of these locations in more ways than one makes the festival what it is – a community celebration.

All vendors are permanent Rue Saint-Joseph E neighbours, and nine of the eleven stages are free to attend. Most artists play multiple sets throughout the weekend, offering concertgoers multiple opportunities to see them play. The two paid venues, Grizzly Fuzz and Impérial Bell, donated 50 cents from each ticket to the Effet Rassembleur initiative, created to support local organisations working to break social isolation.

The festivities started on Thursday, with people slowly finding their way around, exploring stages between the two street DJs, DJ Lovely and Social Club, keeping the music going on each end of the street. With shows playing nonstop into the late evening, Thursday’s festival energy was on full display, but in comparison to the weekend, “baby Friday” felt like a warmup to the weekend events.

Left: DJ Social Club. Right: A daily concert schedule outside one of the venues.

Guitar music all around

The carefully curated lineup of performers features up-and-coming artists and some local legends, naturally catering well to bands and live-instrument performances.

One of the early performances in front of the Saint-Roch Catholic Church was Emmett Jerome. Perched at the top of the staircase, this was his first of four performances this weekend. The church parking lot was transformed into mini festival grounds, with colourful flags stretching above picnic tables facing Emmett and his band playing a fine line of country and blues.

The blues notes were picked up by Logan Richard at his first performance of the weekend in a pop-up studio space. Self-described as a folk-indie performer, when seen live, Logan has an upbeat, indie rock energy amplified by a band, jamming live on stage. Meanwhile, outside, Luvleelou kept pinching away at their strings, singing what could easily become teenage therapy music (the playing loud, singing out loud kind of therapy).

Above: Emmett Jerome. Below: Logan Richard and band.

Post-punk band Pastel Blank took things up a notch with three guitars, two drumsets, and a keyboard player. Taking the listeners on a bit of an adventure with some melodic tracks like “Goomba Stomp” and instrumentally heavy “Fences,” Pastel Blank earned some new fans.

MOTHERHOOD took one of the early spots at the top of the street, gathering a thick Thursday night crowd outside the Le Vox Bar (and later inside). Addressing the crowd mostly in English, they asked if people were ready for some garage rock, which the attendees welcomed with energetic fist pumps in the air.

Above: Pastel Blank. Below: MOTHERHOOD.

Le Vox Bar is a vintage arcade bar, dressed up with flowers along the walls, housed another pop-up stage. One of the highlight weekend performances here was Sophie Noel, an indie folk performer from Nova Scotia. Sophie’s beat is a mix of alternative rock inspired by the 90s grunge, a little nostalgic and very easy to vibe with. “I’m hardly ever on Instagram,” they shared, encouraging the attendees to sign up for the newsletter, which promises to be more than tour announcements.

On Thursday night, the Grizzly Fuzz concert venue welcomed LUMIÈRE, the solo project of Étienne Côté, joined on stage by two bandmates. Étienne was set deep at the back of the stage behind the drums, a rare talent combination to see in an indie pop artist.

Above: LUMIÈRE. Below: Sophie Noel.

All about the vocals

Keeping up with the melodic vocals LaViolette (Violette Lapierre), who played at the appliance shop, shared her soulful mix of indie pop with a small crowd, encouraging people to move along with the music. Attendees scattered across the room, leaning on fridges and laundry equipment, added a comedic element to Violette’s charming performance.

Later on the weekend, MILANDREA and Mona B shared their incredible vocals at Ampli de Québec (let’s call it a music school). MILANDREA’s blend of dream pop and Latin rhythms, sung in French and Spanish, was a welcome change. Progressive jazz performer Mona B, who performed earlier at the library, carried through with the soul-gripping vocals, sharing a bit of a preview of her upcoming, more electric album.

LaViolette performing at the appliance shop.

A few shades of hip-hop

Murmurs about Baby Volano’s performance at FME made their way to Québec City. Swiss-Guatemalan artist Baby Volcano (born Lorena Stadelmann) arrived at the Urban Outfitters ready to set the world on fire. Her sharp and witty rhymes, accompanied by emotive dance moves, had the audience gasping and occasionally clutching their (symbolic) pearls. Her musical style reminds us of Die Antwoord, but Lorena is unique all on her own. Baby Volano’s music style is a mix of hip-hop, trap, and electro, heavily lyrical and performative. This set stormed the clothing shop like a tornado, surely resulting in many questions from the children in the room.

Above and below: Baby Volcano and the band.

The two other standout hip-hop performances were Raccoon and Chiwio. Chiwio played an early set at SquatPhoto and a later one at Urban Outfitters, surely leaving the shop staff to refold the t-shirts on the tables once again. Born in Kigali and now based in Québec, Chiwio connects his Rwandan roots to local culture, exploring exile, identity, and inequality. Raccoon, on the other hand, blends his Haitian roots into rap. Joined on the supermarket stage by a DJ and guitarists, Raccoon shared a fun and energetic set with festival goers and grocery shoppers.

Above: Chiwio. Below: Raccoon.

And now we dance

Those looking to dance into the night found a nightly home at Benjotronik. A decommissioned toy store, originally called Benjo (after a frog), still has some of the original furnishings and decor, setting a perfect stage for a DJ booth inside a large toy house.

Thursday night welcomes one half of the Tupi Collective. For nearly two hours, event attendees were treated to upbeat Brazilian rhythms mixed with electronic sounds and a dash of bossa nova. The unusually warm September night was matched by the tropical vibe inside Benjo.

Sin Less opened Benjotronik on Saturday night, and from the moment the doors opened, the venue was packed with dancing concertgoers. Sin Less kicked things off with upbeat deep house and electronic, mixing in danceable vocal tracks, building drops one beat at a time, she had the dancefloor on their feet the entire night.