Homie For Life, Nick Catchdubs is temporarily back in the FADER fold for the duration of the Fool's Gold tour—blogging about his exploits and adventures as he and the rest of the FG crew travel around the US and keep going back to Canada. Here's his first installment from Montreal:
The Fool's Gold showcase at Pop Montreal this past Thursday pulled double duty as both the kickoff for our Fall tour as well as a sold-out homecoming for sooper DJ A-Trak. Expectations were high, seeing how Trizzy was featured on Canadian TRL earlier that afternoon, interviewed in every single Montreal newspaper in the week leading up to the show, and greeted by a grip of local friends—including his old rap group Obscure Disorder and producer buddy Simahlak—backstage at Club Soda. Fortunately for everyone...the show slaaaaaaaayyyyyyed. What did you think I was going to say?
I warmed the crowd up with raps old and new ("Blue Magic" sounds real good real loud!), then Ottawa's Jokers of the Scene dropped by for a surprise set. After they worked out some Serato bugs, the dynamic duo dropped tracks from their forthcoming Fool's Gold EP. Rave was had by all.
Kid Sister continues to impress in many ways—including her ever-increasing array of dances. At Club Soda, they included the butterfly, a footwork-y kind of thing, the "Switch Board," and an airborne kick move she claims to have learned as a Chicago high-school cheerleader. You go girl.
Finally it was time for all the French-speakers on tour to take over. Sacre bleu! (No one really says that. They don't say "comme ci, comme ca" either.) Kavinsky played a bunch of his own tracks, with "Testarossa Autodrive" getting received by the capacity crowd like the alternate universe stadium techno anthem it really is. A-Trak and Mehdi busted out the self-produced jams as well, throwing in bits of Yeah Yeah Yeahs riffs, scratched Method Man vocals, and a slew of other tracks, sometimes rocking on four turntables all at once. Shirts were removed and crowds were surfed.
I was amazed at how hyper the crowd was throughout the whole show, treating every "hands in the air" lyric as a personal call to arms. The dancing continued with a United Nations of partiers backstage; DJ Chill, Cory Mo and Matt Sonzala repped for Texas, Clark Magazine editor Guillaume Le Goff held it down for Paris, and all manner of Canadians—from the Peer Pressure DJs to members of Thunderheist to Patrick from the awesome Summer Lovers Unlimited label—got it in, busting moves and spilling beer on my backpack. There were even some FADER folks up in there. Kumbaya!