Bishop Briggs @ L’Astral – 16th May 2018

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Bishop Briggs Montreal
The first thing that strikes you upon arrival at l’Astral tonight, in addition to it being absolutely packed, is the spectrum of ages across the crowd. 50-somethings are numerous, as well as a 6-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy (with parents, obviously!) directly ahead of me. It’s evidence of the appeal of Sarah Grace McLaughlin, aka Bishop Briggs, that she can appeal to such a huge age range. The huge cheers that greet her arrival on stage from old and young alike prove that point!

Bishop Briggs Montreal review

The spooky White Flag starts off the set, just Bishop and an acoustic guitar provided by one of her two touring musicians, before the other, stood at a drum set (not often you see a standing drummer…), provides the explosive beat at the chorus. Bishop bounces around the stage throughout and maintains that energy throughout the hour-long set. The breakthrough single Wild Horses follows that and elicits an unsurprisingly huge singalong from the first note. The volume goes up a notch or two at the chorus when she sticks her mic into the crowd, who scramble to sing along. Almost out of breath already, she tells the crowd how she’s been practising saying “Montreal” all day, in a French accent, which garners another huge cheer, before mentioning how much of an honor it is to play in our beautiful city in celebration of her recently-released debut Church Of Scars. She seems very genuine too, smiling from ear to ear, and has a kind of girl-next-door vibe about her, a la Alessia Cara, and you can’t help but smile along too.

Bishop Briggs Montreal pictures

The dance grooves take over on album opener Tempt My Trouble, starting a big clap-along herself midway through to get the last few reluctant ones dancing too, before The Way I Do sees arms in the air bouncing up and down like a scene from 8 Mile. All the while, Bishop bounces around the stage, an absolute bundle of energy.

Be Your Love, Water, and The Fire follow next in quick succession, and follow a similar pattern, starting with Bishop behind the keys almost unaccompanied, before exploding to life at the chorus as the drums crash in. Hallowed Ground takes the distortion up another level, dominated by that dirty beat at the chorus, and sounds even more incredible live than it does through headphones.

Breathless yet again, Bishop explains how there were 10 tickets left to the show when it started and has been discreetly checking in throughout the set to see if they all went, to make this officially a sell out. By now, we are informed that they all did, so that smile gets a little wider. The main set closes out with Dream and Hi-Lo (Hollow), which is punctuated by a sludgy beat that sounds like a humming amp left idle at maximum volume and is exaggerated by a blazing strobe light in centre stage. Again, what sounds great on record becomes incredible in the live setting. The crowd, young and old alike, are spellbound.

Bishop Briggs Montreal show

After a brief pause, Bishop and band return to the stage for a 2-song encore. She asks the crowd if they are comfortable with her playing a new song that presently exists only in demo form; surprise surprise, they are. So after apologizing to the moms of the 6- and 7-year-olds for the bad language in the song, she runs through new song Baby, before closing out the show with the epic River, which sparks a massive singalong that resonates around l’Astral at deafening volume. After a few waves to different parts of the room, she trots off stage, leaving the other drummer and guitarist to play out the last notes of an epic, epic set. Expect this to be the first of many sellouts in our fair city!

Bishop Briggs Montreal photos

Setlist

White Flag
Wild Horses
Tempt My Trouble
The Way I Do
Be Your Love
Lyin’
Water
The Fire
Hallowed Ground
Dream
Hi Lo (Hollow)

Encore
Baby
River

Review – Simon Williams
Photos – Jean-Michel Lacombe

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