A Fake Angine de Poitrine Is Touring Russia, and the Costumes Are Convincing

The polka-dotted, double-neck guitar mystique of Angine de Poitrine has become a recognizable enough asset that someone in Russia is now trying to cash in on it. A fake version of the masked Quebec math-rock duo was recently filmed performing a set at a Moscow bar, wearing near-identical costumes. The only obvious tell: the impostor had just one guitar neck, a detail no serious observer of the real Khn de Poitrine would overlook.

Sam Murdock, an art director and layout designer who works with the actual band, told Exclaim! that the copycat operation has been tagging the duo’s official accounts without acknowledging it’s not them. “We’re living in a weird time where everyone’s trying to make money off the band,” Murdock said, noting a parallel flood of counterfeit merchandise online. He claims to have personally removed over 700 fake T-shirt listings, only to see new ones appear.

Impostor acts are a known hazard for artists who build a visual identity behind masks or anonymity—MF DOOM famously sent stand-ins to perform in his place—but the speed at which this one surfaced, after just a handful of releases, underscores the duo’s impact. For now, the real Angine de Poitrine are focused on a run of North American dates scheduled for 2026, following their April album Vol. II. The Russian impersonator’s status remains unclear, though the episode serves as a strange signal of reach.