Friday on My Mind: Underpass gives teenland a break with an all-ages show

Friday on My Mind is a highly subjective, curated rundown of five of the cooler things happening in Montreal during the weekend.

Underpass

Friday at Toscadura.

There are pluses and minuses to being in a band when you’re a teenager.

The members of Montreal indie-rock outfit Underpass are all between 16 and 18 years old. They formed when all but one of them were students at Marymount High School in N.D.G. last school year. They met the only one who wasn’t a Marymount student, Laszlo Feher, at the school because he came in to help the music teacher.

“Sometimes it’s hard to focus on school because all I’m thinking about are the shows and the bands,” said Johanna (Jojo) Seligman, 16, Underpass’s lead singer and a Grade 11 student at Marymount. “And I sometimes get stressed out, too.”

Stress is perhaps a natural reaction given that Seligman is promoting this all-ages show Friday at Toscadura, which features Underpass and two other local teen bands, Alma Matter and Raf and Friends.

Bassist Sam Adabieh, 18, noted one issue that came up for him while juggling school and being in a band.

“I remember our first show was on the same day as my calculus final exam,” said Adabieh, who is studying health sciences at Champlain College and plans to switch to John Abbott to study dental hygiene.

The band’s name is a nod to the alternative music scene that was thriving under the Van Horne Ave. overpass for a few years before these mostly-unlicensed alternative shows got shut down by the authorities in the last year or so. Seligman started going to punk shows there around three years ago, and that was what inspired her to form a band.

The other members of Underpass are Cecile Davila on lead guitar, Ethan Yang on keyboards and Feher on drums.

Seligman and Adabieh complain that there aren’t many venues that hold all-ages shows, so it makes it hard for teen bands to find places to play. And the city has no shortage of bands with members under 20. One of the hottest right now is the punk band General Chaos, a trio of 16-year-olds who just put out their second album, Can’t Please ‘Em All, on Montreal-based label Stomp Records. Their tuneful punk has strong echoes of The Descendents, Rancid and Green Day.

When the shows got shut down below the Van Horne overpass, it made it tough for teens looking to see live music, Seligman and Adabieh said.

“I think people are desperate for that kind of socializing and connection,” Seligman said. “And it’s hard to find places like that for young people.

Making music and promoting shows comes naturally to Seligman. Her dad is Dan Seligman, creative director of indie music fest Pop Montreal, and her mother is Julia Chan, who works in accounting for Evenko. Johanna grew up going to alt-rock shows from a young age.

“I was always around it and I think it would be crazy if I wasn’t inspired by it,” Seligman said. “Growing up, I didn’t realize how different it was. I was always at shows. I was always in some way experiencing music. I’m just super grateful. I was just constantly surrounded by these creative people.”

Tickets: casadelpopolo.com

The Bromantics — from left, Chris Roe, Paul Carmel, Mark Williams and Jake Chadwick — rehearse for Porchfest on the veranda of Roe’s home in N.D.G. on May 10, 2019. John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette

Porchfest

Saturday and Sunday on porches across N.D.G.

This is the weekend when N.D.G stands up and says to the Plateau hipsters, “Hey there, while you’re busy sipping your designer lattés at Café Alphabet, we’re doing something way cooler, playing music for free on our porches!”

I know, I know, it’s not a competition. Bottom line is Porchfest is a real neat thing. You wander the streets of the Deeg catching bands and artists all over the place, everyone from the Bagg Street Klezmer Band to classic-rock outfit the Bromantics to psychedelic alt band Stout to funky indie band Pêche Motel to Irish trad folk ensemble Gráinne. It really is loads of fun. And it’s all entirely free of charge.

Information: porchfestndg.com

Another season of Piknic Électronik kicks off on Sunday. Charles Prot / Piknic Electronik

Piknic Électronik

Sunday at Jean-Drapeau Park.

“It’s a crash course for the ravers,” sang David Bowie in the mid-’70s, long before rave culture was even a hint of an idea. Well, the ravers will be out in full force on Sundays at Jean-Drapeau Park as another season of Piknic Électronik parties kick off. Moroccan producer Ahmed Spins gets it all going on opening night Sunday. Those already into electronic dance music know all about this. Everyone else has no idea.

Tickets: piknicelectronik.com

A scene from last year’s edition of the Montreal Comic Arts Festival. SEBASTIEN LAVALLEE / Courtesy of the Montreal Comic Arts Festival.

Montreal Comic Arts Festival

All weekend on St-Denis St. between Roy and Gilford Sts.

There will be more than 350 artists, with panel discussions, interviews, creative workshops for the entire family, live drawing sessions and a bunch of exhibitions. Best of all, everything is free!

Information: fbdm-mcaf.ca

Actor Emmanuel Schwartz in a scene from Montreal director Jennifer Alleyn’s film Kairos. Courtesy of PixelleX Communications

Kairos

All weekend at various cinemas.

Noted Montreal filmmaker Jennifer Alleyn’s latest feature focuses on Manu (Emmanuel Schwartz), a once well-known actor who’s now not doing as well. He ends up with a job hosting a nightly phone-in radio show. He is having a bit of an existential crisis and he works through it by talking with a bunch of lonely listeners.

Tickets: cinemacinema.ca

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