Concerts in Gatineau, Montreal and Ottawa in November 2016

Ladies and gentlemen,

I have attended quite a few concerts in Gatineau, Montreal and Ottawa in November 2016: Marissa Nadler & Ghost at Metropolis in Montreal; Éric Lapointe & Friends at Maison de la culture de Gatineau; Chariots of the Gods, Omnium Gatherum, Leaves' Eyes & Sonata Arctica at Mavericks in Ottawa and Source, From Ashes to New, Hellyeah & In Flames at Metropolis in Montreal. These four diversified, energizing and entertaining events were my final concerts in 2016. Once again, I wanted to close this chapter on my blog and share a couple of pictures with you. I have already bought some tickets for different shows in 2017, including Amorphis, Guns 'N Roses and Red Hot Chili Peppers and I'm already having other potential shows and festivals on my mind that I could attend next year. I simply love discovering new bands and music. Please enjoy the following pictures.

While Marissa Nadler was as calm, introspective and shy as it gets, Ghost put up a great show with stunning costumes and visual effects.

The mysterious occult rock group from Sweden played its new single "Square Hammer" as well as hits such as "He Is", "Secular Haze" and "Ritual" during this concert of its Popestar tour.

The sold-out crowd reacted enthusiastically and contributed to the concert's success and a great atmosphere.

Éric Lapointe was one of the very first musicians or bands I ever knew from Quebec along with Les Cowboys Fringants and Les Trois Accords. Over the past ten years, I have seen these artists and bands several times in concert and I still like to rediscover them from time to time. When I last saw Éric Lapointe in concert in early 2010, I was still living in Chicoutimi, was an unexperienced student and was still in a stable relationship with my then-girlfriend. A lot of time has gone by and while my lifestyle has improved, it also felt as if Éric Lapointe's performances had improved. He delivered a focused, energizing and balanced concert including both his sensitive ballads and his balls-out hard rock anthems. Quebec's most famous rocker played for about two hours and had a couple of guests who helped him out during a few songs and also performed some of their own material. Éric Lapointe conquered the sold-out crowd by storm.

During the calmer moments, Éric Lapointe took an acoustic guitar and performed his smooth country ballads individually or with some guest vocalists. As far as I'm informed, one guest singer was from "The Voice" talent show (Travis Cormier) and the crowd reacted enthusiastically but I had never seen that guy before since I don't consume this kind of mass entertainment, so I couldn't really tell. I actually prefered the moments when Éric Lapointe would rock out on his own.

Éric Lapointe and his rock-solid backing band performed hits from the past two decades and more, including original songs like "Terre Promise", "Coupable" and "1500 miles" plus cover tunes like Plume Latraverse's "Bobépine", Nanette Workman's "Ce soir on danse à Naziland" and Aerosmith's "Dream On".

This picture was taken during Leaves' Eyes show at Mavericks in Ottawa. It's actually really tough to take quality pictures in the small and dark venue with its tiny stage. Despite an underwhelming new EP, Leaves' Eyes new line-up including Finnish singer Elina Siirala delivered a great performance. 

The band also invited a few guys disguised as Viking warriors on stage to enhance the group's atmosphere based upon epic symphonic metal and lyrics about Norse traditions, mythology and history.

This picture shows the quite unknown yet really promising progressive metal band Source. While the crowd reacted shyly to the band, it was easily the most positive surprise of the night to me. The band's musicianship is stunning, its songs are complex, detailed and entertaining and the group had a grounded yet sympathetic stage presence. I'm really looking forward to listening to their music in the future.  

From Ashes to New sounded like a copy of Linkin Park on its first two records. This isn't anything original but it's fun and brings back memories from my teenage years. The band's great live performance was entertaining enough to pardon for its lack of identity. I would go see the group again in concert but I wouldn't purchase any of its studio albums.

Hellyeah was one of the heaviest groups I have ever seen in concert. The group offered a brutal type of groove metal and delivered an unchained Performance. While this overwhelming energy was impressive at first, the band's tracks all sounded quite similar and the group lost some momentum despite some sympathetic interactions with the crowd. I would have prefered a shorter set from the band as an opening act instead of a lengthy performance as co-headliners.

In Flames were obviously the band me and my friend had come to see that night and the versatile Swedish metal band delivered the goods. Despite a short set list, the group managed to play fourteen passionate tracks from the last eight studio Albums and singer Anders Fridén showed what an great entertainer he was. He told us that life is to short to drink bad beer like Coors Light and that was the most important lesson I have learned that night.

In Flames performed new songs such as "The End" and "The Truth" but also more classic material like "Only for the Weak" and "Cloud Connected" in about seventy-five passionate minutes. Time passed by very quickly which means it was an awesome show. I can't wait to see the band again and hope they will play a longer set around two hours next time.