[ATTENDED: September 16, 2026] Annie-Claude Deschênes
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).
Who even knew if they were going to have an opener. Well, soon enough, the opener was announced as Annie-Claude Deschênes. When I looked her up, I couldn’t find any music by her, which is weird since she has an album Les Manières de Table that came out in 2024. And a new(ish) single from 2025.
So just who opens for Angine de Poitrine? Well, Annie-Claude Deschênes is a performance artist and musician. I have just learned that she was in a band called Duchess Says who were on the terrific alien8recordings label and put out three albums between 2008 and 2016. Not sure what Annie-Claude was doing in the meantime, but she certainly hasn’t lost any front woman skills.
When the rumbling noises of her first song started, a man in a waiter outfit (bow tie, cloth, paper receipt) stood on the stage and shone a flashlight around. Then Annie-Claude came running out and shouted the end of that first song. The second song, Culinary Security was more dancey, but the music was very old school synth style. Indeed, the bandcamp summary of her album says
Inspired by the pioneers of electronic music, LES MANIÈRES DE TABLE is as danceable and melodic as it is disquieting and dystopian. The album proposes to set the table differently by deconstructing the social codes of politeness, and draws from a wide range of influences, notably Steve Reich’s minimalism, Kraftwerk’s synthetic textures, Herbie Hancock’s stylistic diversity and experimental cinema’s unconventional approach to narrative.
The lyrics were in English and French and song three, Phones, saw Annie-Claude taking a (prerecorded) reservation. I should mention that on stage this whole time was a small table and two chairs. After this song, the waiter, who had been polishing the table, put flowers and several Reserved signs on the table. Menace Minimale was more dancey and I enjoyed the way Annie-Claude moved in a robotic way to the synth blasts and chord changes. (more…)
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