Noël noir

>> Frigid’s dark and dastardly
delights for holiday deviants

BACK FROM BERLIN: Frigid

by JACK OATMON

Given his electrifying stage presence, his ultra-glamorous, eye-catching wardrobe and the growling hard-rock demeanour of his band, Frigid is one notable Montreal personality whose presence would be missed since his recent move to Berlin. Would be, that is, if he wasn’t in the habit of flying all the way back from time to time just to grace his hometown with a raging, rocking, sweaty, smutty showcase of live bands and DJs. Those in search of a slightly uncouth holiday experience need slink no further than the Black X-Mas Cabaret, two days prior to New Year’s Eve. It features live sets by Frigid and Chernobyl Cha Cha (who recently toured Switzerland together) and Automelodi, as well as a DJ tag team with Plastik Patrik and a cabaret and film-noir costume theme. The Mirror chatted with Frigid about in-flight revelations, glittery outfits and three days’ worth of insomnia.

Mirror: Tell me about your Christmas party.

Frigid: We made it a cabaret theme night, so the bands are all going to do a bit of an obscure cabaret thing. And I’m asking the crowd to participate too and dress up in ’20s, ’30s, ’40s and ’50s styles—a retro theme, so that you get a lot of different looks and unusual styles. I didn’t want to do the typical Christmas party, all happy with lights, so with the cabaret theme, it’s still going to be a fun party, but it will be a bit more heavy and dark than most Christmas parties.

M: Sounds like fun.

F: Oh yeah! And Plastic Patrik will be DJing too, so it will be a lot of boys with glitter and outfits. Three bands and we’ll both be DJing, so it starts early and ends late, just like we like it.

M: Ha! So what made you move to Berlin?

F: I came to Berlin last April and the first day I arrived, I was like, “I’m moving here.” There wasn’t even a question of how I was gonna make it happen. I was gonna move here. No joke, I was coming down in the plane and I had a feeling that there was something here for me. Seeing the city from the plane, I had shivers. I thought, I don’t know if I’m ready for what can happen for me here. I don’t normally have a lot of intuitions, but I felt really strong about it. I arrived and walked around and I thought, okay, this is going to be my life next year. It was like a revelation. It was very sunny the whole month of April, 30 degrees and amazing. Then I arrived in September and it was raining and grey, I didn’t have any friends with me to help me out. It was a totally different reality, but I still loved the city and I was really excited. But I knew it wouldn’t be easy and fun at first. I didn’t sleep for three days at first and I had so much energy. People were like, “Is he always like this?” So when I came back to Montreal, I was really inspired and I wrote a bunch of new songs, so we have four or five on the way. We’re already performing three of them live.

With Automelodi, Chernobyl
Cha Cha and DJ Plastik Patrik
at la Sala Rossa on Saturday,
Dec. 29, 9 p.m., $12/$5 after 1 a.m.