Fly away with Bélanger | The Press

The planets are aligned for Daniel Bélanger. His record Mercury in May has not only been enthusiastically received, his tour draws crowds. Imagine: his Tuesday concert at the MTelus was the first of a series of three – he will be there again this Wednesday and Thursday. Two more are already planned for the Francos in June at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, one of the largest in Montreal. That’s not all: at the end of his tour launched in April, he will also have performed no less than four evenings at the Grand Théâtre de Québec.

Let’s not beat around the bush: his thousands of admirers will have to be very grumpy not to come out of this show enchanted and with a lighter soul, if not downright dazzled. Daniel Bélanger, wonderfully surrounded by Philippe Brault (bass), José Major (drums), Jérôme Beaulieu (keyboards) and Guillaume Doiron (guitars), indeed offered a concert crossed by an absolutely irresistible groove.

You could feel from the first moments of the show that the current was going to pass and that it was even going to make beautiful sparks. Came on stage to the sound ofOpeninga piece which also opened his instrumental disc Trackinghe began in song with Sunrisesecond part of Mercury in May. And now Daniel Bélanger was already playing with the crowd, raising his arms in the air to encourage them to come forward.

sing again, who came immediately after, gave an idea of ​​what the rest of the concert was going to look like: Philippe Brault carried the groove, while the other instruments, drums included, painted the patterns of the flying carpet on which the singer rose . It was even more powerful on get me out of mewhose rhythmic signature has been recognized by the finest connoisseurs from the first blows given by José Major.

One of Daniel Bélanger’s qualities is to surround himself very well on stage and to give his musicians the space to express themselves. He once again hit the nail on the head with the José Major-Philippe Brault duo on the rhythm section and with Guillaume Doiron (often frugal, always fair) and Jérôme Beaulieu (from the group Misc) who, throughout the concert, were magnificent colourists. . The keyboardist was particularly amazing. Sometimes discreet, sometimes in the foreground, it was everywhere: dreamy here, almost psychedelic there, then funky, soaring or jazzy. Always imaginative and eloquent.

These four musicians were united behind Daniel Bélanger. It was sometimes enough to stop for a moment at the body language of the singer and his group to see how much this rich music that entered our ears was embodied, there, before our eyes: they all nodded gravely, almost swaying, in perfect symbiosis.

And Daniel Belanger? It was as good, as quirky and as fine as usual. With her voice that vibrates like no other and on which time seems to have no hold.

We’ve seen him remix his songs in all sorts of ways over the years. Even with rockabilly sauce, at the time of City chic. It has a sure taste and it still serves it well.

This tour, he clearly wanted to take off. Maybe because reality is sometimes too heavy. The repertoire he chose was along these lines: in addition to five songs by Mercury in May (of which You have to agree, Sleep in the car And In the wind of ideas), he drew heavily on dream better (sing again, To leave you, Untouchable and immortal, In a sputnik, Fools anywhere And dream better), and among other things brought out the magnificent Breathe in the water And crazy times of Four seasons out of order.

There was a superb coherence in this concert. The crowd participated abundantly, not being asked to do the choirs, to the delight of Daniel Bélanger, visibly delighted to find himself in front of such an enthusiastic room. We would be remiss if we did not underline the effort put into the visual dressing of the show, inventive and often hyper-coloured, which relied in particular on large rather surprising luminous cables. These staging effects enhanced the gently “psychedelic” side of the concert, which above all had the effect of a good dose of happiness.

Daniel Bélanger will perform again this Wednesday and Thursday at the MTelus, sold out. Then on June 16 and 17 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier.