Review | Pull the coyote: let the light through

Tire le coyote presented the Montreal premiere of its tour on Thursday evening In the first round of evidence. A gentle and slow show, like his recent album, which warmed the souls of the spectators.

Josee Lapointe
The Press

That’s when he started to sing bonny, one of his oldest songs, a cappella and without a microphone when we could have heard a pin drop in the huge Salle Maisonneuve, we understood the whole relationship between Tire le coyote and the public. Such a dense and charged silence is in itself a form of exchange and this ardent and active, almost religious listening, carries Tire le coyote, Benoit Pinette of his real name, at arm’s length all evening.

The singer-songwriter kicks off the show the same way as the album, with the treble My eyes show fulla poem read by the great Joséphine Bacon — who apparently was in the room —, followed by the title song, which is more ambient, and Criss-cross the slowmagnificent epic piece divided into several tables, which announces the colors for all that was to follow.

We talk a lot, with good reason, about the evocative poetry of Tire le coyote and its texts chiselled like diamonds. Her voice too, of course, which is perhaps divisive, but which has also become her signature — on stage, with what she asks of the singer as physical involvement, she contributes to the spell.

But we talk less about his music, yet in show that it is obvious: dominated by Americana, it is however not linear. Each song is a little journey in which you breathe a lot: there is room at Tire le coyote for delicate intros, exploding and stretching bridges, uplifting breaks in tone, surprising finales.

The addition of a keyboardist, Ariane Vaillancourt, and a backing vocalist, Audrey-Michèle Simard, has a lot to do with the often soaring atmosphere that is installed, supported by Marc-André Landry on bass and Jean-Philippe Simard. to the battery.

Still, it’s Benoit Shampoo Villeneuve, true guitar hero and musical brother of the singer, who steals the show as soon as it advances — and even when it does not advance! We hear each of his notes, his magic touch coats almost every song, and his complicity with Benoit Pinette — they both wear a hat — adds to the symbiosis of the entire group of musicians.

From a few acoustic moments to other very electric ones, from restrained ballads to heavier pieces, from old pieces to new songs, Tire le coyote takes us along the path of this intense but never heavy show, staged by Emilie Perreault. Even when he’s “angry” with social media, like in the play The color of the wind, it is always with delicacy. Even more rock like on chainsawthe whole remains elegant.

Tire le coyote does not often appear on stage during the show. No need, his songs speak for him. He prefers to let the atmosphere settle and the inner reflections travel according to his texts. Love, the passage of time, the legacy we leave behind, these are the main themes that run through the work of Tire le coyote, so it’s no surprise that the listening is so collected – in the last third, however. , on My Quiet Revolutionmore blues, or the heroic Caulk the cracksthe public did not hesitate to clap their hands and shout, to show their pleasure more openly.

But it’s when he talks about mourning and death that the singer seems to be at his best, the most sensitive, the most real. Towards the end of the show, the double with the new and moving Treasurerfollowed by what is probably his greatest success, the improbable hit The sky is backorderthe emotion is at its height and the communion, total.

Behind him during the show, a giant forest was projected on the big screen at times, the color of the sky changing according to the mood. When a pure white light passed through the tree trunks during Treasurerwe said to ourselves that this is what, in the end, Tire le coyote: a walk in the forest that can lead to the darkest corners, but through which the light always ends up passing through.

Tire le coyote is on tour throughout Quebec. Info on his site.