Greg Freeman's Yearnful Alt-Country Dazzles at L'Esco

For a music journalist, covering multiple local gigs a month, shows can often become monotonous. Same venues, same industry acquaintances, same local beer, same flavours of indie rock, it can be difficult to find something new to say. 

But, once in a while, the weary critic will find herself in attendance of something truly special. This was the case for me at this past Tuesday’s show at L’Escogriffe featuring Burlington Vermont’s own Greg Freeman. 

To be fair, I did have high hopes for this show. For the past year, I had been nothing short of evangelizing Freeman’s 2022 record I Looked Out to any music fan who would listen. Freeman’s sound exists in the, now inexplicably trendy, genre of current alt-country. Bands like Wednesday, Rat Boys, and Slow Pulp have been celebrated in recent years for merging heavy guitar tones with identifiably ‘Americana’ instrumentation. This scene has often been dubbed ‘country-gaze,’ to both my and Freeman’s confusion.

Yet, Greg Freeman sets himself apart from others in this current craze by foregoing some of his contemporaries’ emo influences towards a different sort of harkening towards the 90s, employing distorted horns and harmonicas evocative Neutral Milk Hotel or The Microphones, with yearning vocals that sound straight off of Jason Molina’s The Lioness.

Before the show started, it seemed to me that not many in attendance were incredibly familiar with Freeman’s album. Many at L’Esco were there as friends of the openers, fans of Sasha Cay especially, and those in the industry who snagged some last-minute tickets. However, I can safely say that those who did not know Freeman before his show at L’Esco were converted into fast fans (as several friends came up to me to tell me they were immediately going home to stream his album). 

First up on the night’s bill was local musician KT Laine. Laine’s music is reminiscent of soulful indie songstresses such as Angel Olsen,  echoing back to the singer-songwriters of the 1960s. KT Laine had the tough responsibility of warming up a L’Esco crowd, slowly trickling in from loitering around outside the venue sipping beers. However, her sweet voice and bashfully quirky stage presence seemed to bring together the, at this point, small crowd of largely friends. Laine played largely off her 2022 LP Knock Knee, which fans of Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, and Cate Le Bon would certainly enjoy. 

The venue began to fill up by the time Sasha Cay and her band took the stage. Sasha Cay played a moody, lo-fi indie set, featuring several new songs. After shouting out her bandmate James Clayton’s new album, Sasha and her band finished off the set with “Comedy”, the lead single off her much-beloved 2023 record Spin. It was apparent that many in attendance knew the song by heart as the front of the room started singing along with the chorus and swaying to this local favourite.

After a brief break. Greg Freeman kicked off his set with “Right Before the Last Waves Took Vestris,” ushering everyone back inside from their smoke breaks. From this song, already a high point of the album, the audience was hooked on Freeman and his five-piece band, including bass, drums, keys and saxophone. After this first song, Freeman took a moment to introduce himself to the Montreal audience, in a shockingly soft spoken voice, contrasting with his raspy wails. This being the first time the Burlington-resident has toured in Canada, he relayed that the last time he’d been up north was to see Bob Dylan perform. “You are a very loud crowd,” he said with a chuckle, “The Bob Dylan crowd was silent.” In a fitting transition, Freeman then donned a harmonica holder for the song “Come and Change My Body.” 

Throughout the set, friends were turning to each other, eyes lit up, breathlessly surprised by the show they stumbled upon. 

Another highlight of the show was the song “Tower.” This song had Freeman turning back towards his band to shred towards the bass and horn, with sections of harsh noise giving way to melodies from the saxophone and then back again. This is Freeman’s most intense song, as his voice strained and cracked over the concluding bars. 

The small venue, only a little over half-full crowd, and Freeman’s almost timid stage presence between songs wouldn’t lead to high expectations of the show. However, Freeman’s exemplary songwriting and electric stage presence made this show cut through the noise of the near daily indie shows here in Montreal. All through the set, you had the sense that you were witnessing something truly special, an artist on his rise right before he blows up. It had the sense of one of those moments you could look back on fondly in later life, getting to boast you saw an arena-playing artist when they still toured in small bars. Greg Freeman surely made the best of his first Canadian tour and wowed Montreal on this otherwise unremarkable Tuesday night.