Besnard Lakes Bring the Noise to Quebec City Summer Festival

With strobe lights pulsing and the smoke machine cranked to full blast, Besnard Lakes delivered the reverb-drenched goods to fans packed into Le Cercle on Tuesday night as part of the Québec City Summer Festival.

Rattling the room with epic tunes such as, 'Albatross' and 'Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent Pt. 2: The Innocent,' off of their Polaris Prize-nominated album, 'The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night,' the Montreal quartet was utterly mesmerizing. Retro-tinged melodies muddied by shoegaze-sounding guitar and heavy feedback entranced the crowd, as did frontman Jace Lasek's incredible voice, which carried most of of their psychedelic tracks.

Taking a break from their far-out jams only to offer the occasional "Merci" or to ask, "Do you want to hear some more noise?", the rockers were fully in the groove by the time they hit the encore.

The only slight disappointment came when Lasek invited input from the crowd for the final number, only to ignore suggestions, such as the Beach Boys' 'Kokomo,' in favour of their own 'Land of Living Skies Pt. 2: The Living Skies.' It was still a great closer, but hearing that golden classic would have been a real show-stopper.