The future is now

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

Although 2008 had a couple of bumps in the road—the forced closure of tiny venue Black Dot, Lab Synthèse being ordered to pipe down after noise complaints, mid-size venue Main Hall still hanging in purgatory, a couple of awesome local wax shacks closing their doors and local distributor Fusion III going tits up after battling the download crunch—there was still a lot to cheer about. Il Motore opening its doors, Green Room winning their lengthy court battle to host live shows again, tons of DIY venues opening up off the beaten path, a ton of new promoters like la Bête Rouge and Teenbeat Takeover, new bedroom labels like Little Baby and Psychic Handshake getting off the ground, record store Phonopolis celebrating its first year while killer record stores like Sonik and Sound Central still hold down the rock ’n’ roll and punk forts… never to mention the quality of newly hatched local bands seriously debunking the Montreal “quirky pop” tag (thank God!). In a nutshell, be very stoked for ’09.

The first Punkusraucous Rex week of shows for ’09 starts off with a bang tonight, Thursday, Jan. 15, when garage yobs the Fortune Tellers and the demented blues of Merle’s Gitar Band (think Country Teasers, Captain Beefheart and Killdozer) put the sweat on the walls of l’Escogriffe. Friday night, check out the punk as fuck racket of Bators, Walnut Kids, the Loners and Rubber Bands at Katacombes. For those who are feeling the post-holiday financial crunch, there are three killer bands playing at Bistro de Paris—for gratuit! The cheapskates can check out the fine Billy Childish barrage of garage duo the Fatal Flaws with ex-Scat Rag Boosters band Thee B-Sides (think vintage Oblivians!) and new kids on the garage-rock block, the Fried Clams. Also happening on Friday night is the launch of issue #4 of local zine Ms. Guided, with the crème de la crème of Montreal garage, Soki Soki, plus Gambletron, Baltimore’s Lizz King, DJs Dirty Boots and Alexander BS, and a special screening of Brett Story’s doc Roads Through Palestine. This is all happening at the off-the-radar venue Eastern Bloc (look up the address on the regular local forums or just ask anybody who repairs holes in their jeans with gaffer tape).

RAPID RETURN: Fucked Up

Saturday night is stacked as usual when one of the most innovative bands in punk rock today, Fucked Up, make a quick return visit to la Sala Rossa. What’s that? You just saw them a couple months back? Well, shut yer piehole, Poindexter, ’cause sweetening the bill is none other than electroclash/death-disco revisionists AIDS Wolf and Montreal’s newest hype magnet Red Mass pulling up the rear. With such a killer triple bill, I would drop this piece of fish wrap immediately and snatch up tickets right now. Punk rock is definitely ruling Saturday night, so if Fucked Up does get packed to the tits, don’t fear. It’ll be a hardcore day’s night down at l’Escogriffe starting with a spoken word performance by Sheer Terror’s singer and NYHC legend Paul Bearer from 6–9 p.m. Afterwards, garage punks Devil Eyes smash and bash before the Reagan-era hardcore stylists Growing Concern proudly announce they “just want some skank.”

R.I.P. RON ASHETON…JONATHAN.CUMMINS@GMAIL.COM