The Montreal Fringe Festival started this month. I only started hearing about this last year when I stumbled on it by accident. This year I paid a little bit more attention to it and its show schedule. There were a few shows that I actually wanted to see, but it never fit with my schedule. Either they were too late and I had a job interview the next day or I had other plans like helping my dad build a new patio in his backyard. Either way, I feel like I missed out. But, I didn't want to miss out on going to the Parc des Amériques on the corner of Saint-Laurent & Rachel and just hang out and see what happens. Little did I know, I was in for a treat as you'll find out later.
First of all, I took a Bixi bike and rode all the way to the Parc Lafontaine then walked to Mont-Royal and headed west to get to Saint-Laurent. It was a pretty warm evening so I grabbed a homemade iced tea along the way from a local coffee shop and cooled down a bit. Parked in front of the Cruella gothic clothing store was this vintage Triumph motorcycle. As I may have mentioned before, those are my favourite motorcycles. Especially the classic ones. Their shape, the spokes in the wheels and just the style and simplicity of the machine itself make these vintage bikes so damn beautiful. Apparently though, these bikes are hard to ride, especially on long rides because they vibrate so much. After just a short time your whole body gets numb. But, that's just what some stranger said one the street as we were both admiring this beauty. He told me a friend of his built one and that's how he knows. I guess I'll take his word for it.
I kept on walking down Saint-Laurent and got to the park where the Fringe festival had their base set up. I went in and bought myself a beer and a jumbo hot dog and started collecting flyers in case I'd want to go see any of the shows being advertised. When I found as many as I could, I just sat down and sipped on my drink for a while and killed some time.
Then, a band went on the little stage beneath the cement arch in the middle of the park and started doing sound checks and getting ready. I stuck around to listen to them and see what they sounded like. Initially, they announced that their drummer was away due to a loss in his family, and they keep insisting that even though they are going to play their songs acoustically, they are not an acoustic band, but a true rock band and they usually rock out way more than this. I didn't know who they were so I didn't really care. But, when the show started, I was blown away.
Their lead singer had one hell of an awesome rockin' voice. She is an amazing singer and her voice gave me goosebumps! They played a few songs for maybe an hour or so and I really enjoyed their show. I had no idea who they were though. I don't know why I didn't ask anyone. But, a few days later I searched on the Fringe website and found out they are called The Damn Truth and are from Montreal. Here's what it sounded like, but I ask you to check out their website and see their other music videos to see what their normal non-acoustic music sounds like.
Actually, here's what they usually sound like. Live. I swear they are fucking awesome live.
While I hung out in the park, I found out that as a part of the Fringe fest, graffiti artists painted murals around the Plateau. I thought I'd go and scope out the area and find out where they were and I found quite a few. So, here are a bunch that I shot with my phone camera. After that I went home. I was pretty tired that evening and decided to cut it short and just relax.
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