La Vent du Nord doesn’t just play to the audience; they play the audience. Impressive, given that there were no more than 10 words of English during the entire concert of this Québécois quartet.

Along with the hurdy-gurdy (laughter from the audience as lead singer Nicolas Boulerice repeated the name) and stomping-as-instrument by fiddler Olivier Demers, Nord had the audience clapping in syncopation or rising to their feet and stomping in concert for the French-Canadian ballad “La Vieux Cheval.” Nord stroked a delicate balance between songs, following “Cheval” with the melancholic, wordless “Petit Rêve III (Little Dream No. 3).”

A blend of traditional folk music from the region and their own compositions steeped in this same history, Nord destroyed the language barrier (and my prejudice against the province based on how I was last treated in Québec) with rousing tunes about nuns, dragons and, from the region’s Celtic influence, drinking. Let the province finally secede, if only so Nord can compose the national anthem.