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Defending their latest LP Leather Terror, French project Carpenter Brut took the stage of Montreal’s Metropolis for 90 minutes of nothing but turbo-killer-hits of their remarkable discography, and who can resist the catchy melodies and stomping electro rock rhythms of Disco Zombie Italia?

Carpenter Brut is one of these artists playing a « crossover » genre, a talented way to mix different elements, from electro to synthwave, ‘80s disco or heavy metal, triggering various music enthusiasts.

The result is an eclectic crowd where you’ll find goths, black metalheads, electro clubbers and ‘80s movies amateurs, where Ramstein fans from last Sunday are meeting early Fetish Weekend latex and leather fellows all dancing together from first to last song, in a happy mix of moshpit and club dancing.

Carpenter Brut is presented here in a live version, featuring the main man and composer at the center of the stage, hiding behind a rack of keyboards and machines, and a huge red lightning logo. One guitar player on the left, giving more power to all the riffs and solos we can here in the songs, and on the right a drummer, reinforcing the beats, and even giving us a drum solo.

Going though all their excellent discography, Carpenter Brut has no problem bringing the energy up, as a lot of people seem to know each song.

Now don’t get me wrong: the whole thing is very powerful and efficient, and Carpenter Brut is doing better than a lot of similar acts by bringing two musicians on stage to make it more like a band than a DJ set. Still we can wonder how much it brings, since there is no singer, the voice in on the tracks, and a lot of musical parts are not “live” but on track, and the result is certainly good, but maybe not as transcendental as the full experience of diving into Carpenter Brut ‘80s retro universe with all the great videos and movie style atmosphere when listening in another context.

A question of taste and of musical genre, the electro DJ thing VS the rock band aspect, where Carpenter Brut is trying to bring all together: a good effort to bring the project alive on stage, even if somehow, it’s still a bit minimalist and not as rich and colorful as the Carpenter Brut fabulous universe in Blood Machines.

But the Montreal crowd will dance off their feet until the very last song, the excellent cover of Michael Sembello’s “Maniac”.