Final Update: Saturday, Day 4 of the POP Montreal Festival

Sorry for the delay in posting this last update, but the Madman needed a couple days to recover. My bad. Anyway, after 3 solid nights of indie rock in all 31 Baskin Robbins flavors, it was refreshing to switch it up in Montréal and get some sweeping-filter dirty electro — compliments of Boys Noize and A-Trak on the last night of their Attack of the Unibros World Tour (great name, btw).

Throughout the tour the duo have been tag-teaming sets, but this night Hamburg, Germany’s Boys Noize (aka Alexander Ridha), took control of the turntables. It’s not cos he was headlining, but rather because A-Trak (Alain Macklovitch), who’s from Montreal, was making his hometown return. So, in lieu of spinning Alain decided to celebrate instead. Which is fine by us — kid’s been on tour for awhile, so it’s understandable he’d want to blow off some steam. So instead of behind the tables, he was found up front, perched onstage with bottle in hand cheering the crowd along.

Below, A-Trak running things from the stage of Telus Theatre. Continue with the Night 4 recap, plus a couple more pics of Montreal’s Best after the Jump.

UPDATE: More pics of the show available here. Apparently A-Trak did play, I guess I just got there too late…

The crowd was pretty bonkers, and it was a fair mix of the usual POP Montreal indie crowd and what could only be described as Cheesenut Clubbers. The Madman was doing shots of vodka so it gets a little blurry, not to mention he was distracted by a huge fight near backstage — with some Joey Porsche-looking dude getting tossed out like a ragdoll. By the end of the night, A-Trak had celebrated so much he needed help just making it down the stairs. Which to me is why he was the real Winner that night…not that the Madman was much better. Regardless, easy to say a fun night was had by all.

Afterwards, outside, I’ve never witnessed so many stupid fights in my life. Well, not since going to Boston anyway. And it’s safe to say that the Canadian National Sport appears to be getting fall-on-your-face drunk. You’ve never seen so many normal citizens flailing around on the street, unable to stand up. Perfectly good human beings, flopping around like fish.

Here’s an example right here — perfectly good chap, unable to walk bipedal:

Most of the POP Festival was pretty relaxed, but a Saturday night in Montreal apparently ends with 2 things:

1. Landmines of vomit littering the sidewalk.
2. A hearty meal of Poutine, Montreal’s greatest invention.

Poutine, for those that don’t know, is an unholy creation made up of a bowl of french fries, covered with cheese curdles, and then slathered in gravy. It is Canada’s greatest contribution to Western Civilization. After downing enough booze to tranquilize a medium-sized farm animal, the thing to do in Montreal is find the best 24-hour Poutine spot to try to absorb some of the imminent hangover you surely have coming the next morning. Like hummus in Israel, every single person has an opinion on where the best Poutine is. They will fight about this. A lot. In fact, it could very well have been the cause for the 12 fights I witnessed that evening.

After 4 nights of serious boozing, and hitting up 6 different spots (it also makes a nutritious breakfast), the Madman can without a doubt recommend you the Best Poutine In Montreal: La Banquise, located at 994 Rachel St, Montréal (Tel: 514.525.2415)

A vision of beauty:

This place is celebrating its 40th Anniversary and I can tell you why: because they have about 25 varieties of the stuff. You can get everything from chicken and beef to sauteed onions and hot dogs mixed in, from pepperoni to bacon to hot peppers to veggie deluxe. The place is heaven.

So that’s that. Thanks POP Montreal for the invite, and even greater thanks to Montreal for being a great fucking town. Hopefully the Madman will make it back next year…

If you stumble across this sign at 4 am, thank your lucky stars and order a Large of whatever you want — you can’t go wrong…