The 6 best shows Saturday at Place des Arts
For a while, we’ve been looking for the right spot to put on shows like you’ll see Saturday at Place des Arts—intimate, impressive, and totally captivating performances. For those of you who remember Dear Criminals 3D in 2017, you’re in for a treat. It’ll even be a treat for those of you who don’t remember that. Prepare to be totally enveloped by these great performances.
Here are the top six artists to see at Place des Arts Saturday.
Happy Hour (5–7pm)—Le Bistro: aurel and Louis Simão
Free
Comme refresh yourself with a drink while you are gently rocked by two Latin singer-songwriters with Sudbury connections.
Born Cecilia-Aurel Rodriguez-Beaudoin, aurel writes in the languages of her childhood: Spanish, French, and English. Her style was shaped by artists from Latin and North America, from Selena Quintanilla to Regina Spektor, from Natalia Lafourcade to Klô Pelgag. Her voice and piano weave luminous songs imbued with poetry.
Originally from Toronto, but now Festival Director for Jazz Sudbury up here, the award-winning Louis Simão’s music takes the listener on a journey through the sounds of the Portuguese-speaking world as experienced by this first-generation Canadian son of Portuguese immigrants. His cultural background combined with his jazz sensibility and chamber music compositional style come together to create a voice that is at once universal and deeply personal.
7:30–9:30pm—La Grande salle: Sister Ray et Ghostly Kisses
Tickets here
Our evening performers’ honest and ethereal voices will provide you with the same inner warmth as a good wood stove on a cold winter’s day. This is the moment for you to recharge your batteries and let yourself be moved.
Ghostly Kisses is the melancholic dream pop of québecoise singer-songwriter Margaux Sauvé, the name a reference to William Faulkner’s poem Une ballade des dames perdues. She began to play the violin at the age of 5 following in the footsteps of her family. Years later, she started to sing and wrote her first songs, which, according to Clash magazine, “have a weightless quality, something that transcends the ephemeral to grapple with key facets of our lives.” In a few years, you’ll be saying, “I saw Ghostly Kisses when …”
Sister Ray, the project of Cree Métis Ella Coyes, was conceived out of necessity—a self-designed vehicle built to examine trauma with unflinching honesty. Armed with a voice that soars and scrapes in equal measure, Coyes converts first-person recollections of big, complicated love into universally potent allegories. The result is an unyielding, spacious, and commanding form of indie rock rooted in the folk tradition that transforms unvarnished, interior reflections into a generous public offering, one that was longlisted for the Polaris Music Prize this year!
11:30pm–2:00am—Le Studio: EDM dance party with Obuxum et LaFHomme
Tickets here
Feeling reenergized? Good, because it’s electro dance party time. Come lose yourself in the lush electronic soundscapes and heart-skipping beats of Obuxum et de LaFHomme.
Toronto-based, Somali-Canadian producer and beatmaker OBUXUM’s lush and characteristic sound celebrates storytelling. Her Re-Birth was longlisted for the 2020 Polaris Music Prize, and her performances surge forth, reclaiming Black freedom and histories that shaped electronic and dance music. Her work explores Afrofuturist configurations of electronic music in reaction to the parallels of the past and recent, post-pandemic world.
LaFHomme is a Montreal-based DJ and sound artist who uses their craft as a spiritual practice. Being a community-oriented individual, they value creating an experience that will speak to people and transport them with music. They are inspired by many creative individuals in the queer rave scene such as TYGAPAW & Estoc, and work to contribute to the QTBIPOC narrative. You can catch them on the dancefloor cooking mixes you didn't know your soul was hungry for.
