by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Usually, when we get to Jazz Fest season, local shows will kind of evaporate, but this week goes against the rule, with a ton of shows happening.

Tonight, July 6, the Royal Mountain Band—who recently confused the Stills’ teenage-girl audience when they warmed up for them at the Spectrum—will lay down their Stones/Band/Faces sound at Club Lambi, alongside the high-octane boogie of Bullmoose. Also happening tonight is the World Provider, who perfectly fuses the stripped-down approach of the Ramones with Devo’s quirkiness, at the former peeler bar Playhouse. Along for the ride are Bold Saber and DJ Jef Hell.

Friday night, the pop sounds of Animaltown fill Casa del Popolo, while things get a bit uglier up the street at Lambi when the Unseen bring out their GBH-fuelled punk. The Unseen’s hair spikes better be razor sharp, because Montreal’s greatest thrashers …And the Saga Continues are almost guaranteed to outpunk them every step of the way. First up on the bill is Hold a Grudge.

A handful of readers of this column sent me some emails mentioning my criticism of Toronto a couple weeks back, with comments running from “unfounded” (?) to “shooting fish in a barrel.”

I am more than willing to give Canada’s centre of the universe a fighting chance (and I must admit that bands like Mobile did spring from our loins), so… Friday marks the first of three nights called the Toronto Bites festival, with nine bands from the GTA hoping to prove us snooty Montrealers wrong. Friday night at the Green Room, you can check out Henri Faberge and the Adorables and Born Ruffians. Saturday, you’ve got the Great Awake, Terror Lake and Ghetto Pony at the Main Hall, and Sunday, it’s back to the Green Room for The Coast, AA Milne and the Coloured Lights.

Saturday night, a local band that’s busier then a ten-dicked dog, Crackpot, are at the Green Room. If you are looking for something a bit left of centre (sorry, I’m getting tired of writing “psychedelic” these days), you can check out the Unireverse,

Ste- Sophie and Brooke D. Crouser at Zoobizarre. A not-to-miss show for the more metal- and punk-inclined would be Mad Parish and the band I was blathering on about last week, Trigger Effect, at the Barfly, also on Saturday night. Mad Parish play old-school power metal expertly, and Trigger Effect is probably one of the most exciting Montreal bands I have seen in a while.

Finishing up the week are the Suppressors and Toronto’s the Evil Doers at l’Hemisphere Gauche on Tuesday. The Evil Doers second album, Welcome to the Show, was produced by C’mon’s Ian Blurton, and you can expect some awesome, boogie-infused, psych-out rock ’n’ roll from them. Finally, on Wednesday, most rivetheads don’t want to miss the stacked bill of As I Lay Dying, In Flames, Trivium, Gwar, Cannibal Corpse, Terror and Black Dahlia Murder at Metropolis.

I COOK IN MY OWN JUICES… jonathan.cummins@gmail.com

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