Photographer Rose Cormier Documents Where Montreal's Music Thrives as Venues Vanish

Rose Cormier (@velours.souterrain) had a choice to make: Crammed into the DIY punk venue Traxide, well beyond capacity, pressed between a stranger's elbow and the edge of a makeshift stage, she could either bail or risk a boot to the face for the perfect shot.

The room was a sweat box and thick with cigarette smoke, as Béton Armé—a band now playing festivals across Europe—thrashed through their set in a space they'd already outgrown.

"I can be such a small, anxious person," Cormier admits with a laugh. "I was like, 'something bad's gonna happen. I'm gonna get kicked in the face.'"

But she stayed anyway, capturing one of those moments in Montreal music history that would never repeat itself again. "Now, nothing scares me anymore," Rose says.