Montreal, Quebec’s Duchess Says (Annie-Claude Deschênes on vocals/keys, Ismael Tremlay on guitar/keys, Philippe Clément on guitar/bass, Simon Besre on drums/percussion) performing at the Galaxy Room in Austin, TX as part of the M for Montreal/M pour Montreal and Brooklyn Vegan Official SXSW Day Party.

More photo, choice words and Youtube embeds from around the world after the break…

A friend who had seen this band on a prior night at SXSW warned me, “That girl is crazy! She threw an entire jar of cherries – and cherry juice – all over the front part of the crowd! It smelled terrible…” While there weren’t any cherry juice shenanigans, requests to “GET ON THE FLOOR!” or audience members covered in hay Montreal’s Duchess Says certainly did fulfill their mandate. What mandate? According to their MySpace page: “Duchess Says has the mandate to decontextualise the rock and to promote simultaneously their Church on the way.” And decontextualize they did.

So what does that mean in this context? Controlled chaos, at least by the look of it, in the form of lead singer and synth player Annie-Claude Deschênes. She teetered on the brink of self-control, actively anticipating progressions, flailing about the stage theatrically, or losing herself in the music. It didn’t come as much of a surprise to the crowd when, after knocking a monitor onto a few photographers, she jumped off the stage and plowed through the crowd seemingly seeking prey. She found a random member of the crowd and wrestled him to the ground, backpack and all. She sat on the floor seemingly asking members of the audience to sit with her quietly while a song droned on in the background. They complied. On the way back to the stage she grabbed people by their faces and shouted. That’s just a slice of the decontextualization of which Duchess Says speaks – apparently ranging from crowd-involved theatrics to performing in odd spaces. This crowd had no idea what to expect and, in short order, jaws were on the floor.

Their heavy “moog rock” (their description) hits like a sack of bricks and drags you along on sonic journey that brought up memories of hardcore punk (like Fucked Up, who their singer collaborated with for CBC’s Bande à part show), noise rock and digital hardcore of days gone by. Time changes and start-stop rhythm was all over the place and the rhythm section kept up without skipping a beat. Guitarist/bassit Philippe Clémen, drummer Simon Besre and synth maestro Ismael Tremlay filled the low-end with growl and analog Moog rumbling while Deschênes scatter-shot lyrics that, while barely audible over the din, seemed to exalt and exclaim about nothing and everything at once.

Rarely have I had this much fun shooting a band, in no small part thanks to their energetic and enigmatic lead. Next time they come through Minneapolis I’ll be sure to check them out and a road trip to the Pop Montreal Festival (9/29/10-10/3/10) may be in order if other Québécois can keep up with the likes of Duchess Says.

Honestly, I don’t think photos are enough. Here are some videos found scouring YouTube in the aftermath of the show.

Check out this clip from @trikno of some crowd participation, Duchess Says style (including tackling and face touching):

Also check out these awesome live videos posted on YouTube by the always awesome KEXP of Seattle:

Also, check out video from cbcradio3′s YouTube account of more audience participation, “on the floor” style:

Finally, watch Deschênes cover an audience member in hay in full shakyvision thanks to the enigmatic but productive Dxunn of YouTube:

See a slideshow of this set on Flickr or check out individual photos below:

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