Our First Time At FME!
A month ago, we hadn’t heard of Rouyn-Noranda; now it’s home to one of our new favourite festivals: Festival De Musique Émergente, aka FME. If the name doesn’t give it away, this glorious fest is located in Quebec—Northern Quebec if we’re getting specific.
It took us two plane rides and a school bus ride full of our fellow festival-goers and industry professionals (still can’t believe we fall into that category) to arrive in the quaint town and kick off our first FME!
The wheels on the bus go round and round
The festival ran from August 28th to the 31st, and brought together international and Canadian acts for an unforgettable weekend. The first thing we noticed was that the town was covered with dinosaurs, craters, unexplained UFOs, and the occasional alien. It didn’t feel like a tiny Quebec town; it was completely transformed into a different world.
Despite our long travel day, we snuck in a small nap and headed out to our first shows of the weekend. We started the night at Cabaret De La Dernière Chance, which quickly became our favourite venue in the town; the best way to describe the vibe was an old-time saloon mixed with an 80s dive bar. Crasher kicked off the night with an exhilarating performance. The lead singer’s outfit screamed Ghostbusters, and their cyber punk sound was so gritty it blew out the subwoofer. Talk about leaving your mark. Plus, the fact that they don’t have an Instagram made them instantly cool in our books.
UTO was up next and let’s just say: GLOW AND THE DARK FITS ARE SO BACK! The Paris-based duo sound like they’re straight from outer space—we wouldn’t be surprised to learn they had been abducted by aliens once upon a time. Their unique blend of stylized indie sleaze with 90s breakbeats had the crowd transfixed. Honestly felt like an acid trip in the best possible way.
Some snapshots of our first day!
The next day, we got to attend our first Bonsound BBQ and stuffed our faces with hot dogs while swaying along to the surprise performance by Population II. Spoiler alert: We got to see them quite a few times over the course of the festival.
After drinking and eating for free—two of our favourite activities—we set out for our second night.
Population II took the main stage that night for a very White Stripes-coded performance, and the crowd ate up every second. Afterwards, what we can only imagine to be the Québécois’ favourite pop star, Ariane Roy, took the stage. We’ll never turn away from a good femme pop-rock set, and honestly…Miss Roy looked GOOD! No one could walk away from her set even if they wanted to. Up next was Yoo Doo Right, an experimental rock trio; their synthesizer soundscapes and deep bass grooves sparked a thrilling noise that left us feeling like we’d just transcended to a higher plane.
Handsome Tiger, an Anishinaabe Métis and North African music producer/DJ, took over the Fizz stage with some South African Gqom beats that were so good we watched two strangers fall in love on the dance floor. Real story.
By the time we looked down at our phone, an hour had passed, and our feet were aching from dancing all night long, so we knew it was time to head back to our hotel.
Saturday was jam-packed with artists galore, and despite our 20,000 steps the day before, we laced up our Pumas and set off for another night of fun. We started our night at the infamous professionals' dinner, where we ate, drank, and then drank some more.
Seriously, free food has never looked better.
Afterwards, we headed to a secret sunset show, which we had found out from Yoo Doo Right’s Instagram story the night before.
Rock, ON!
The jam sesh brought together Yoo Doo Right, Population II, and Nolan Potter's Nightmare Band. In that moment we felt pretty infinite. Definitely a core memory.
Drinks in tow, we ran over to the main stage to catch the ending of Empanadas Illegales’ intoxicating set of pure psychedelic cumbia that could get even a rock movin’ and grovin’. The OBGMs, fellow Toronto locals, jumped on stage, introducing themselves as a Celine Dion cover band before diving into an insane rock and roll set that had every teenager in Rouyn-Noranda screaming in English, which was a feat in and of itself.
After publicly shaming a crowd member’s ex-boyfriend (it was a bad day to be that dude), they opened up the pit “for Celine!” and sent the crowd moshing. Les Tres Accords finished off the main stage for the night and had the crowd crying to some good ol’ Québécois classics.
For Celine!
Over at Le Petit Theatre, Moonshine hit the stage. We’ve never seen so many 16-year-old white boys getting down to afrobeats, and we’re pretty sure we watched the Montreal-based collective change the trajectory of their lives—for the better, of course. After dancing for a good hour and a half, getting sweaty with the locals, it was time to call it.
We spent our final night at Le Paramount with Elle Barbara, Les Freaks de Montréal (who brought out a ton of other acts on stage to jam out with them), and TEKE::TEKE. All of them were incredible, but TEKE::TEKE’s Japanese psych fusion music seriously blew our minds. Not to mention, they were just featured on the new Assassin's Creed soundtrack.
All we can say is: WOW! What a trip.
We spent the entire plane ride back to Toronto gushing over the weekend and raving about how we can’t wait to go back next year. Can’t think of a better way to end the summer.
