The night after Alexisonfire stepped up as impromptu headliners, Toronto punks PUP kept the noise levels up at Festival D'Été de Quebec in Quebec City. They shuffled onto the stage as "Let's Get It On" faded off the soundsystem, and delivered a set about as different from Marvin Gaye as it gets.
"My Life Is Over and I Couldn't Be Happier" emerged out of screeches of feedback as the set opener, followed by "Guilt Trip." "Dark Days," "Doubts," "Back Against the Wall," "Mabu" and "Sleep in the Heat" were next, working the crowd into a frenzy by the time frontman Stefan Babcock jumped from the stage and surfed across their hands during "Old Wounds."
In addition to his and his bandmates' non-stop energy, Babcock endeared onlookers by showing off his French skills in between-song banter — even throwing in a "tout fucked up" during set ender "DVP." The song was interrupted near the end, as PUP stopped playing and made sure a fallen fan in the increasingly rowdy crowd was alright, but they managed to squeeze in a sped-up rendition of the rest of the track into their last 40 seconds on stage.
The band bounced back and forth between songs from their self-titled debut and 2016's The Dream Is Over, and while both still hit as hard as ever, fans who have been watching the constantly touring group over the last couple years are definitely jonesing for recently teased new material. We'll still have to wait a bit to hear the new stuff, but at least PUP shows are still an incredibly fun way to kill that wait time.
"My Life Is Over and I Couldn't Be Happier" emerged out of screeches of feedback as the set opener, followed by "Guilt Trip." "Dark Days," "Doubts," "Back Against the Wall," "Mabu" and "Sleep in the Heat" were next, working the crowd into a frenzy by the time frontman Stefan Babcock jumped from the stage and surfed across their hands during "Old Wounds."
In addition to his and his bandmates' non-stop energy, Babcock endeared onlookers by showing off his French skills in between-song banter — even throwing in a "tout fucked up" during set ender "DVP." The song was interrupted near the end, as PUP stopped playing and made sure a fallen fan in the increasingly rowdy crowd was alright, but they managed to squeeze in a sped-up rendition of the rest of the track into their last 40 seconds on stage.
The band bounced back and forth between songs from their self-titled debut and 2016's The Dream Is Over, and while both still hit as hard as ever, fans who have been watching the constantly touring group over the last couple years are definitely jonesing for recently teased new material. We'll still have to wait a bit to hear the new stuff, but at least PUP shows are still an incredibly fun way to kill that wait time.
