Earlier this week, I returned to my favorite city to catch the Taverne Tour, Montréal’s indie music festival dedicated to cutting edge artists in North America. Organized by the punk rock label Mothland, the three-night event drops you in the heart of the arts district in Mont-Royal, allowing you to run free from club to basement to lounge to backroom. (A lot of them, as one might come to realize, will be owned by Montréal royalty, Mauro Pezzente from Godspeed You! Black Emperor.)

Unlike another multi-stage festival like Governor’s Ball or even M pour Montréal — where the programming is organized so that each act is spaced out, giving people enough time to run from place to place — everything at Taverne Tour happens at once and for fifteen to twenty minutes at a time. I saw both so much and not enough. I resisted the urge to attend some double-billed setlists I liked in order to squeeze in some artists I’ve never heard before, sacrificing my chance to see some old favorites like the dream pop group Afternoon Bike Ride and the electronic punk powerhouse Annie-Claude Deschênes. (Seriously, go to any of their concerts if you can!) Moreover, there could have been an epidemic of saxophonists again, but I fortunately did not run into any and instead partied with the crowd-surfing trombonist of the hyped hardcore group Faze.

At Taverne Tour, expect a whole catalogue of techno goth music — this scene loves their shoegaze feedback, new wave bass licks, doom metal screams, walls of noise, and zippy synth backings — with some shocking surprises coming from every corner. And, being the Mothland-curated event, it gives you the chance to see some of the coolest punk bands emerging in both Canada and the US.

Here were my eight favorite performances of Taverne Tour, in the order that I saw them:

Shunk

Shunk are a young band from Montréal, making their official album debut last year with the self-released Shunkland. A blend of new wave and post-rock, the four-piece are mesmerizing on stage, and everything from the music, to their outfits, to the fact they all go by mononymous names, radiates style. For the simple set-up of bass, guitar, drums, and vocals, the band knows how to fill up a room. Their instruments buzz with electricity, charging up the air with their synced-up pattering, thrashing, and plucking. The bass especially becomes one of Shunk’s most prominent features, thrumming forcefully through each track and giving the music its classic punk flavor.

Lastly, vocalist Gabrielle offers otherworldly vocal performances. Most of the time, she either sings in this misty, mellow voice akin to Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins, or she’ll adopt an 80s punk-ish sing-talk tone that hops and squeaks over the rushing drums and loose guitars. But then, right as her band crescendos into this quick rock jam, she’ll effortlessly glide into a stunning opera, celebrating the eccentricities of her haunted yet whimsical Shunkland world.

Alix Fernz

As someone who sifts through band after band operating in the industrial, scuzzy, garage punk space, I’ve been looking for an artist who can actually rock with the buzz. Enter Alix Fernz, the Montreal artist who glues all his punk tracks together with thick, froggy acid synths to give them the texture of steel wool. His vocals — punching through every syllable of a word as if each one holds emotional weight — follow the pounding of the snappy drums while crackling through a lo-fi microphone.

The synths, either a slightly off-pitch loop or a rattling percussive beat, have a strange dance quality to them, further emphasizing the artist’s songs that regularly characterize and explore the themes of nightlife, the urban underbelly, and the weirdness of the Canadian underground.

Hot Garbage

One of the most talked-about bands prior to the festival, the Toronto band Hot Garbage offered a delightful blend of grit, driven by 70s industrial synths and percussion and the brooding vocals of siblings Juliana and Alessandro Carlevaris, and glamour, championed by the constant, surf rock gliding of the electric guitar. Live, the music became a Bauhaus swirl of reverb and fuzz.

Their instrumental solos, especially during the Precious Dream (2024) standout “Look at My Phone”, were akin to a harsher version of psych rock. Rather than muted synths, cool-toned bass licks, tempered guitars, and soft vocals of a traditional psychedelic song (or even one of the earliest Hot Garbage tracks like 2017’s “Mystic Muffin”), everything was on 100% volume, frying the speakers until all the audience hears is a barking echo, a symphony of reverb, and a thrumming beat. Yet, though it was atmospheric, the set was absolutely pristine. They’re a commanding band that can keep the stamina of a revved-up crowd. Hot Garbage make cool music for cool people!

Hélène Barbier

The dream pop artist Hélène Barbier could easily have been one of the final performances at the end of a Twin Peaks: The Return episode. A commanding bassist with a silky, slightly eerie voice, she and her art rock band radiate cool with a rich, electric, mid-tempo sound. Most of the setlist was dedicated to her new record Panorama, which pairs wonky and wobbly guitar melodies with poppy keyboards and synths, jazz flute solos, and slightly dissonant harmonies between Barbier and her backup vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Claire Paquet. It also helps that her lyrics, an effortless flow between English and her native French, also focus on sensual, vivid yet surreal imagery, with the misty “Kindness In A Cup” serving as the perfect vision for overflowing yet limited patience. (The mental constraint embodied in the lowkey track “Plastique Couch” is also emblematic of the singer-songwriter’s quirky worldbuilding.)

Barbier was definitely one of the biggest artists on the lineup this year, drawing in a crowd so packed no one could get in or out the main door, so I’d definitely put her on your radar! I, for one, went back to New York City with a Panorama CD.

Pastel Blank

Amidst the head-thrashing, punching, and ruining my sneakers in the slush and scuff of Montréal, the funk rock band Pastel Blank offered a groovy reprieve. The local band was a bit of an outlier in the festival’s programming, but it was nice to relax and begin my final night with a group that’s heavy on disco, new wave, and synth pop influences — a perfect formula for easy-going, danceable, and guaranteed fun.

The band debuted their new single “Shareholder”, their first piece of new music since 2022’s Pastel Blanc EP and the lead off their upcoming record, Unmade, out April 24 via Paper Bag Records. Whimsical lyrics, poppy hooks, and long and psychedelic instrumental groove sessions that sound like a rock band’s adaptation of Stereolab’s mod classic Dots And Loops: Pastel Blank are a solid band brimming with bright, artful ideas.

Tear Dungeon

Hardcore punk is a lot like professional wrestling. Gimmicks, narrative arcs explored throughout the performance, communication via intimidation and bodily contact, dudes taking their shirts off and maybe wearing a latex mask the whole time: a Tear Dungeon performance scratches a lot of the same primal itches one might get from watching two burly MMA fighters just have at it.

The Austin, TX band fully lean into the camp of the genre. The boisterous front person Andrew Cashen dons a gimp mask, makes out with band members, rides on the shoulders of any willing volunteer, and writhes while he screams an ode to the bullet that went through Charlie Kirk’s neck. The band members literally gargle, drink, and spit out blood, oftentimes in the faces and mouths of their audience, and more than once, they hop down into the pit and force everyone to mosh around them. Tear Dungeon, while angry and purposefully messy, seek compassion and community through dumb lyrics that reflect the dumbest political timeline we could possibly live in right now.

TVOD

Maybe it’s my local band bias, but my all-time favorite performance at the festival was New York City’s art punk band, TVOD. The group, fronted by lyricist and vocalist Tyler Wright, are capital P Partiers — though, given that their debut album is called Party Time, that might be obvious. Their music is slightly theatrical, with lyrics that often explore themes like hedonism, greed, and degeneracy through vivid storytelling, most of the time about World War II. Wright’s got a similar cadence to his voice as well, manipulating his tone in quirky ways to emphasize the bizarre undertones under his lyrics.

Moreover, TVOD make everyone want to jump inside the mass of bodies walling off the band, supercharged on excitement as the band goes through high-energy guitar solos of “MUD” or “Party Time”. Just look out once you run into the center; Wright might be standing on the speaker, waiting for the perfect moment to jump on top of everyone.

Balaclava

What a way to end the festival! After three days of what felt like nonstop shopping for talent, Balaclava took over the dance hall of Le Ministère at the final afterparty event. Still riled up from TVOD, I quickly rolled up to the venue to catch another act from my local scene. When I got there, one of the NYC punk rockers was already crowd surfing on top of cheering fans. The masked band, who have yet to release a full record, are manic and visceral, flooding the speakers with buzzy bass and guitars, punk drums, and vocals that echo through a fried and blown-out microphone.

Like most of the modern punk bands I saw at Taverne Tour, they also incorporate the crusty synth keys to give their songs a proto-punk, vintage horror movie music sheen. Yet, with songs like 2024’s “Where Is My Four-Dimensional Dog?” and the recently released “DRAMATIC EXIT”, Balaclava never sink into the repetitive, hypnotic, surf-y thrums of the bass line. Instead, they’re empowering to watch — one of New York’s most exciting emerging punk bands to follow.