A broke comeback | A month of outings in Montreal for $40

Experiencing the return to culture with $40 in your pocket is possible. Here’s enough to fill the next month without emptying your wallet.

January 16

Double bill at the Sala Rossa

American percussionist and composer John Hollenbeck, former leader of The Claudia Quintet, will combine business with pleasure at the Sala Rossa. Let’s start with the fun: the Montreal-based musician and his new group, GEORGE, will release a first album mixed with experimental jazz, electro and chamber music, Letters to George. Musicians Anna Webber (saxophone, flute), Aurora Nealand (vocals, saxophone, keyboard) and Chiquita Magic (vocals, keyboard, piano) complete the cosmopolitan quartet that will converge in Mile End. Better still, Sarah Pagé, founding member of The Barr Brothers, and her rebellious harp will provide the first part. All this for the modest sum of $15. The useful, now: the profits of the evening will be donated to the organization Brique par brique, which participates in the creation of affordable housing in the Parc-Extension district. In this spirit of solidarity, no spectator will be turned away at the door for pecuniary reasons, assure the organizers.

$15 tax included

January 17

Boarding a Limo

“Improvisation without strict rules, with audacity, openness and irreverence. This is what the Limo improvisation league, which has been in operation for over 25 years, offers. After treading the boards of the Cocktail for nearly a decade in the Village, the competitors moved to O Patro Vys, in the Plateau, last year. At $7 admission, it’s not a lot of laughs. Tanning cousin of the Ligue d’improvisation montréalaise (LIM), the Limo allows, kombucha or beer in hand, to discover unknown talents or to see at work more established actors like Joanie Guérin (Without an appointment, Audrey came back), Rose-Anne Déry (STAT, family councils) or even Simon Beaulé-Bulman (The blue house, CHAOS). Every Tuesday at 8 p.m.

$7 tax included

January the 21st

With the family at the Igloofete

To celebrate 15 years of open-air electro, Igloofête, the “coldest music festival in the world”, reserves four Saturday afternoons for the general public, from January 21 to February 11. Next weekend, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., DJ Lunice, A-Rock and Shaydakiss, as well as a choir, will be mandated to warm up Igloofête festival-goers, who won’t have to unfold their wallets . Robert Robert, Poirier and even Voyage Funktastique are among the artists who will liven up the Old Port in the following weeks. The site will house multimedia installations, games and fire pits, while street trucks and a bar service will provide food for young and old.

$0

January 27

A free concert by Catherine Major

A show by Catherine Major is good. A free Catherine Major show is even better. This is what the Maison de la culture Ahuntsic will offer to Montrealers to inaugurate its winter season, on January 27, at 7:30 p.m. The singer-songwriter will defend the songs of Motherboard, an “electro-orchestral” album launched in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic. Accompanied by a multi-instrumentalist – a $2 on Maxime Audet-Halde –, projections and light games, Catherine Major will report on her synthetic turn and her poetic pen against a background of maternal meanderings. Tickets are distributed at the counter and online at noon this Saturday. First come, first served.

$0 at the counter ($2 online fee)

February 5

Basquiat at full volume

Who says first Sunday of the month says free museums. This is true for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where time is running out to see and hear Full Volume: Basquiat and Music, an exhibition that probes the links that the American painter and instrumentalist forged between the third and fourth arts. “He created his works and his collages by following rhythms and repetitions specific to the composition of hip-hop music, adding a lot of improvisation typical of jazz”, explained curator Dieter Buchhart to our colleague Jean Siag last fall. last. The exhibition will leave Montreal on February 19 to land in April at the Musée de la musique de la Philharmonie de Paris under the name of… Basquiat Soundtracks.

$0

February 6

white dog at the Cine-Club

Community cinemas hosted by cultural centers and libraries are excellent ways to reconcile big screen and small budget. On February 6, for example, the Ciné-club Caserne 45 presents white dog, by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, at the Maisonneuve cultural centre. It costs the price of a small “two milks one sugar” in a third wave coffee. The feature film, adapted from an autobiographical novel by Romain Gary, offers a striking reflection on racism. As for the Maison communautaire et culturelle de Montréal-Nord and the Ciné-club de Pierrefonds, they offer screenings – Arsenault and son, In body, white dog, etc. – at zero cost for Montrealers.

$3

February 11th

A fraction of the Appendices

The weaning of the absurd humor of the Appendices is laborious? The most nostalgic will have something to eat on February 11, when the pair Les Appendeux – Julien Corriveau and Jean-François Provençal – will propose the concept of their podcast to the public of the Terminal Comédie Club. On the menu: discussions and improvised songs. We also note that the cabaret on Mont-Royal Avenue hosts “stand-up” evenings every Thursday and Friday. Admission is negotiated below a green ticket bearing the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II or – let’s be far-sighted – King Charles III.

$15 tax included