What did we learn from double helpings of Angine de Poitrine at End of the Road?

Culture moves so fast-and-fickle these days that the discourse around Angine de Poitrine has already gone from “they’re the best thing ever” to “every song sounds the same actually” to “I’m over it.” In some cases all within the 28 minutes of their breakout KEXP live session. End of the Road gave us two in-person chances to make, break or augment our hot takes IRL: the Quebec microtonal rock band played on the main stage to a packed field, and later that night, they were the first of two surprise sets in the Folly tent. The large, open-field show was a mixture of upfront moshers and half-interested grass-sitters further back, but the second set required serious time investment in a queue, so it was wall to wall hardcore Poit heads. As the hubbub built, a screen like the one you’d have over a hospital bed was spun around by two crew members, revealing polka dot patterns on the other side. Then came the cheers, the fingers made into triangles held above heads in a pledge of allegiance to our new microtonal overlords. Then came the gabble-gobble gibble-gubble rock and roll party. Trust a music writer to take something uncomplicated and fun and make it a boring argument, but amid all t...