NicheMTL has an ambivalent mission.
On one hand, it endeavours to shed light upon cultural activities that receive little to no attention in other media. On the other, like any enterprise, it aims to achieve maximum popularity — clicks, likes, shares, stats, growth.
On one hand, it seeks to remain free to read. On the other, it is now also a luxurious magazine for sale at a near art book price point.
On one hand, it serves the artistic community by covering Montreal’s nichest events. On the other, it serves me and its contributors as a platform for our artform: the written word.
Ideally, NicheMTL is a circuit that gives back more than it receives, if only in the form of goodwill in absence of anything tangibly valuable.
NicheMTL has afforded me a wealth of incredible experiences. It is impossible to choose favourites, or to rank my most beloved days.
Nonetheless, the days listed chronologically below stand out, not just as some of the most enjoyable of 2024, but moreover, some of the most sincerely special days of my life.
Since the depths of the pandemic, I promised never again to say ‘no’ to an opportunity to do something out there in the world, together with people, in the public sphere. And so far, keeping this promise has not remotely disappointed me.
Thank you for a wonderful year. Thank you for inviting NicheMTL to your events. Thank you for sharing your gifts with us, with Montreal, and with the world.
What you do matters. It is interesting. It is important. It is beautiful. It is eternal.
Some people have asked me why NicheMTL doesn’t publish straight-ahead reviews — or previews — like other media forms. The answer, simply, is because it’s niche.
There are no prizes. It’s an honour just to be nominated.
—Ryan Alexander Diduck, publisher
Alexandra Stréliski with Patrick Watson, Salle Wilfrid Pelletier, 17 January 2024
After securing a coveted media ticket to the second of two sold-out concerts at Salle Wilfrid Pelletier, I was delighted to have been assigned a seat next to Carolina Dalla Chiesa, who is Alexandra Stréliski’s partner.
We became fast friends and hung out backstage after the show with Patrick Watson, who earlier in the evening treated the audience to a walk-on duet with Stréliski of The Cinematic Orchestra’s “To Build a Home.”
The house came down.
Sarah Davachi interview and Total Solar Eclipse, 8 April 2024
Immediately following a Zoom conversation with Davachi, I realized that there were precious few minutes until Montreal would bear witness to a total solar eclipse.
So, I scrambled past thousands of spectators to a secret spot adjacent to Silo no. 5 and perched myself amidst a group of stoner kids and some Quebecois old-timers who were listening to Pink Floyd and drinking tall cans of PBR.
There could not have been a better setting for this once-in-a-lifetime moment.
Emmanuel Lacopo and Ensemble Urbain play Julius Eastman, Casa del Popolo, 20 May 2024
The only other band that has ever sent shivers down my spine quite like Lacopo and company at Casa del Popolo was Godspeed You! Black Emperor at their reunion concerts in 2011.
I had the sense that I was observing something very special as this group of talented artists took to the stage at one of the venues that that legendary collective helped to establish — like the passing of the baton onto the next generation of Montreal’s musical mythmakers.
Black Givre with Jean-Sébastien Truchy and Preoptic Ridge, Ateliers Belleville, 1 June 2024
Ateliers Belleville established itself as an important cultural space in 2024, presenting a number of unmissable vernissages, housing the studios for more than four dozen practicing artists, and hosting a handful of experimental music events entitled Échos.
With venues under threat from encroaching condos, and residents unamenable to the noise that accompanies Montreal’s renowned night-time scenes, workspaces like Ateliers Belleville have never been more vital.
Ambient Music in the Park + Shunk with Ahren Strange House Show, 11 August 2024
Montreal’s do-it-yourself core came to the fore in two events that happened to coincide on 11 August: the first being one of NPNP Trio and Personal Records founder Jackson Darby’s iterations of Ambient Music in the Park, an impromptu gathering of electronic music’s outsiders at Champs des possibles.
Next, I headed north to a house show featuring NicheMTL darlings, Shunk, held atop the roof of an apartment on Boulevard St. Laurent and Beaubien.
Everyone passed the audition.
The Dears & Stars, Rialto Theatre, 28 September 2024
2004 was an enormously momentous year for Montreal’s independent music scenes, with the release of internationally best-selling albums by The Dears, Stars, Wolf Parade, and Arcade Fire.
What was so special about Pop Montreal’s 20th anniversary Stars/Dears double bill was that it wasn’t just about invoking a sense of nostalgia; it was also about celebrating the longevity of these astonishing bands, which have always been capable of creating a vibe in the here-and-now.
FYEAR with Erika Angell, Centre PHI, 16 October 2024
FYEAR is a supergroup fronted by poet Kaie Kellough and saxophonist Jason Sharp, and including Kevin Yuen Kit Lo, Joe Grass, Josh and Jesse Zubot, Tawhida Tanya Evanson, Stefan Schneider, and Tommy Crane.
Watching this ensemble come together onstage at Centre PHI was the highlight of 2024’s cultural calendar and might be among my most transformative ever live musical experiences.
There is no greater power than a nonet firing on all nine cylinders.
NicheMTL Yearbook Launch, Ateliers Belleville, 19 October 2024
Everyone who attended the NicheMTL Yearbook launch was undoubtedly graced with exceptional musical performances.
However, the most unexpected gift came when Yuki Isami, Emmanuel Jacob Lacopo, and Ensemble Urbain’s Josh Morris spirited up a blissful sonic improvisation that they made look easy.
It was something like a Vaudevillian magic trick, with all the players having to promise the audience that they had never before performed together.
Tout geste est/et politique, Nadia Myre, Robert Myre & Molinari, Fondation Guido Molinari, 31 October 2024
One of the reasons I write is to remember — what I did, what I experienced, how it affected me, sounds, colours, the mood of the room. Every word is more-or-less carefully chosen to convey and communicate as clearly as possible a feeling, an image, not just for readers but also for me.
Writing is a consciously political act because it orients an audience towards an idea. Words are naked as food crossing the threshold of our mouths, immanently transmogrifying into us.
Soul Manifest, Dexter Barker-Glenn, Espace Maurice, 30 November 2024
There are no shortcuts to enlightenment. Certain things may act as catalysts. Meditation, exercise, diet, habit — all of these produce in the subject a disposition of consciousness that may be more conducive to illumination.
Drugs, of course, have been touted as vehicles for expanding consciousness, and I at times have succumbed to this prescription.
Still, nothing gets me higher than a great conversation. More than a tab on the tongue, it is true communion.◼︎
Thank you to NicheMTL’s contributors, Darragh Kilkenny-Mondoux, Rachael Rinn Palmer, and Zoe Lubetkin, and to our presenting sponsors, Akermus, Constellation Records, and État de choc.
Thank you for inviting NicheMTL to your thing. Please get in touch at the about page.
NicheMTL is Montreal’s independent not-for-profit source for this city’s most niche arts and culture. If you love what you’re reading, please consider buying a yearbook and subscribing.
Cover image: The view of Montreal from Mount Royal Chalet, 8 October 2024. Photographed for NicheMTL.
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