Artemas brought his dark pop sound to Malkin Bowl in Vancouver on September 8, but the show really started building well before he came out.

DJ Jean Pierre Lacroix opened the night and spent a lot of his set trying to get Vancouver to loosen up. He mixed in a bunch of French music and kept talking to the crowd between songs, at one point joking that Canadians didn’t know how to party.

That got a reaction.

Instead of just standing behind the decks and playing music, he kept pushing people to get louder and move around. As more people filled the space in front of the stage, his set started to feel less like background music and more like the first real part of the show.

Henry Morris came out next and took things in a different direction. His music was darker and heavier, which worked well with the mood of the night and helped bridge the gap between the DJ set and Artemas.

When Artemas finally walked out, the reaction was immediate.

His live show was fairly simple. There wasn’t a huge production or a stage full of distractions. Most of the focus stayed on him, the lighting and the music, which actually suited the songs well.

A lot of Artemas’ music already has this dark, late-night feeling to it, and hearing it outdoors once the sun had gone down made that even stronger.

He wasn’t running from one side of the stage to the other all night either. A lot of his performance felt relaxed, almost like he was letting the songs and the crowd do most of the work.

And the crowd definitely did its part.

People near the front were singing along throughout the set, especially when the more recognizable songs came on. There were moments where Artemas could pull back from the mic and still hear the lyrics coming back at him from the audience.

“i like the way you kiss me” was obviously one of the biggest moments.

As soon as it started, phones went up and the crowd got noticeably louder. It’s the song that introduced a lot of people to Artemas, so that reaction wasn’t exactly surprising, but it translated well live.

What was more interesting was that the rest of the show didn’t feel like everyone was just waiting for that one song.

The quieter tracks still held people’s attention, while the heavier songs gave the set enough variety that it never felt completely stuck in one mood.

Malkin Bowl ended up being a good venue for it too. As it got darker outside, the lighting became more noticeable and the whole show started to feel more intimate.

Looking back, one of the best parts of the night was actually how the energy built from the beginning.

Jean Pierre Lacroix spent his set joking with the crowd, playing French tracks and trying to get everyone moving. Henry Morris kept that energy going in his own way, and by the time Artemas came out, the crowd was already ready for him.

That made the night feel like more than just a headliner with two acts before him. Each part of the lineup helped build toward the next.