Quebec Summer Festival: Old hands give a rock lesson at Parc de la Francophonie

With Kansas as headliner, preceded by Kim Mitchell and The Box, the diehards present at the Parc de la Francophonie on Friday evening were treated to a sincere demonstration of progressive rock.

The three singers of the main shows who took to the stage on this beautiful July evening had a total of nearly a century and a half of experience in the world of progressive rock. But, to give credit where credit is due. The American group Kansas, with the fiery Ronnie Platt as leader, gave a performance worthy of the greats of the industry.

At 64, Platt moved like he was 20. On a ballad, like the nonetheless very catchy People of the South Windor more rhythmic titles, like Play the Game Tonight And Fight Fire with Firethe veteran was having a blast from one end of the stage to the other.

Beautiful moment of sweetness

As good experienced rockers, the members of the group that formed in the 1970s knew how to calm the tempo at the right moment. And what’s better than the timeless Dust In the Wind to do it? You had to see the thousands of flashlights lighting up the Parc de la Francophonie to the sound of this sweetness from 1977, enhanced by the impressive violin of Joe Deninzon, to understand that Kansas had a hold on its spectators.

Bring on the 1970s

Despite releasing an album as recently as 2021, Kansas has mostly stuck to what made them successful early in their career. Drawn from the band’s early albums in the mid-1970s, the Paradox, Song for America And Can I Tell You were particularly enthusiastically received, as were the Down the Road, The Wall And Carry On Wayward SonThe latter, who once helped Kansas reach new heights, also came to put the cherry on the sundae that was the group’s formidable performance.

Kim Mitchell, rock in the soul

Showing up on stage in his sunglasses and with a gorgeous turquoise guitar under his arm, while dressed all in white, Ontario native Kim Mitchell already had the look of a rock star before he even played a note. He wasn’t going to rely on his fashion sense alone to entertain the crowd, though, and he wasted no time in proving it.

From the first scathing chords of Rock ‘n’ Roll Duty, In the opening act, it was with a smile on his face that the 72-year-old veteran announced his colours. What followed was a performance worthy of a member of the Canadian pantheon of songwriters. Either with old-school rock, as on Drive and Desire And Lager and Aleor on scores tinged with blues and country like those of That’s A Man And Patio Lanternswho was at the height of his glory in the 1980s, hit the mark for his first appearance at the FEQ.

The crowd, which got lively at the start of the performance before becoming more timid, quickly came back to life for the finale, Go for Soda, title that launched Kim Mitchell’s career.

The Box: Jean-Marc Pisapia keeps in shape

It was a Parc de la Francophonie packed with festival-goers of all ages that awaited the Montreal pop-rock group The Box, early in the evening. The crowd gave a warm welcome to singer Jean-Marc Pisapia, who is the only member of the original group to have returned to service, in 2004, after about ten years away from the stage. At 66, Pisapia showed that he is still capable of giving back this love to his faithful.

Dressed in his pilot’s uniform, he was particularly charismatic on the title The Dumontier Affair (Say to Me), an almost spoken word song that tells the story of a murder trial. The singer seemed delighted to be back at the Summer Festival after a five-year absence, taking out his cellphone to capture the moment when the crowd clapped their hands to the sound of Closer Togethera 1986 classic that was originally produced to raise funds for Leucan.