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Shaggy aggregationThe Wooly Weekend festival gathers garage
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Garage rock has been delivering its primal stomp, screeching Farfisa, hellish howling and fuzzed-out guitars for four decades and change now. Festivals like Cavestomp in New York City, numerous blogs dedicated to the music and Internet radio stations spinning garage rock exclusively have helped keep the spirit of the stomp and fuzz alive. The biggest blip to hit the garage rock blogosphere of late is happening right here in Montreal. The forthcoming Wooly Weekend represents the ultimate Mecca for the fuzz fiend. With only a handful of shows tucked under their white patent leather belts, local promoters Teenbeat Takeover have plunged headlong into a full-blown festival that has already garnered international interest, with the majority of the expected attendees hailing from all over the world. “We were watching all of these other festivals happening in every place but Montreal, and figured it could definitely work here,” says co-promoter Oliver Besner. “Teenbeat Takeover is a lot of work, but it’s a labour of love and we really just threw our hands up in the air and decided to give it a shot. It started off as kind of a joke over a couple of beers at a club, talking about trying to get every cool show we’ve ever wanted to see and compacting it into one weekend, and now here we are, six months later. After going to all of these other festivals and seeing this congregation of people who are all really passionate about this kind of music, it always struck me as strange that nobody in Canada had ever attempted this. Nobody is going to be more excited than me for this festival to happen. But after it’s done, the only thing I plan on doing is to finally sleep.” World-class mass of crassWithout a doubt, Besner and his sleepless partner Matt Fiorentino wear their hearts on their sleeves, but to help block the wallops to their wallets, they had to cook up a line-up that could compete with New York City’s Cavestomp and the numerous festivals happening annually in Europe in dragging the frequent-flyer troglodytes out from their caves all over North America, Europe and the U.K. Well, they delivered it up in spades. Wooly Weekend kicks off on Thursday, Aug. 6 with the return of the Gruesomes, the Hypstrz, the Morlocks, les Breastfeeders and the Canadian premiere screening of the documentary America’s Lost Band: The Remains. Friday night keeps things in high gear with the all-original line up of Question Mark & the Mysterians, the Flakes (featuring Russell Quan of the Mummies), the Alarm Clocks, Muck and the Mires, the A Bones and Nagg. Saturday afternoon, beside the Theatre, is the Budget Rock Blowout with live performances by Nashville Ramblers, the Anabolics, the Teutonics, Hazard Light, the Bleach Blankets and Sonic Avenues, with L.A. DJ Real Boss Hoss spinning a stack of wax, a vintage record and thrift fair, and screenings of original Scopitone films and B-movies. Saturday night, the festival closes off with the Higher State, the Electric Prunes, Love, Fortune Maltese & the Phabulous Pallbearers, the Sunday Sinners and the Saffron Sect.
Hairy queries“We got all these offers to play all of these garage festivals in Europe, and we always just turn them down,” says Gruesomes guitarist/singer Bobby Beaton, “but this was just too good to pass up, and the best part is, when it’s over, I just have to hop on a metro to get home.” The real coup in Teenbeat Takeover’s programming is letting the more modern primitives rub shoulders with some of the true Cuban-heeled originals from the class of ’66. If there is any doubt that the old guard can still shake, rattle and roll like they used to, one has to look no further than Question Mark, from Question Mark & and the Mysterians. “I am a presence,” announces the Questionable One, “and people just recognize that because I’m real, y’know? I’ve been on stage entertaining since I was born and I’m just as good now as I’ve ever been. People ask me if I ever get sick of playing ‘96 Tears’ after all these years, but it’s just as alive now as the day we wrote it. I just love playing it and would be perfectly happy playing that song every day for the rest of my life.” n At Théatre Plaza on Thursday, Aug. 6 (the Gruesomes, the Hypstrz, the Morlocks, les Breastfeeders and America’s Lost Band: The Remains), Friday, Aug. 7 (Question Mark & the Mysterians, the Flakes, the Alarm Clocks, Muck & the Mires, the A-Bones, Nagg) and Saturday, Aug. 8 (the Higher State, the Electric Prunes, Love, Fortune & Maltese & the Phabulous Pallbearers, the Sunday Sinners, the Saffron Sect), 8 p.m. nightly, $35/night, $90 weekend pass AT THÉATRE PLAZA ON THURSDAY, |
