The folk-rockers from Repentigny, Que., concluded a two-year world tour Monday night at the Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival.
Attendance was hampered by a steady, soaking rain which, like a gift from the concert gods, suddenly ended 15 minutes before showtime. As a result Les Cowboys performed not in front of tens of thousands of festival goers but rather 1,000 or so diehard fans.
Les Cowboys took the stage to roaring applause—lead singer Karl Tremblay, guitarist and songwriter J-F Pauzé, bassist Jerome Dupras, drummer Marc-André Brazeau, and Marie-Annick Lépine, a band onto herself who provides the occasional vocals, mandolin, fiddle and accordian that make Les Cowboys’ sound so distinct.
Les Cowboys are nothing if not theatrical—Tremblay performed half of one song standing on his head, and Dupras appeared on stage in a white nightgown. Toward the end of the show Tremblay, 33, proved he’s not too old to crowd-surf.
While many of their songs, like “Camping Ste-Germaine,” a bouncy hoedown piece about a domestic dispute at a campground, are funny, they are definitely able to lay jokes aside. Pauzé and Tremblay put their songwriting talents on display with “Toune d’automne” (Autumn Song) about a young man writing a letter to his backpacker sister, “La tete haute” (Head Held High) about a teenage cancer patient, and “Histoire de peche” (Fish Story) about the decline of Atlantic Canada’s fishing industry. Lépine’s endurance and intensity as a fiddler make this one, as a friend of mine once observed, “such a good dance number you’d have no idea it was about fish.”
While Tremblay’s energy seemed to flag about 90 minutes in, Pauzé, wearing a bizarre multicoloured Spandex suit, leapt around with his bass guitar like a possessed frog. Lépine kept wowing the crowd with lengthy, complex fiddle solos song after song.
It wasn’t a flawless show, however. Tremblay conspicuously forgot the words to one song and, as fans laughed, had to consult Lépine. Before the break which led to the encore, the energy level seemed to drop. The band decided not to play their best-known and arguably best-loved ballad, “Mon chum Rémi” (My Pal Rémi)- leading a section of disappointed fans to shout “Rémi!” throughout the curtain call. But it was well worth the $18 price of admission.
The band closed out with a fan favourite, “Les étoiles filantes” (Shooting Stars).
An approximation of Tremblay and Pauzé’s French lyrics for the chorus:
“And at the end of the road, tell me what will be left/ except for shooting stars?”
A great concert experience, that’s what.