Review: Jonathan Painchaud at Loft 455

On Friday evening, Vero and I had planned to go out to Gatineau to see Jonathan Painchaud in concert.  Here’s a little background on Jonathan Painchaud…one morning while driving to work (which I rarely do), I had it on the French radio station and heard this really catchy tune and all I knew about the song was that the chorus said “Pousse, pousse” (push, push).  So I found the radio station’s website and looked back in their song history and sure enough, there was this song by a gent name Jonathan Painchaud.

With this song in my head, the next time I went to HMV, I saw that it was his new album so I decided to buy my first French album.  I had no idea what to expect and I cringed at the fact that this could end up being a dud, but I figured I had nothing to lose.  Popping the album into the car stereo, it starts with good acoustic strumming and a nice electric complementing it.

The album is great.  REALLY great.  I really enjoy it.  It may be the sound I’m hunting for.  A sort of acoustic, electric hybrid.

I then found out that this artist was the singer for a band called Okoumé who are supposedly really popular in the Francophone circles.  I have yet to hear any of their stuff.

Anyhow, Eric tipped me off to the fact that he was going to play in Gatineau soon enough so Vero and I decided to go out into the deep woods of Gatineau (har har) and see what it was all about.

Gatineau was a different world indeed.  I rarely head out that way so we had to get directions to this place called Loft 455.  Turns out that this place is a nightclub.  Strange point #1.  We aren’t talking about a concert hall/nightclub.  We are talking about I can tell there will be cougars out soon enough on a Friday night kind of nightclub.  In fact, after we walked in and headed to the bar, this one girl (who was literally as short as Gimli the dwarf) walked towards me and kind of moved her body in such a way that I didn’t really notice what the heck she was doing but I knew she was in my way so I sidestepped her.  Vero also wondered if the girl was trying to sway me over with her womanly charms.  Either way, the call of beer is stronger than any woman’s movement of the body!  Unfortunately, they only had Labatt products so I nabbed a Blue (or a Bleue in this case).

So we stood there waiting in a crowd of less than 50 people for the band to show up on stage.  It was really strange.  The band did come out and he explained things would go a little differently tonight and he would tell stories about some of the songs.  Pretty cool!  He said he was from “Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine
” which is close to Gaspé from what I could tell.  Before each new song he told a grand story about what it was about. Sometime the stories lasted a good five minutes and he was quite interactive with the crowd.  I felt like I was at a showing of VH1 Storytellers!  I thought it was great.  Jonathan was playing his acoustic guitar and he had an amazing electric guitarist (like…Pete Townsend amazing) and the bassist looked a little goofy.  😉  There were quite a few tunes off the new album and not a whole lot from his other albums which was fine by me as I had no idea what they were.  From what I heard, I enjoyed though so I will have to hunt out some old albums.  Actually, I couldn’t even purchase any old albums at the concert!  I thought that would have been the place!

After 45 minutes of playing they said they would take a short break.  Vero and I retired to the bar and chatted for awhile.  It was around this time that I realized how cheap the beer was in Gatineau…it was $3.50 a bottle!  Bonus!  I also made a trek to the washroom which was hilarious as there were no urinals, there was only this stone wall with water flowing down into a trough.  This guy looked and me and made some comment that I didn’t quite catch but I just mumbled “Oui, oui.” catching his drift.

The band came back out 45 minutes later (what the heck?!  Strange point #2) and then played until midnight (they originally started at 10PM).  They did put on a rocking show in the last set and they didn’t take too much time to tell stories in between songs.  They also threw out a great cover of Blister in the Sun and a Pink Floyd tune (can’t remember the name of it right now…off The Wall) which is always good to hear.  Midnight hit and they bid us adieu.

Overall, the concert was amazingly intimate and rocking at the same time.  I then started wondering if this is considered a ‘typical’ Quebec concert.  Typically any other concert I have ever been to usually consists of an opening band, an intermission and then a couple of hours of rocking.  At the very least, I have never seen a band take a 45 minute break unless we are talking about a cover band at the Heart and Crown who perform three sets during the night.  At one point I thought this is what would have happened but no, they gave us two sets.

So I found that different.  I am wondering if this is common for a Francophone artist who probably tours a lot of regular bars along the coast and sometimes heads into Northern Ontario?  Perhaps this is the life of a folk-rock singer from Quebec.  Either way, it wasn’t a bad thing, just different.

After the concert, Vero and I headed home and we stopped by the Schwarma Palace for a bite to eat before heading home.  Thanks to Eric for pointing out that he was in town and thanks to Vero for picking up the tab to see Mr. Painchaud.  I really enjoyed the concert and I’m glad I went.  I would like to say that my French language ability is operating at 95%.  5% is lost to the random swear words he was using.  😉