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’77 Montreal is a festival that is based around the history of punk rock. In many ways celebrating the unofficial “40th Anniversary” of the genre. With headliners like Rancid and The Dropkick Murphys having been around for years, and local acts like Genetic Control and The Kingpins heralding from the 80’s and 90’s you might think that the whole festival is just based on nostalgia.

You would be wrong.

There are a few new faces to the Montreal punk scene who will be representing what a “new”  punk band is all about: Barrasso. Barrasso released their first album in 2015, so compared to the likes of Madball they’re fresh on the scene. Also, they’re the only band that will be performing primarily in French (with honorable mention to The Kingpins who have a few French tracks).

I asked singer Jonathan Beauregard about what it’s like being a punk band in Montreal:

Keith: You’re a relatively new (from what I can see) as a punk bank, only being around for a few years. How did Barrasso get together?

Jonathan: I wish I had a cool story to tell about how we all met and formed the band. The truth is I barely knew these guys when I showed up to their practice space (at Cité 2000 back then).

I remember coming in the locker room for the first or second hockey game of the year for a team that I just joined. I didn’t know anybody really, I just wanted to play. It was the same with the band. So the first thing I saw was this bearded guy, wearing my old punk rock band’s t-shirt (Suck La Marde) and I said to myself; “Well, at least I’ll have this dude to talk to!” That was Frank, our drummer. Thierry was also playing with us. Once they knew who I was and the fact that my other band, The Dirty Tricks, was dead, they invited me to one their rehearsal with Etienne, to see if I would be interested in joining the band.

I was ready for a new start. New band, with new bandmates. But I didn’t know if they were good or if they sucked!

So I sat there in the couch, just wishing that they didn’t suck! And they didn’t. In fact they played these Hot Snakes type of riffs, down strokes, exactly the way I always did. I think it took 1 song and I was like, “I’m in!”

Louis came in later, when Thierry left for several months to travel the world. When Thierry got back, we didn’t know he was in town, and so he simply showed up to a rehearsal, without telling us. It was great to have him back and so now we have 3 guitars since then. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…