There were some light grumblings when Karkwa were announced as headliners for the 2024 edition of the Festival de musique émergente en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (FME). For one, they headlined last year. Also, this year's edition was high on the "E" of FME, meaning the programming skewed strongly toward the emerging and light on the big names. However, as Louis-Jean Cormier and his band of merry men — including François Lafontaine on keys, Martin Lamontagne on bass, Julien Sagot on guitar and percussion and Stéphane Bergeron on drums — took to the main stage just after 10 p.m. on opening night, it was clear that the choice was a judicious, albeit not inspired, one.
Returning in 2023 with their first new album in 13 years, the "Rich, Honest and Relevant" Dans la seconde, Karkwa then launched a massive tour that would take them across Québec and France throughout 2023 and 2024, including a surprise show at the Francos de Montréal and a tumultuous spectacle on the Plaines d'Abraham at the FÉQ that was almost cancelled due to severe weather warnings. It was during this show that Cormier announced that this would be their last show in the capital of Québec. The comeback was always understood to be a temporary one, and this confirmed it. Cormier repeated this assertion last night in Rouyn-Noranda, extolling the virtues of FME, reminiscing on their performance during its first edition, and urging the audience to stay in the moment.
As such, this latest string of dates feels like a victory lap for a band leaning toward legacy status. As noted in Bruno Coulombe's review of Karkwa's last album, it's impossible to overstate the importance of the group in the Québec musical landscape. To date the only francophone winners of the Polaris Music Prize, they've managed to build a discography that's both experimental and accessible and established themselves as one of the province's favourite bands of all time.
Their earlier tour dates focused strongly on material off Dans la seconde, and when the band kicked off their set with "Parfaite à l'écran", the first single off what may now be their final album, one feared that this show would follow suit. Those fears were quickly assuaged with a selection of songs from their Polaris-winning 2011 album Les Chemins de verre, including rousing renditions of "Le Pyromane" and "L'acouphène."
What followed was a tight medley of older and newer material, with a healthy dose of banter with the audience, which felt relatively slight despite the group's legendary status. FME has a reputation for raucous festival-goers, but this first night of the festival seemed somewhat subdued. While there were many in attendance who were vocally excited to see Karkwa play, the energy never managed to build or sustain itself. Cormier is a gregarious performer with a lot of charisma, which he deploys easily, but even that wasn't enough to make their set feel like "their last performance in Rouyn-Noranda."
It must be noted that their set felt rather out of step with the artists that took the stage earlier that evening, including a post-jazz tinged appearance by HAWA B, the groovy and enchanting sounds of Orchestra Gold and the dynamic presence of New York punksters BODEGA. In the context of FME's ubiquitous pop-up and secret shows announced throughout the evening (including Belgian rockers Ada Oda in front of legendary purveyors of poutine Morasse and punk outfit BOUGE PAS in the parking lot of a dry cleaner), which were uniformly strong, and the quality of the programming in the nearby venues, choosing Karkwa as opening night headliners felt like a safe bet that ultimately paid off, but maybe not in spades.