The group Bran Van 3000 – popular at the end of the 90s – delighted several thousand people Thursday evening by offering an outdoor concert during this 5th edition of the alley show.
The Gaboury lane in the Hochelaga district of Montreal looked like a party. In fact, it’s a whole corner of streets – Gaboury lane corner Morgan park – which celebrated the return of the alley “shows” after two years of pandemic break.
Banners, bars, food kiosks from local restaurants, clothing with the Hochelaga logo added to this spectacle.
Across the street, Morgan Park was teeming with people from the neighborhood and beyond. Children, dogs, bands of friends, families, teenagers and older people made up a crowd, compact in places, covering the small hill with greenery.
“The idea is first of all to use culture as an economic lever and to place Hochelaga on the map of Montreal neighborhoods in order to change people’s opinion of this neighborhood, which changes quickly,” said elsewhere explained Julie Lavallée-Ansay, Deputy Director General of the SDC Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, at the Log in the afternoon.
If five concerts were usually presented in this formula each year, the team chose to bet on a big show constituting a big comeback after the forced break caused by COVID-19.
rock nostalgia
If Bran Van 3000 – a group that marked the adolescence of many Quebecers – was selected and expressed the desire to participate in what was to be the biggest alley show to date, it is because the simple, warm and local appealed to him a lot.
James Di Salvio and his band have thus brought happiness to thousands of fans gathered specifically to see them again, by delivering fifteen songs and borrowings, including (you gotta) Fight For Your Right (to party) of the Beastie Boys. An interpretation that made the crowd sing.
The main part of this show of about an hour and a half was made up of pieces taken from their album Gleean almost legendary record that just celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2022.
The Gimme Sheldon, Cum on Feel the Noize, Exactly Like Me, Mama Don’t Smoke and, of course, the legendary Drinking in LA thus made us plunge back with a sweet nostalgia into a beautiful era which suddenly did not seem so distant to us.
The completely free event is organized by the SD
► This show by Bran Van 3000 has been the “alley show” that has attracted the most spectators since the concept was created in 2016.