The POP Montreal Festival (and strangely, the City of Montréal) made the curious mistake of inviting Madman to Montreal for this week’s POP Festival. How great is that? So armed with my trusty plastic flask o’ rum, I hit up as many shows as possible to find the Gem of the Night. And without a doubt it was You Say Party! We Say Die! from Vancouver, who just flat out killed it. Who says dance punk is dead?

Keep reading, plus more photos of the show after the Jump…

2 tracks to give y’all a taste…

Channeling her best Karen O, singer Becky Ninkovic embodies the perfect frontwoman: great voice, great style, and has the charm to keep the crowd engaged effortlessly — all with complete lack of ego. She comes across like your friend’s little sister (no, not the one you’re trying to hook up with — the one you think is funny). When she yells out “Je t’aime, Montreal! This time it’s for real!”, it doesn’t come across like an empty one-night stand promise, but like a tipsy infatuation.

They debuted a new song, “Let’s All Make Love”, and if this is new material then these guys have most defly not yet peaked.

How the fuck can the Ting Tings be getting so much attention when bands like this exist??

It reminded me a bit of when the Madman went to the Oya Festival in Norway last year and, before the festival even began, caught Shout Out Louds at a pre-party — who ended up being the best found act till the last day. So hey, you never know — they could actually end up being the Best In Show…altho let’s hope there’s more musical greatness in store…

(For the record, we also caught a flaccid Hot Chip set and Dark Meat at a Vice party. They were kinda neat — as if Broken Social Scene were cast in a remake of Emmet Otter’s Jug–Band Christmas. But still no comparison.)

…when they invited their 12 friends on stage to cause pure mayhem…

…when they almost took the curtains down in their revelry…

One more track as a bonus for making it to the end…