Angine de Poitrine bring their microtonal polka-dot chaos to Royale, Thursday, Nov. 19

The masked Quebec duo that went viral off a KEXP session makes its first Boston stop, squeezed between three New York nights and Philadelphia.

Somewhere in Boston right now is someone who has watched the same live video a dozen times, trying to figure out what exactly is happening on that guitar neck. Next week they get to see it in person. Angine de Poitrine play Royale on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 8 p.m., with tickets through AXS. As far as our records go, it's the duo's first Boston show.

The date sits in the thick of the band's fall North American run, which BrooklynVegan reported opens Nov. 5 in Toronto and wraps Dec. 11 in Portland, Oregon. Boston comes right after three straight Manhattan nights, Nov. 16 through 18, and a day before Philadelphia, then the tour swings south to Atlanta and Nashville. The first U.S. run earlier this year sold out, per Bass Magazine, and the band has kept expanding dates since, Relix noted.

So who are they? Angine de Poitrine are a Québécois duo, guitar and drums, who perform in matching polka-dot costumes and oversized cartoon masks. The name translates to "angina of the chest," and they describe themselves as a "mantra rock dada pythago cubist orchestra," as MusicRadar put it in a deep dive on the music theory behind them. The core of the sound is microtonal: notes that live in the cracks between the ones on a standard fretboard. One of their instruments was built by literally adding frets with a saw, a story Guitar Player told under the headline that the guitar "makes no sense" and they're blowing up online anyway.

The blow-up came from a KEXP session filmed at the Trans Musicales festival in France in December 2025 and posted this past February. It spread fast enough that Dave Grohl has talked about it; Guitar World reported he said the band "absolutely blew my mind." The band's own take on the attention is disarming: "We're not Lady Gaga, we're not Elton John, we're two random dudes," they told Guitar Player.

"We're two random dudes." Two random dudes selling out rooms across the continent.

There's a record behind the hype, too. Their second album, *Vol. II*, came out in April, and Paste gave it a B+. Comparisons to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard come up often, which tells you something about the crowd this will draw: math-rock heads, prog lifers, guitar nerds and a lot of people who simply saw a clip and had to know.

Royale is a good fit. It's a 1,000-capacity room with a big open floor, which suits music this physical and this repetitive in the best, trance-inducing way. Go in expecting long, locked grooves that shift under your feet, and don't be surprised if the room starts moving in odd time.

If you've only seen them on a phone screen, this is the night to fix that. Check AXS soon; on this tour, tickets haven't hung around.

Sources: Angine de Poitrine announce fall tour, 2 Brooklyn Steel shows included (BrooklynVegan) (brooklynvegan.com); Angine de Poitrine Kicks Off Sold-Out First-Ever U.S. Tour (Bass Magazine) (bassmagazine.com); Angine de Poitrine broaden North American tour with new appearances (Relix) (relix.com); The microtonal music theory behind viral math rockers Angine de Poitrine (MusicRadar) (musicradar.com); "I added more frets on a guitar with a saw" (Guitar Player) (guitarplayer.com); "We're not Lady Gaga, we're not Elton John, we're two random dudes" (Guitar Player) (guitarplayer.com); Why Dave Grohl is obsessed with viral Canadian microtonal duo Angine de Poitrine (Guitar World) (guitarworld.com); Angine de Poitrine: Vol. II review (Paste) (pastemagazine.com); Angine de Poitrine tickets at Royale (AXS) (axs.com)