Angine de Poitrine (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, September 16, 2026)

September 16, 2026 by Paul Debraski

[ATTENDED: September 16, 2026] Angine de Poitrine

I am vey rarely ahead of a trend, but I think I found out about Angine de Poitrine about two days before everyone else. I recall watching the KEXP show and thinking, wow, I want to see these guys. And then like two days later, they blew up and everyone wanted to see them. The video went up on Feb 6 and by Mar 16, when this show was announced, I knew it would be hard to get a ticket. Luckily, I scored a ticket (and paid $34, not $300).

I am still puzzled about their popularity. Sure, the gimmick is a good one, but their music is weird and instrumental. Since I don’t speak French, I resisted saying their name for a while, calling them “the polka dot band” for my family. And then one day in the last couple of months, my wife was telling me how catchy she thought their radio friendly song Sarniezz was. And I realized that even though they’re weird and play micrtonal jams, the songs are crazy catchy too.

When a band breaks it big like this, there’s always the assumption that people want to go just to be there. And sure, people capitalized on the fame by scalping tickets for crazy prices. But the people here were pretty seriously into the music.

Normally I can stroll up to a venue 15 minutes before the opening act and get a pretty great spot. But I knew this would be different. So I left straight from work and arrive in front of the venue around 6:15 and there was a line almost to the end of the block. I parked and walked over and was able to stay on the entrance side of the street–before it curved around the block. It was a good 35 minute wait for the doors, but everyone around was chatty and friendly and that’s okay by me.

When we got in, for the first time ever, everyone who was already in the venue was crowded around the stage (rather than at the bar or merch). So I hung to the side with one of the guys I was talking to (who had never been there and I should have known better). The spot we had wasn’t bad, but I probably should have gone to the middle more. Of course, this is annoying complaints since I was three people from the stage (and they recently played in front of 100,000 people). I was more or less in front of Khn de Poitrine but I couldn’t see Klek de Poitrine (drums) without moving–good thing he has a massive helmet on.

The duo came out to the music of LCD Soundsystem’s North American Scum, tuned their gear and then held up their triangle hands to each other (for a comically long time) and then held them up to us–which everyone responded to, of course and within moments Khn was playing the thumping bass of Angor. Khn clapped his hands along his hat to get people to clap, I guess (who knows what these aliens mean when they communicate).

I was able to watch his hands pretty closely (obviously I would have liked to be a little closer to really see everything he was doing, but those folks arrived super early). I could see him playing both necks of the guitar but couldn’t see his footwork really at all. The Klek started the drums and we were off.

The songs were great live–really accurate to the record (which is not surprising). The between song behavior was interesting as Klek drank water from a water bottle with a very long straw and Khn let some interesting sounds ring out while tuning.

One thing I didn’t realize was that Klek’s eyes and dome lit up, which was really fun. They lit up at specific times, especially when he talked or “sang” but sometimes mid song. I’m so curious how he could trigger that while drumming.

The wild guitar work of Yor Zarad was really fun to be a part of and I enjoyed being able to see Klek hit his three layered cymbal to make a broken sounding metallic sound. I also enjoyed that Klek’s wobbly nose acted like a metronome as he played. The way the song gets totally frenet

They have 2 EPS out and they played songs from both. Tamebsz from the first album featured a fun part where both of them bounced and “sang” something in the middle of the song.

It was really fun how much the audience knew the songs just from the first couple of notes. Like the way Mata Zyklek opens with a single note but everyone knew what was coming. This was one of the songs where their lights lit up as they sang–it was especially fun watching Klek’s eyes flash during the singing part. And in the middle thumping part Khn clapped his head again and his triangle lit up.

I also liked that Khn flicked his nose which had a spring to it.

Between songs they both did limbering up exercises which was really funny to watch. And during Ababa Hotel, during the circular middle melody, Khn did a kind of hula dance and when the music stopped he would face the audience and jut his hip to the bonus note. It’s hard to interact with the audience when you’re so busy, but they manage.

Sarniezz is the single (which is funny to say). They “talked” to us before the song, possibly trying to get us to call and respond with them, which was hilarious and I had to imagine they get a kick out of doing that. It was really neat watching them recreate this song live.

I was a little surprised they didn’t save it for the end, but they are aliens after all. Up next was Fabienk with its very noticeable opening guitar part and there was more light up action from the brothers. During the “singing” part of the song, they both faced the audience and waved their arms kind of like surfing. More fun audience interaction.

And then there was only one song left. Sherpa makes sense as the last song-it’s got some “singalong” parts including the great middle part where we all got to shout nonsense sounds. Plus, watching Khn do some amazing guitar work was awesome. I hadn’t had earplugs in for the show, but this last song ended with some ear-piercing sounds that rang out for a pretty long time. I definitely should have had them in for that!

The set was pretty short (as they have been). I can’t imagine how hot it must be up there under all this gear. And I sure hope they are having fun, having stormed the world. They could easily fly back to their planet and never look back, having changed the musical landscape for a short time.

I knew there was no encore, so I rushed to the merch area to grab a poster and a shirt. I assumed they might be sold out but fortunately no.

They’re coming back in a couple of months to play at Franklin Music Hall. The show is long sold out and I have to wonder if it would be worth goin to that cavernous place to see them again, when I was lucky enough to see them in a tiny place from about 6 feet away. Time will tell. As will the price.

North American Scum [LCD SOUNDSYSTEM Tape]