In what has become a yearly tradition for the Pop Montréal festival, an artist is given the opportunity to perform a show at Cinéma L’Amour, Montréal’s most renowned (only?) porn theater.

This year: GAMIC/ADISQ-nominated Lydia Képinski. Labeled “Sadenight”, this one-night-only show promised to be epic just by looking at the awesome artwork by Valaska Illustration produced to promote the show.

The event was officially sold-out and, for some reason, doors didn’t open at the announced time. So you had this 450+ people line-up outside Cinéma L’Amour. You should have seen the confused faces of people passing by wondering what kind of porn movie would attract such a crowd!

The show started with a mini-movie filmed for the event where you follow Lydia’s taxi ride to the theater. Arriving from behind the crowd, Képinski began singing the song Les Balançoires from her most recent LP, the fantastic Premier Juin. The stage was awfully small for the number of musicians and you could sense Képinski was like a lion in a cage wanting to rock out more than she could with the limited space.

The show was full of surprises, from dancers and mascots in the crowds to Lydia showing up at the balcony to end in full power Pie-IX, her heaviest track. By the time she played Maïa and its infectious groove, the crowd erupted and began dancing like mad. Sadenight’s epic climax came during the hypnotic Belmont, during another viewing of a custom video projected on the giant screen that pictured Képinski covered in blood, in full Elizabeth Báthory mode. Did I say EPIC? Wow!

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la véritable liberté consiste à ne craindre ni les hommes ni les dieux. – Donatien Alphonse de Sade (dit le marquis) qui copie sur Sénèque le stoïcien [LETTRE LXXV] merci tellement de vous être livré ainsi, comme des agneaux dans la gueule du loup. j'ai senti la présence de chacun d'entre vous (même le gars dans le fond avec les bras croisé proche de la colonne). ça sert à rien d'avoir des idées de cinglées si y'a personne pour les réaliser. ça sert à rien de réaliser des idées cinglées si y'a personne pour les voir. j'attribue rarement le succès au hasard, je constate toutefois que la chance m'a sourit en mettant sur mon chemin des personnes aussi extraordinaires, folles et rigoureuses. à tous les gens qui ont acheté leur billet pour la Sadenight. honnêtement, je m'attendais à des sièges pleins, mais pas des allées pleines en plus. pour citer un membre du public «ayoye ça valait vraiment 20 piasses» merci @popmontreal allez voir des shows 📸 @lepetitrusse

A post shared by Lydia Képinski (@lydiakepi) on Sep 28, 2018 at 11:47am PDT

And….just when you thought she wasted the heaviness of the song Pie-IX too soon in the set, the encore included a repeat of the second half of Pie-IX, heavier than ever, with the front row headbanging like crazy and Lydia crowd surfing. Credits roll. You had to be there! One of the most memorable shows I have ever seen.

For tour dates & merch click here.   You can follow Lydia Képinski on Facebook & Instagram.

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pwnaud

Francophone and Francophile, trying to bring Québec’s two solitudes together through cultural exchanges. Improv Actor for 15 years. Music lover, from New Age to Death Metal and everything in between.