TOUR DE FORCE - La Force in Montreal.
Written and shot by Eva Lynch
November 22, 2023
Montreal, QC @ Centre Phi
The show started with La Force layering cassette tapes one by one as she built up their static sounds, almost as if switching between radio stations, and setting the loops for the music to come. She graced the stage in a large white dress which enveloped her into the backdrop; of the stage as a series of curated immersive visuals began to fill the stage, similar to her music video, filling her dress with Xs and Os, along with old-school projector photos of objects like shells of shellfish alike, either immersing La Force completely or leaving her face illuminated by a spotlight. The lighting was colorful and distinct for every song, and showed how her artistry is not limited to merely the music as it extends to every aspect of the performance and the vision she brings to a project, and by choosing to fade into the background, chooses to put the music first above anything else.
The release of her album XO Skeleton marks five years since the birth of La Force. In an anniversary statement over Instagram, she writes that she named this project as something big, something ‘to grow into, like a child playing dress up in adult clothing.’ She says the project has
been like ‘equal parts lifeline and albatross’ and brought her to many unexpected places over the past five years. The record itself is about La Force’s, otherwise known by Ariel Engle, ‘unnatural obsession with death’ which has been a fascination from as early as she can remember. She claims the album is a reckoning or kind of ode to death, not as a finite state but a regenerative place, and the comfort she finds dwelling in the unknown is on full display on stage as she disappears into smoke and darkness throughout the performance as singing seems to come second nature and she simply becomes the music. The only way to describe how it felt is fresh.
Her voice has been iconic for years, a Canadian household vocalist who has been a close collaborator with artists like Patrick Watson and Broken Social Scene, this album proves it’s her moment in the limelight. I loved Broken Social Scene’s Hug of Thunder and the minute I heard her voice cut through Kevin Drew’s, highlighting her falsetto and powerful range, I was hooked. Ariel Engle proves she truly is a Force to reckon with. Her voice is authentic and sincere, with sharp-cutting lyrics which weave together stories that leave you entranced. Through her performance, the mundane banalities of life she sings about adopt a mythic quality, such as in her song “XO Skeleton” where she recalls a call with her life insurance broker who said to her, “God forbid you should die,” and in shock she replied, “Well, there’s one thing guaranteed: no god or goddess is going to keep me alive,” yet once put to paper, these lyrics feel like abstract mythical moments because of the way La Force is able to bring us inter her world. She captures these moments which remind us of the periphery of death and breathe life into everyday interactions. The balance she managed to strike between untouchable concepts and everyday occurrences we all relate to makes the songs all the more striking and had the whole crowd at PHI Foundation singing along. Her enchanting voice is even more powerful in-person and plays into this dualism where her performance is upbeat yet melancholic, playful but sincere, and ultimately deeply moving and soothing. There's a beautiful quality which is hard to put a finger on, where the rich and deep choruses she runs through effortlessly manage to resonate with everyone in the room, and getting to watch her perform felt like being stuck in a trance.
In the middle of the show as she switched out guitars, she put us on a brief hold and played ‘hold music’ and joked that we’d love it if it was Peter Gabriel before doing her best impression of him. Hailing from Montreal herself, the show felt like a hometown returning, shouting out her family in attendance and many friends, which made for a relaxed and low-stakes environment where she simply dazzled. During this interlude, her drummer and guitarist took a brief leave as she began to perform ‘Ouroboros’ solo, and as she sings about a snake eating its own tail, rips off her own dress layer by layer -- shedding her skin to reveal sequined sleeves waiting beneath. The whole show felt like a performance because of the artistry she embodied, while also being incredibly frank and not taking herself seriously, which continued even until the end where a series of credits rolled as if a film was coming to an end. She reemerged for a brief encore where she sang Mama Papa, dedicated to her parents who were in the front row; her mum jumping up and down and beaming with pride. She ended the night by serenading the crowd with a cover of ‘Pump Up the Jam’ by Technotronic, and thanking everyone before filing off stage in a playful procession.
