Snow jams

>> Winter atrophy setting in? A quick guide to some of the best reasons to leave the house this season

By MIREILLE SILCOTT

Every fall, when the realities of winter are still pretty hard to imagine, my brain goes into white fantasy mode: "Ah, winter she cometh! I will make snow angels! and ski! and frolic in the crystalline beauty of the northern landscape at her most authentically northy!" I will be like those French Canadians who shop at Kanuk and manage to get tanned noses in January, and who know how to do that skating-thing on cross country skis! Or more precisely, I will NOT atrophy-over. I will not become a radiator slug.

Of course, when the real winter rolls 'round, the whole plan of being a sporty Franco-style granola goes to pot and I end up travelling from one heated inside to another heated inside, using a vehicle with a heated inside to get from point A to B. Point A is home and B is work or Blockbuster, and anything else had better be fucking good for me to go there.

So god bless the promoters.

This season's round of concerts looks good enough to force my horizontal inclinations upright at least once a week. Hopefully they'll do the same for you. Here's a guide to some of this winter's best musical bets. See you there, and BTW, I'll be the one in the very unused Kanuk ski jacket.


January
For some reason, January is always the time for rock's heaviest propositions to go on tour. This year, we get the metallic threesome of Nevermore, Arch Enemy and Deep at Foufounes on January 21, the comparably lite Blink-y pube-punk of Pheonix TX (at Salle L'X) on the 26th, and 8-piece, 3-drummer extremists Slipknot take over the Spectrum with all-girl buzz-band Kittie on the 29th. Hammering the month to a close in a hardcore stylee are the Cro-Mags plus straight edgers Earth Crisis, on the 30th at Rainbow.

Also in January: King of Canada Bryan Adams (Theatre St-Denis, Jan 13 and 14) * "The Jewish Sinatra" Harry Connick Jr. (Theatre St-Denis, Jan 15) * Barenaked offshoot Brothers Creegan (Cabaret, Jan 16) * Toronto soulstress Ivanna Santilli with Gazelle (Cabaret, Jan 20) * Queb-legend Michel Pagliaro (Cabaret, Jan 21) * Supa-groovers the New Deal (venue TBA, Jan 22) * Perennial twangers Blue Rodeo (Theatre St-Denis, Jan 21 and 22) * Sensitive rockers Live with Big Sugar (Molson Centre, Jan 27).


February
Early February is less heavy and more heavyweight. The newly coiffed and more-massive-than-ever Our Lady Peace jet in to the Molson Centre amphitheatre along with Britpop darlings the Stereophonics on February 2. On the 9th, Beck shuffles through, this time with U.K. danceland's fave folkie, Beth Orton. That's at CEPSUM at L'Universite de Montreal. Latin hottie Marc Anthony wiggles it just a little bit on the 13th at Metropolis, and for some insane reason, Def Leppard and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts are on tour together, gracing Montreal with a visit on February 7 at the Molson Centre.

On the more subterranean rock tip, the Fat Wreck Chords tour, featuring No Use For a Name, the Mad Caddies, Frenzal Rhomb and Consumed stops in to the Spectrum on the 19th, and the MIMIs, Montreal's indie awards extravaganza has broken its three-year hiatus, and come back in the form of a showcase-y festival, going down from the 22nd to the 27th.

Other February delights: +8 bigwigs Richie Hawtin and John Aquaviva (Feb 4) * The new, dance-inclined Engelbert Humperdinck (Feb 6) * Subb and the Undercovers at Stomp's Second Anniversary Bash (Feb 9) * Soundgarden's Chris Cornell (Feb 21) * Modish East Coast popists Sloan (TBC) * Sappy Welshmen the Manic Street Preachers (TBC) * NYC DJ and rapper Kid Capri (TBC).


March
March starts off with a bang as nue-metal wiggers Korn step in on the 9th. On an even massiver tip, Ricky Martin brings his car-ay-zee Vida Loca Tour to the Molson Centre on the 23rd. As usual, Greenland throw board-beer-dude fest Sno Jam at the end of the month.

Not much else is yet confirmed for March, but some lookin'-good maybes include: King of pain Peter Murphy * Faux intellectos the Rollins Band * Boston kids Guster * Frat faves 3rd Eye Blind * Boo-hoo Brit-hoppers Lamb * Disco granddad DJ/producer Francois Kevorkian. :