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The epiphany came to me at Jean Leloup’s inspirational show at Metropolis in the fall of 2015. It remains one of the greatest, most exhilarating concerts I’ve seen in the past decade, as Johnny the Wolf ripped through tracks from his bestselling comeback album Paradis Cité and tunes from his entire career.

As I walked around the club, taking in the show from different vantage points, what really struck me was how almost every person in the 2,000-strong crowd knew all of the words to all of the songs, from early hits like Isabelle and 1990 to the brand new tunes off of his latest album.

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It made me realize that Leloup is Quebec’s equivalent of Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan. Not stylistically, but in the sense of his importance to his audience. He is one of the most iconic figures of his generation.

But here’s the weird thing about that night at Metropolis. There were no anglophones there. OK, maybe there were a few branché blokes hidden in dark corners of the venue, but there weren’t many. And it had me wondering yet again why it is that English Montrealers show so little curiosity about music made en français ici. Anglo rock fans would love Leloup, but most of them haven’t heard his idiosyncratic rock.