Listen, people

>> First-week picks at the
Suoni per il Popolo fest

BETTER THAN YOU: The Fucking Champs

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

From June1–27, la Sala Rossa and Casa del Popolo are once again hosting the annual Suoni Per Il Popolo festival (the name translates from Italian to “sound for the people”), hitting its seventh year. The programmers have truly outdone themselves this year, with a month of shows that brings in the best of underground rock, free jazz, noise, drone, electronic, new psychedelic and more. The fest may run all month, but the first week alone is loaded with too much good stuff.

The fest storms right out of the gate on Friday night with its first shows—Graveyards, led by Wolf Eyes’ John Olson, can be expected to deliver a night of righteous nihilist noise and freak-out improv at Casa. Opening up will be le Sentier Lumineux’s free improv blend of sax, voice and drums, and the pride of Côte-des-Neiges, Tandoori Dream. Across the street at Sala on Friday night, witness the return of San Francisco’s the Fucking Champs, who absolutely stunned a Café Campus crowd years ago with their tech-heavy riffage. Along for the rock ride are Birds of Avalon and Red Fang.

Saturday night, Wolf Eyes fans will once again rejoice when Demons, led by Olson’s bandmate Nate Young and former Isis member Steven Kenney, release their sonic mayhem in the tiny confines of Casa. Opening are the Haunting, led by Mike Connelly (also of Wolf Eyes!), with Montreal drone kings Thames pulling the sweat-act slot. Across the street, some bad banana peels are bound to get smoked when psychedelic freak-out band Sunburned play with the Michael Flower Band and Ecstatic Peace recording artists MV & EE With the Bummer Road. Better hit the wizard bong before you leave the house for this one.

Not to be missed is the return of Marc Ribot, who will be playing a solo show at la Sala Rossa on Monday. Providing his fretboard prowess for people like Tom Waits, recent visitor Vinicio Capossela and the Lounge Lizards, to name a few, Ribot is guaranteed to surprise in a solo setting.

For more info, go to
www.suoniperilpopolo.org