Long held by the male glories of the 60s and 70s, the torch of nostalgia on the Plains of Abraham was successfully taken up, Friday evening, by the one who redefined rock for women during the 1990s, Alanis Morissette.

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On a beautiful summer evening, tens of thousands of festival-goers reconnected in sweet joy with the inspiring songs of his immense album Jagged Little Pill, released in 1995.

Of course, the Ontario artist has never stopped creating music, but this reunion with the public of Quebec, 23 years after his last visit to the capital, at the Coliseum, was first and foremost a celebration. of this flagship album and, by extension, of his career.

A video montage presented before his arrival on stage has also testified to his past successes and his influence with a whole generation of musicians.

As for the songs from her other albums that were on the program, she only offered short excerpts for the most part.

Alanis Morissette did not keep the nostalgics waiting. A string of Jagged Litlle Pill tracks kicked off his performance. After seeing her pacing the stage from edge to edge on All I Really Want, as she did all night long, the crowd took out cellphones and vocal cords to accompany her for Hand In My Pocket.

Powerful

What was striking from the outset was the power of her voice, clearly unaffected by laryngitis which forced her to cancel two concerts last month. During her impressive interpretation of Mary Jane and several times during her 90 minutes on stage, Morissette reached heights inaccessible to ordinary mortals.

She often practiced social distancing with her microphone, lowering it to the height of her hips without losing a single note, à la Ginette Reno, a flattering comparison if there ever was one.

Although she was not very talkative, the 48-year-old artist delivered an almost flawless performance. While audiences were most fond of the Ironic anthems, complete with a tribute to her late late drummer, Taylor Hawkins, and You Oughta Know, it was when she harnessed her tremendous rock energy, on Wake Up and Uninvited, for example, that Alanis Morissette was at her best.

Garbage: up to date

Even if, like Alanis, he will be associated for eternity with 1995, the year of the release of his eponymous album and the refuge of all his great successes, the American group Garbage have come to reaffirm that they have lost none of their relevance, in the first part.

Obviously, the Vows, Stupid Girl, Queer, the latter preceded by a reaffirmation by singer Shirley Manson that we don't live in a friendly world for women and the LGBTQ community, and Only Happy When It Rains, this one featured in a clever version started in slow motion, in keyboard-voice formula, before melting into an irresistible crescendo, had their effect.

However, the performance of this flagship group of the alternative scene fulfilled its promises when the quartet, which becomes a quintet on the boards, used songs from its 2021 album, No Gods No Masters.

Placed at the start of the run just after Vow, the title track, with its nervous rhythm, established that we were not just in a nostalgic affair. Ditto with Godhead, during which guitarist Duke Erikson and bassist Steve Marker erected a powerful wall of sound on the Plains.

A similar operation was repeated with the same exhilarating result on Push It, this one rescued from Version 2.0, published in 1998.

In addition, at 55, Shirley Manson has retained the rebellious energy of her youth and her voice still holds up. She insisted on speaking to us in French, even seeming annoyed when she couldn't find the words.

She didn't have to worry about it. The effort, especially in the context of a rock show of this quality, was appreciated.

The Beaches: rock coloré 

The singer in yellow, the two guitarists in green and blue, the drummer in red: if each girl of The Beaches group has her color palette, the Torontonians showed that they shared the same rock energy, at dinner time .

This formation, which has been rolling since 2013, crowned revelation group for the Junos awards in 2018, was sponsored by Emily Haines and James Shaw, from Metric, producers of their album Late Show and you can hear it in the concern they seem to have so that their punk rock melodies can also be danced to.

On stage, we were able to discover, they have contagious pleasure and a conquering attitude. As an appetizer, just before Garbage and Alanis Morissette, it was perfectly in tune.