In living Mono

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

There’s a ton of shows happening this week that I’ve just got to blather about so I’ll keep this following review thingy brief. Japan’s Mono returned last Thursday, May 27, at la Sala Rossa, and having seen them many times, this one could’ve very well been my favourite. Their stop-on-a-dime dynamics, slow crescendos and raw emotional power were overwhelming, bewitching and hit like a hammer. In the overcrowded post-rock camp, Mono continue to prevail over the pedal-pushing competition.

A good start to the weekend ahead would be to catch the launch of Seripop’s Artist Music Journal book happening tonight at 7 p.m. at Librairie Drawn & Quarterly (211 Bernard W.). Some of you may know Seripop artists Chloe Lum and Yannick Desranleau as two-thirds of the ultra-rad band AIDS Wolf but they are equally known all over the world for their trippy and sometimes assaulting art. Bringing the good times at the launch is none other than DJ Linda Blair.

Probably the best bet for this week would be the two-night stint, on Friday and Saturday, of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Band at Ukrainian Federation. After nine weeks on tour, this homecoming should prove to be devastatingly good, with their recent sixth release Kollaps Tradixionles being a career-defining moment. For the punkers, this week will be a busy one, starting tonight at Piranha Bar with After the Fall, the Stereo State, Tightrope and Without Will. For more raucous and trashy rock ’n’ roll, don’t miss the Golden Triangle with local miscreants Demon’s Claws at Divan Orange.

Saturday night is a literal punk rock bonanza, starting early at Bar St-Laurent 2 with the always fucking awesome Brutal Knights, with one of the best bands in Montreal, Complications, plus Accident and Naughty Girls. Happening almost immediately after this show (it wraps up at midnight), down the street at Casa, is the bill of White Lungs, Reagan-era-thrash lords Slobs, the Blind Shake and the Birthday Suits. Eeyowza, that’s a spicy punk rock meatball!

On Sunday, you can catch one quarter of the best rock ’n’ roll band in the world (that would be the Supersuckers), Eddie Spaghetti, getting his strum on with a solo set at Foufounes, with the always friendly and deadly talented Colin Moore in the support slot. Oddly enough, Sunday is a little stacked, also offering Montreal-based label Constellation Records’ celebration of their 13 years of delivering the quality goods, at la Sala Rossa. Helping blow out the candles are Clues, Hrsta, Elizabeth Anka Vajagic, Elfin Saddle, Sam Shalabi, Ariel Engle, Hrair Hratchian and Radwan Moumneh. If you dug the Mono show, you might want to also show up for This Will Destroy You with Light Pollution and Slow Six on Sunday at Petit Campus. Me, I’ll be watching the greatest artists of our generation, Brokencyde, at Club Soda on Sunday, so please come by and say hello. If you have a hard time finding me, I’ll be the guy wearing the raincoat.

LET’S GET FUCKING FREAKY NOW…
JONATHAN.CUMMINS@GMAIL.COM