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Grave concerns >> Les Incapables dig up garage rock for Monstre à go-go by RUPERT BOTTENBERG
"When I was younger, going back a few years, I was a big Halloween nut," says Ugly, the guitarist/singer of Les Incapables. "It had a lot to do with what I was into--garage rock, antique toys and whatever. When we formed Les Incapables, we wanted to do our first show on Halloween." With only six months under their skull-buckled belts, Les Incapables rounded up a surly mob of other local garage hounds, including space surfers the Astro-Nuts and Platon et les Caves, toga-touting revivalists of Quebec's thriving homegrown garage scene of the mid '60s. What was at first envisioned as a low-key debut gig quickly snowballed into the first Monstre à go-go. Now in its third year, the event is established as this town's annual garage-a-palooza. Last year's Monstre showcased no less than seven bands, meaning more black turtlenecks and fuzztone guitars than you'd care to shake a shinbone at. "It was a bit much," admits Ugly. So the boys have reeled back to four bands this year, including Moncton, N.B.'s Marky and the Mopeds and Les Macchabées from Sherbrooke. Montreal's garage scene saw its heyday in the mid '80s. Favourite sons the Gruesomes earned their self-endowed title of "tyrants of teen trash" by dominating the Canadian show circuit. Meanwhile, back at home, original lo-fi louts Déjà Voodoo balanced their time between the Déjà Voodoo Barbecues and their record label Og, which flew the flag of Canadian garage around the world. Since that time, devoted souls like CKUT's Flipped Out, host of Subterranean Jungle, and the owners of Primitive Records, a store/label based on St-Denis Street, have done their part to keep the garage monstrosity alive. Alive, but never thriving. And that obscure subculture status suits Ugly just fine. "If garage got as big as the ska scene, it would be the death of it," he says, and given how out of touch much of the modern ska crowd is with its own roots, he might just have a point. "I was a mod in the early '80s and people were telling me, 'You can't keep on sounding like the Kinks or the Who. You've got to modernize, you've got to create new sounds.' Thing is, you can't have a new sound without losing the old, authentic feel." At Salle Salaberry, Saturday, Oct. 25. 1710 Beaudry. 8pm, $6
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Halloween is flat out the spookiest night of the year. Jack-o-lanterns leer from darkened windows, witches cackle in the overcast sky. Black cats howl and the living dead claw their way out of graves. But if you happen to be around Salle Salaberry, a community centre/concert hall near Beaudry metro, you'll notice the ghouls sporting bowlcuts, Beatle boots, leopard-spot vests and iron cross medallions. That's because on Halloween every year, Montreal's mysterious garage rock community gather in unholy harmony.