Vitrines SiriusXM Rue St-Anselme, August 28
BY Daniel SylvesterPublished Aug 31, 2026
While Quebec City's long‑running St‑Roch XP festival is best known for spotlighting emerging Quebec artists, its late‑August takeover of streets, clubs, coffee shops and other offbeat spaces has also become a showcase for East Coast musicians, whether they're coming from Acadia or New York.
Playing four sets during the festival's final two nights, BALACLAVA's 9 p.m. performance at the Rue Saint-Joseph and Rue St-Anselme intersection was perfect for the NYC quintet's brand of raucous, high-energy garage and punk rock.
With their stage posted up against the street's shops, the crowd was only given a few meters to gather in front, mimicking a packed small club with barely any elbow room. Starting as a solo project for vocalist and guitarist Dylan Joyce, his band has since expanded to include a second guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, all players wearing the titular balaclavas in a spectrum of colours.
Opening with their newly released single "LOVE BOG," the quintet immediately started thrashing across the stage, nearly colliding with one another in the tight quarters. Matching the hip energy of their New York City home base, the Quebecers in the crowd — now spilling onto both sides of the platform — picked up the cue immediately, jumping and dancing with the same wild intensity.
Moving into the single's B‑side, "RAT PISS," along with tracks from their two EPs — 2024's THE ¼ INCH ALMANAC and 2022's Have a Taste — plus a healthy amount of new material, the band managed to draw the crowd into such a frenzy that Joyce had to ask them to "stop screaming," which naturally just led to even more screaming.
As Joyce's echoed vocals sound indebted to the Osees' version of psych‑punk across their releases, the band delivered something even more punishing and unbridled onstage, culminating in their keyboardist jumping into the crowd's makeshift mosh pit during "Everything at Once."
Closing off the brief 40‑minute set with their 2026 single "DRAMATIC EXIT" and 2024's "WHERE IS MY FOUR DIMENSIONAL DOG?," BALACLAVA looked exhausted and spent from the day's performances, as the guitarist leaned against a speaker pole to finish the closer, while audience members reached out to hold him upright.
As the worked‑up crowd demanded an encore, BALACLAVA limped off the stage due to time constraints, leaving behind dozens of new fans who'll be right there for their next chaotic onstage masterpiece.
