It’s hard to find a band more passionately liberating than NOBRO.
The all-femme punk band from Montreal has risen to prominence throughout the country on the strength of their anthemic debut album, Set Your Pussy Free, released in October 2023. This landed the four-piece a spot on the Polaris Music Prize shortlist for 2024.
Next, they’ll be taking their attitude-driven rock to the Halifax Urban Folk Festival, performing at The Marquee on Oct. 4 at 7:30pm.
“I feel like Halifax is just like, there’s so much,” says vocalist, bassist and founding member Kathryn McCaughey. “Everyone’s just so nice, so friendly. Really excited to get greeted with that Maritime hospitality.”
NOBRO has been a band in the making since 2014, experiencing several changes in its lineup over the years. The band now features McCaughey, drummer Sarah Dion, keyboardist Lisandre Bourdages, and Karolane Carbonneau on guitar and vocals.
Despite being around for nearly a decade, the band only released scattered EPs throughout the 2010s, up until their last EP, Live Your Truth Shred Some Gnar, in 2022—a project they had purposefully sat on as they waited out the pandemic lockdowns. As McCaughey puts it, NOBRO needed time to cook.
“I like to say we have been in the oven baking for that long, but I feel we kind of came out of the oven very recently,” McCaughey reflects in an interview with The Coast. “It still feels pretty new-ish, I guess.”
Their debut full-length album set their trajectory towards the stratosphere. Songs like “Let’s Do Drugs” and “Where My Girls At” show the band’s ability to amp up the energy—an energy that doesn’t let up for a second through the entire record. There are no ballads. No moments of quiet reflection. Just pure party-rock rage—a condensed version of the best punk show you’ve ever attended.
Their live shows strive to deliver on that energy, says McCaughey.
“It’s non-stop, front to back. There’s no love ballads or whatever. It’s high energy, it’s a lot of fun. Crowd surfing at some section of the set, the girls switch instruments. Just like a fun rock concert,” she explains.
They’ve had plenty of experience performing for hundreds internationally as an opening act to several high-profile rock bands, including PUP, Alexisonfire, Pussy Riot, Tokyo Police Club, Rise Against, and Billy Talent.
“I feel like when you play with bands that are very good, it makes you also want to be as good,” says McCaughey. “Live performance is such a special experience. Playing with bands that have had so much experience, you can draw inspiration from them, and it’s so essential to have a really good live show. I think that’s a lot of what we took away from watching a lot of these seasoned bands play.”
It’s this high-energy live performance coupled with the band’s ability to play with expectations and shred their style of rock without constraint that no doubt led them to their recent Polaris Prize nomination, and will see them rocketing further into the future.
If you want to see one of Canada’s premiere punk bands, check out their show at The Marquee on Oct. 4 as part of the Halifax Urban Folk Festival. Tickets can be purchased here.
