Anyone who has known me for more than about an hour knows how much a certain québecoise chanteuse means to me, and how she has shaped a large part of my life over the last eighteen years. Because of her I have directly and indirectly developed friendships here in Québec, in the USA, France, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Belgium. Many of those friends I have met and I have shared precious time together with them. Others I have not yet met face to face, but live in hope of doing so. And so one of the main reasons for my visit here in 2025 was, unsurprisingly, to see her perform on stage again. This time she was not to be performing a solo show with a trio of talented musicians, nor with a symphony orchestra nor a choir of several hundred voices, but with two other phenomenal female singers in a show entitled "Elles".
And today, 1st April 2025, was the day that I would be privileged to part of the audience at Théatre Manuvie, in Brossard, on the other side of the mighty St.Lawrence river, to see Luce Dufault, Lulu Hughes and Kim Richardson perform.
The rest of the day was spent in revisiting some familiar places in the city, with an almost obligatory visit to Le Place des Arts with its theatre complex, and the Complexe Desjardins, a shopping and food mall in which I had spent many an hour on previous visits. I also did some shopping in the Easton Centre for some supportive but comfortable footwear to combat a flare up of plantar fascitis in my right foot. My only other expedition of the day, in the afternoon, was to Floraison, a small florist's shop on rue St.Catherine. No prizes for guessing what I bought there!
Having examined all of the available options for getting from my base to Brossard, and having been advised by my dear friend Louise to be aware of possible delays in the public transport system, I decided to achieve my objective by making use of the Uber service again. And so it was after a 25 minute ride, I was deposited outside Théatre Manuvie at 6.30 p.m. I checked with a member of staff about being able to leave my coat, back-pack and brown paper wrapped collection of flowers in the cloakroom during the performance. Yes, it would be fine, but the cloakroom didn’t open until 7.10 p.m. Hmm, what do do until then... oh, look, two bar/restaurants in the theatre foyer. I chose one and having declined the opportunity to eat, was guided to a bar stool by a member of staff. What to have to drink was the next question. There was clearly no real ale on offer, and I didn't think they would have any Guiness Zero, so I opted for 20oz of Sleeman Rousse, an Canadian brewed beer, which was quite palatable.
So, having consumed one 20oz of Sleeman Rousse without the clock ticking round to 7.10, I had a 10oz measure of the same. and so it came to pass that at precisely 7.10 p.m. I presented my self at the vestiaire to deposit the aforementioned accoutrements. I explained to the young lady that Madame Dufault would be expecting me to visit backstage after the performance, and she tucked away the flowers and back-pack, and hat, coat and scarf, for the measly price of 3$. Then I made my way into the auditorium.
It was a pleasant auditorium, with plenty of space between the rows. Those of you with razor-sharp eyesight will see that I was in Row G, Seat 8 - a very good seat.
The theatre filled up slowly, but by the appointed time for the curtain to rise, it was full, apart from two seats to my right.
Here follows an important warning for all readers: there will be an unusually large concentration of superlatives in the next few paragraphs!
The curtain rose, revealing the six musicians in the band. There were three familiar faces from Luce's previous concerts, Ti-Basse on keyboard, Carl Surprenant on bass and Jean 'Johnny' Garneau, musical director and lead guitar. There were also a drummer, trumpet-player and saxophone player, and I promise I will have their names for the next time I report on "Elles". Next time, I hear you say? Oh yes, the next time!!
Then the ladies arrived on stage, one at a time, and the magic began. Now each of these wonderful ladies have instantly recognisable, amazing voices, but when they sang together it was the most incredible sound! The kind of sound that induces tears to emerge from the corners of your eyes and a smile to crease your face. A sound bath in which you bathe in wonderment. All dressed in black, as seen in the photo above, they looked as good as they sounded. There was a joy about the performance that will long rest in me - they shared the joy of performing together and they shared little moments of mutual support and encouragement between themselves, The repertoire was so varied - there were songs from each of their back catalogues, but there also unexpected delights, from many genres of music. We enjoyed songs by Peter Gabriel, Janis Joplin and so many others. And there were stories to preface the songs, like the one in which Kim recounted an unforgettable encounter with a certain very well known performer, when she was singing in a bar as a 17 year-old. Having seen this gentleman sitting there, she actually had the courage to ask him to sing with her. The gentleman’s name? Stevie Wonder!!
The band backing the ladies was phenomenal too, and you could see the sheer enjoyment as they performed their duties to the highest level. Jean Garneau on electric guitar was super, and as he mentioned to me afterwards, that was the first time I had seen him play an electric guitar apart from a lapsteel.
In a particularly poignant moment for me the ladies, seated on stools, sang Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now". The very first time I saw Luce perform live, was only a few short months after the death of my wife, Jean. At the end of that show, as her encore, Luce dedicated that song to Jean and me. A moment that will be with me for ever. This new show will be there too...
The show came to a close, but for me there was more than an Uber ride back to the city. I went back to the cloakroom, where the young lady handed back all of my belongings, and I asked her the best way to get backstage. She replied that she would contact someone and spoke into the microphone at her lapel. shortly afterwards another young lady came to me and told me that there was to be no access backstage tonight. This has happened to me before, but politely stated in my best possible French that Madame Dufault was expecting me there. She didn't look convinced but lead me through to the front of the auditorium, and told me to wait there whilst she sought further direction. At that moment a familiar person emerged and came to shake my hand - it was Jean-Marie, Luce's husband, and also tour director. The young lady then returned with two other ladies who had clearly been given the go-ahead for a backstage visit, and together we negotiated a maze of staircases and corridors until we came to the loges, the dressing rooms. On the way we bumped into Johnny Garneau, who exclaimed, "Robin! That's the first time you have seen me play electric guitar!" Luce was there, in the shared area of the loges, ready to greet me with a big hug. I shared with her my delight at the show, and then presented her with the bouquet and explained that I had a rose for each of the other ladies. She called in Lulu, and then a few moments later Kim arrived, just before leaving. She was being very careful with her voice, not wishing to test its endurance further. What a privilege to meet them both. Luce and Jean-Marie know me quite well, offering a choice of beers, and with Lulu enjoying a glass of wine with Luce and I, we enjoyed a chat. I had also brought something in my bag for Jean-Marie, and he seemed delighted with my choice of a 12 year old malt whisky.
There was the chance to say hello to Jean Sebastian Fournier (Ti-Basse) and Jean Garneau again, and then it was basically kicking out time. Jean-Marie led me to the exit, which proved to be at the rear of the theatre, and having contacted an Uber to pick me up in 2 minutes, I didn't have a clue where I was in relation to the pick up spot. So that was Uber 1 - Robin 0. I wandered about until I found an identifiable location - a Subway shop, and called again. In two minutes Yves arrived and at 11.34 p.m I was back at Pierce Hotel by Simplissimo.
What an evening!
Plans for the 2nd April included an Open Mic at a Brasserie ( the word 'brasserie' is an essential element of vocabulary - look it up!)
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