It was way more physical than I realized it would be. I’ve been thinking of Montréal’s Corridor primarily as a psych band ever since they returned from a long absence to announce new album Mimi. Lead single “Mourir Demain” was dreamy and expansive despite its rushing-river flow, and “Mon Argent” had a similar hypnotic momentum, like Grizzly Bear with a groove. The Francophone band has talked about how they moved away from thinking of themselves as a guitar-centric band on the new album, too. I guess I was expecting a lesson in tone and texture.
Instead, Corridor were a formidable machine onstage Wednesday night. Performing on the Swan Dive patio at a SXSW showcase arranged by Pop Montréal and M For Montréal, the band blitzed through song after song with a contagious kinetic force, building cathedrals of sound at time-lapse speed. Waves of lysergic vocal harmonies coalesced over a pair of spiky interlocking guitars (sometimes with their capos placed so high on the neck) and a rhythm section that added an off-kilter funky jolt to your average motorik backbeat. At the center of the action, beanied and bespectacled, Dominic Berthiaume danced hard — like a composer swept up in his creation — on the handful of songs where he handed off the bass to auxiliary man Samuel Gougoux.
Droning yet melodic, incessant yet morphing before our ears, the energy was half-Dungen, half-Devo. The performance was a reminder that Sub Pop, Corridor’s label outside Canada, has spent years collecting some of North America’s quirkier, more colorful post-punk acts — see also Deeper and Omni, both of whom are also making their way across SXSW stages this week. Each one has its charms, but Corridor stand out to me for the way they combine all these classic influences just so into something uniquely stellar, music that works just as well for still hallucinations and full-body contortions.
