Au Revoir Simone at Sala Rosa

Oh boy! I’ve finally settled into my new place and have been living internet-free for the past few days. It’s quite something, let me tell you! So here I am, at good ol’ Battlenet 24, listening to the sounds of intense war games and the cheering of a full (fake) hockey stadium, uploading photo after photo and realizing how quick it is to get behind on emails. Oops!

So as I’ve said before, I’ve been trying to get more photos for my portfolio and so I decided to contact Brooklyn’s Au Revoir Simone to see if they had a bit of time for a small shoot when they were in town. So I showed up for sound check and hung around with The Winks, who were opening that night, eating some cupcakes while I waited for them to finish and then arranged to meet after they were done eating to get a few shots. Kim, the band’s tour manager and an absolute sweetheart kept running past me saying ”in a second, they just have to get sexy”. I had borrowed my friend Dane’s two toy keyboards for the shoot, but I was over at a friend’s house baking cupcakes and Simon from Gold Sword borrowed one of them for a show he was doing at Divan Orange. So in the end, the girls gathered in the little room by the stage and I got a few photos of them as they played ”Follow Me”, kind of like a musical Simon Says on the keyboard, a game that I always fail at miserably. The result is some candid and somewhat grainy warm-colored photos.

The show itself was amazing but I was really tired from moving and baking all day. I realize that sounds very unconvincing but you know, lazy youth… I don’t know if I need to describe the Winks, if you click on my name up there, it’ll lead you to my author page where you’ll find numerous accounts of shows and photos of this happy sparkly band. All I’ll say is that on her way off the stage, Tyr decided to throw some confetti on me and I’m still finding some stuck on my skin or in my hair. And I swear I shower!

Afterwards, Austin’s Oh No Oh My, kept me wide awake with their happy music and I forgave them for taking a while to set up since the poor boys were stuck at the border for a while. Ah the joys of international tours…

And finally, the beautiful girls of Au Revoir Simone took the stage and a hush fell on the crowd. They giggled and praised Montreal throughout and I have to admit I was already charmed by how modest, inviting and kind they had been that I’m already looking forward to seeing them play again at Osheaga.