Desire x Carpenter Brut x Health

A show with my good buddy Ravi with a lot of synths, bass and sweats.

Before I hit twenty, I was a textbook music snob. I was defined by the Britpop of Blur and Morrissey and the moody textures of alternative rock. While my dad would listen to Genesis and Neil Young, I would listen to Sonic Youth and Smashing Pumpkins. The closest bands to what we listened tonight would have been Depeche Mode and The Cure. I would say it is just a big lack of culture.

Electronic music was not well regarded and neither was metal. I remember one day, we were finishing rehearsal for my band Deckard es un Replicante. We were renting a room in a small neighbooring village at the time. A semi-famous French Metal band called Ultra Vomit was going to play in this village in the evening, and they needed some space to rehearse I guess. And they asked if we were going to the show, and I remember being a bit snoby about it. I think about it from time to time and it does not feel good. I wish I had gone and I had talk to them! I must be better.

But I grew-up (a bit) and expanded my horizon to be, at least, less (a bit) judgemental. Synth-wave or retro-cassette is my guilty pleasure nowadays, and good for us this the theme of the night.

Desire

The night began with Desire, a two-person band serving as the opening act. One of the synth players is also a member of The Chromatics, and they are well-known for having 2 tracks on the Drive soundtrack (Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, oh my!).

Their sound feels like a blend of no-wave and synth-pop; it’s catchy and driven by the synth, but they aren’t afraid to have some dissonance (my Sonic Youth vibes). Their aesthetic is latex, dark leather, and red mist, very much so post-punk. It works well.

Carpenter Brut

Then came Carpenter Brut, and with him, the intensity ramped up. This is the kind of music that would have completely alienated my younger self. I have been waiting to see him return to the West Coast (he’s French, btw) for a long time. I missed him when I was living in Vancouver 6 years ago! It is a fusion of synthwave and metal and he has a great reputation as an entertainer. He did not disapoint.

If you squint, you can see me rushing into the center, seconds before falling on the ground.

He became famous with this tune:

On stage, he’s accompanied by a drummer and a metal guitarist. There are no vocals, which makes the experience special. The sound is extremely heavy, compressed, and lacks the high notes found in his music videos. We dove into the mosh pit (pogo in French), bodies clashing all around and a lot of sweats exchanged. I definitely got trampled at one point, but people picked me up and sent me right back in. There was something cathartic about that chaos.

Carpenter Brut does plenty of collaborations. I particularly love this music video because it’s a tribute to Dominion Tank Police. Back then, when I was less than 10, my favorite uncle was studying design in Paris. He would visit my grandmother during vacations, always bringing back exotic bits of pop culture, including VHS tapes of Dominion Tank Police and Babylon 5 (truly the coolest).

Health

Finally, there was Health. I didn’t even realize they were playing, but they were clearly the headliners. They took the stage to the sounds of the the Evangelion theme (appreciate my favourite cover of it).

They have tracks on the Max Payne 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 soundtracks, so they are clearly part of the nerd universe. A colleague of mine even collaborated with them for a tune, which is incredibly cool.

To be honest, their music isn’t usually my thing, but I loved their positive messages. Near the end of the show, the singer asked the crowd to be kind to themselves after difficult times. I saw people in the crowd start to cry when he said it.

I needed it too.