When pigs fly

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

If you missed the chance to see the screening of Open Up Your Mouth and Say Mr. Chi Pig this past Tuesday at Katacombes, the documentary gets its DVD release this week courtesy of Prairie Coast Films. Directors Craig Laviolette and Sean Patrick Shaul hardly take a nostalgic, sanitized or glorifying look at one of hardcore’s greatest frontmen, ditching their rose-coloured lenses for a deeply disturbing look at a man who had lost everything, succumbing to drug addiction, homelessness and a continuing struggle with mental illness. This is a very honest and uncompromising profile of one of hardcore’s heroes becoming frayed at the seams while staving off the voices in his head that that would later lead him to the precipice of suicide. It’s not all dark and dour though as Chi finally conquers his demons, finds his inner strength and returns to his main passion, performing. Interviews with Jello Biafra, Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning, Doughboys’ John Kastner, Youth Brigade’s Shawn Stern and more almost make up for the fact that chief SNFU songwriters Marc and Brent Belke chose not to be involved with the film. Despite the Belkes’ lack of involvement, this documentary is a great portrait of a man conquering adversaries and is sure to translate far beyond just fans of Chi’s work in SNFU. You can order the DVD at chipig.com.

There’s a ton of shows this week to make the weaving through rollerbladers, thawing dogshit and shorts-wearing McGill yahoos worth leaving your couch, starting off on Friday night. You can catch the Desert Owls’ triple release party with Plaster Hands at Casa del Popolo or, if you’re starting to get stoked for the screening of the black metal doc Until the Light Takes Us next week at Cinema du Parc, you can get warmed up with a soirée chock full of black metal at Katacombes with resident metal guru, DJ Satanick. On Saturday, you can squeeze in for a mixture of utter dementia and good ol’ three-chord punk rock at Friendship Cove with Teenanger, Hell Shovel, Holy Cobras and Interracial Love Triangle. If you are pining for the days of motorized Swedish riffs, you can check out the rawk of the Shifters and She Shot Me Down at Katacombes the same night.

My big pick of the week would probably go to the grossly underappreciated the Great Sabatini with Endast, Toronto’s Vilipend and Sherbrooke’s Memories of an Old Man (coincidentally, my second choice for the name of this column) at Saphir on Saturday. If you dig a lot of the stuff coming out on Hydra Head, Twenty Buck Spin and the less metallic moments of Relapse, you’re going to want to check the Great Sabatini out.

On Sunday, the fine folks at Cagibi have cooked up another themed tribute night with local performers Allan Lento, Yan Basque, Sebastian Hell, Rick Coluccio, James Irwin, Shaun Mason, Will Austin, Paper Crows, Window and Luca Fantigrossi all paying homage to outside artists like Syd Barrett,

Brian Wilson, Daniel Johnston and Roky Erickson.

TIME TO BUY A FUTON…JONATHAN.CUMMINS@GMAIL.COM