Shahi baaja meltdown

Before I hip you to the week ahead, I’d just like to spill some ink about some of the stellar shows that happened last week, starting off with Wednesday, April 14 at la Sala Rossa with the free jams of improv duo Mick Flower and Chris Corsano. Flower tucked his drones in the background as he coaxed a barrage of notes out of his shahi baaja, a traditional Indian instrument. As good as Flower was, though, it was a thrill watching drummer extraordinaire Corsano dazzle, pulling off the impossible with a flurry of limbs. When Corsano picked up the melodica or bells, forcing lower dynamics than the established bombast, things really took off.

At Il Motore last Thursday was an awesome night of indie-styled black metal (nerd metal) with the onslaught of Krallice and the twin female shrieks of Ludicra. After completely destroying Sala Rossa last year, Krallice returned and stuffed their set mainly with blasters off last year’s Dimensional Bleedthrough. The twin guitar attack of Colin Marston and Mick Barr was simply stunning, with their cacophony of rapid strumming coaxing out unlikely harmonics, despite wrestling with sound issues. Along with American bands like Weakling, Xasthur, Leviathan and Wolves in the Throne Room, experi-metallists Krallice are without a doubt changing the face of black metal. Although I’m definitely in the minority here judging by the crowd reaction, Ludicra didn’t raise the bar after the decibel-drenched blast of Krallice. Not to say they didn’t slay, though, with vocalist Laurie Sue Shanaman’s tortured vocals and trance-state gyrations really setting the scene. Ludicra possessed a near-perfect combination of death metal prowess, depth of emotion and sense of panorama.

Finally, Red Sparowes’ trance-y post metal electrified Sala Rossa on Friday with unlikely openers Doomriders. A strange bill indeed, and while Red Sparowes’ dense, epic jams begged you to take their trip, Doomriders just plodded through standard meat-and-potatoes rock/metal, complete with arena-rock between-song banter that would’ve made David Lee Roth blush. Again, I would seem to be in the minority here as Doomriders’ brand of “dude metal” seemed to have the heshers eating out of their hands.

If you’re kicking the ground because you missed some of these killer shows, here’s some more shows happening this week to help buck you up. Tonight, April 22, you can cheek out the post-punk of Complications at l’Escoriffe with Roperide and the Walnut Kids, while down at Friendship Cove, you can catch the noisy jams of Crazy Dreams Band, Wasted Nymph, Futensil and Metis Yeti. Also happening tonight is Jon Spencer’s side project Heavy Trash, with Eddy Blake & the Honky Tonk Heartbreakers at la Sala Rossa.

Saturday, Katacombes is the place for a night of crust and sludge with Dopethrone, Depletion, Memories of an Old Man and Putamen Insula, while Barfly hosts Team Canada, Crude Genes and Rape Faction. Also happening on Saturday, at Casa del Popolo, is a night of extreme noise terror with Regression (Wolf Eyes’ Nate Young), Dog Lady, Ilégal, Drainolith, Spykes (Wolf Eyes’ John Olson) and Terrabano. Finally, on Tuesday, don’t miss the return of death metal legends Cannibal Corpse with 1349, Skeletonwitch and Lecherous Nocturne at Club Soda.

CURRENT OBSESSION: INTERVENTION…JONATHAN.CUMMINS@GMAIL.COM