Wicked: no rest

by JACK OATMON

Nothing quite matches in glamour and ferocity the hedonistic spectacle that is New Year’s Eve in Montreal. You can witness every form of degradation in one outing, from the pristine narcissists and irrevocably desperate attention-seekers to the fully resigned nihilists on the brink of disaster, and of course, every other obscure personality crisis along the bell curve, all cartoonishly exaggerated by a horrendous cocktail of drugs, pheromones, fashion, booze and booming music. As a side note here, I’d also like to mention that the fashion was absolutely off the chain this year. This city just gets hotter and hotter, no matter how chilly it is outside.

Anyway, hopefully, amidst all the eye candy and brain candy, you also get a few sweet moments of substance with the people who made your year memorable. I certainly had a wholesome time on my usual New Year’s Eve I Love Neon-and-after party combo, dodging the abundant hype and basking in alcoves of sincerity and reflective discussion. Obviously I did a lot of drinking, screaming and kissing too, as would be the norm on such occasions of perilously indulgent merriment. But, overall things were refreshing and cathartic for me. And I tend to think of January as a breath of crisp, fresh air of sobriety after the chaos of the holidays.

But, as the fates would have it—and by fates I mean show promoters—January isn’t going to be the chill time of solitude I was expecting. Right off the bat, you’ve got an intimate night planned out with local electro-noise supergroup Claass and Berlin’s psychedelic kraut freaks Jeans Team, who you might have seen putting on a sweet show at MEG in 2005. I have it on authority that due to scheduling, this could very well be your last chance to catch Claass live before their upcoming European tour, so hit it. That’s this Friday, Jan. 11, at the hippest hole-in-the-wall in town, Zoobizarre.

I’ve also caught wind of a mega-jam featuring Pas Chic Chic, Anemones and more, slotted for Jan. 19 at a fantastic new loft space in the infamous 435 Beaubien W. building, just below Nice Music. More on the show and the space, lab.synthèse, next week. Speaking of new spaces, there are now establishments in the city known as Tribe Hyperclub, Space Ultra Lounge and Rap Machines. For more information on those last three and more of their ilk, keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming exclusive venue review series in Disco Volante tentatively entitled “Bafflingly Ridiculous Club Names and the People Who Love Them.” I’m serious.

Add to that this year’s Piknic des Neiges, which is now two whole weekends long, with crazy-ass guests like Thomas Schumacher and Josh Wink, as well as other upcoming gigs featuring the Von Bondies, Louis XIV, Ra Ra Riot, the Teenagers, Peter Björn & John and Dan Deacon, amongst others, and January’s lookin’ pretty nuts this year. So stay tuned.

By the way, in case you were wondering what that wacky, buzzing, Alice-in-Wonderland circus music was that you were hearing at all the craziest electro parties over the holidays, it was the new jive by venerable acid house duo Alter Ego. The album and the big single are both called “Why Not?,” and they’re pretty darn rad. Nab it from beatport.com or just rip it off the blogs.

Keep it funky in 2008…jack.oatmon@gmail.com