Feedback on FIMAV

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

I finally popped my Victo cherry this past weekend, and I’m already counting down days until next year’s Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. All three venues hosting the concerts shared crisp sight lines and crystal-clear sound while sidestepping the line-up hassles, overzealous security staff and corporate advertising that mar other festivals. With 24 years of progressive programming under their belts, the machine is definitely well-oiled and its world-renowned reputation only further galvanized. Best of all were the crowds that perfectly reflected the eclectic sprit of the fest. Purist snobs be damned, this was a true meeting of music fans with their minds opened up wide and a healthy thirst for new discovery.

My main motivation this year was to once again see the true kings of heavy and loud, Melvins, pummel a room like only they can. Beginning with a 10-minute intro tape of electronic noise before their dual-drummer attack led the charge, the band is still firing on all pistons after all these years. Concentrating mainly on material from their latest album A Senile Animal, they managed to add new life to a few older pieces and even peppered their set with covers of Alice Cooper’s “Ballad of Dwight Fry,” Chris de Burgh’s “Lady in Red” and a fairly true-to-tradition version of Merle Haggard’s “Okie From Muskogee.” The inclusion of duo Big Business in the band has definitely added new life to these legends of heaviosity.

Afterwards, I saw KoenjiHyakkei, featuring Ruins/Acid Mothers Temple drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, with AMT members on soprano sax and guest vocals. The over-the-top complexity of the music was played at breakneck speed with elements of hardcore, prog, jazz and opera all playing slap and tickle with each other. The highlight was just watching one of the best drummers around, Yoshida, take us all to school.

Saturday, I was able to see what would prove to be the biggest surprise of the festival for me, ex-Geraldine Fibber Carla Bozulich. This whirling dervish dove into dirges, drones and Appalachian folk with psychedelic glimpses. Flanked by members of hometowners from Lotusland and Silver Mt. Zion, Bozulich played with dynamics and inserted a great sense of spirit and depth to her lyrics of despair. Extra points for the Low cover “Pissing,” and the surprise Geraldine Fibbers song for the encore was mesmerizing.

My other most anticipated show was the collaboration Acid Mothers Gong, which proved space was indeed the place with their Sun Ra-meets-Hawkwind psychedelic freak-out. To be honest, Gong’s Daevid Allen and Gili Smyth tended to get drowned out by the maelstrom of AMT, but there was little doubt that Allen definitely had the crowd in the palm of his hand as he began the set with a mantra of “vive le Québec, vive le Québec.” Smyth, on the other hand, tended to be more comedic than cosmic with her Sun Ra cape, and beatnik poems sounding pathetically dated and limp. Allen’s stamina got the better of him over the course of the two-hour show, but AMT remained unbeatable, with searing psych jams that left me gutted by the end.

Noise annoys… Jonathan.cummins@gmail.com