Blood Ceremony

ArtsMusic

Take your pick of these shows this week!

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29

Fattal Fest 2014 @ Fattal

Nothing marks the end of summer like the outdoor barbecue crusty blowout party that is Fattal Fest. Now in its fifth year, the festival started as a block party of sorts for the residents of the Fattal lofts in St-Henri, a nice little community-oriented get-together with cheap food, beer and punk bands. As the neighbourhood has gentrified in the last few years, the party has become more popular and has grown to include non-St-Henri residents as well. This goes over pretty well with the people I have spoken to in the past who live there as it serves to raise awareness about the socio-political situation at Fattal.

Over the past couple of years, the residents of the Fattal lofts have been battling the city and their landlord, the notorious Sam Fattal – owner of many squalid, derelict buildings and shoddy new condo developments on the island – for their right to live there and not be forced out as the neighbourhood becomes more and more desirable to condo developers.

As the event description is quick to point out, the organizers of the party (mainly Fattal residents and others in the St-Henri punk scene) do not have permission from the city to host this event so they ask everyone to keep to the parking lot, not mill around in the streets, be respectful and pick up after themselves.

Event starts tonight at 7 p.m. and continues Saturday and possibly Sunday, free.

Rae Spoon + Elena Stoodley + Lady Sin Trayda @ La Sala Rossa

Dragonroot Media and The Centre for Gender Advocacy are presenting this show tonight featuring transgender musician and author Rae Spoon. All proceeds will go to fund Dragonroot, a fairly new feminist collective that supports anti-oppressive practices in the media. They have a weekly show on CKUT 90.3 FM Tuesdays from 8:30 to 9 a.m. Shoutout to fellow FTBers Hannah Besseau and Pamela Fillion, who are also behind Dragonroot.

Doors open at 8 p.m., $8 or PWYC.

Wings of Metal Festival: feat. The Skull + Blood Ceremony + Holocaust + ADX & more @ Katacombes

Wings of Metal is an underground metal festival put on by three promoters looking to emulate the style of underground metal festivals that take place in Europe. That means lots of quality bands for a fair price, many of whom are from out of town like Toronto’s Blood Ceremony, Bölzer from Zurich, Edinburgh’s Holocaust and Brooklyn’s Natur, just to name a very few. Many of these bands, even the ones from North America, have a huge following in Europe and rarely come play here so getting to see them all under one roof is pretty special.

Bands play Friday and Saturday and to close off the festival, on Sunday there’s a metal record market followed by a barbecue and a secret show.

Doors open at 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, $45 per day; Metal record market and BBQ Sunday from 2 p.m. followed by a secret show at 6 p.m., $5 entry for the market, $15 for the show.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 30

Piknic Électronik triple edition feat. Jamie XX + Misstress Barbara + Surfing Leons & more @ Parc Jean-Drapeau

The good people behind Piknic are hoping you’ll take advantage of the long weekend to check out at least one of the three editions of Montreal’s favourite summertime electronic party series. Saturday’s edition is a short one (it ends at 8:45 p.m.) with only one stage due to the Arcade Fire show that takes place that night ($10 entry to Piknic upon presentation of an Arcade Fire ticket). Their regular full programming continues on Sunday and Monday.

Shows start Saturday, Sunday and Monday at 2 p.m., $15 at the door.

Eddie Paul @ BBAM! Gallery

Show starts at 3 p.m., free (PWYC).

The 222s + Paddle to the Sea + Arbor Glades @ Piccolo Rialto

Show starts at 9 p.m., $14 at the door.

Elephant Stone + UUBBUURRUU @ l’Escogriffe

Montreal psych rockers Elephant Stone will be launching their third full-length album, The Three Poisons, which is available for streaming in full on their Soundcloud. Then they’re off on tour again (man, do these guys work hard).

Show starts at 9 p.m., $?.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 31

Golden Tombs + Slight + Old Haunt @ Divan Orange

Show starts at 9:30 p.m., $6.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2

Future Islands + Operators + DJ Disco Phantom @ Metropolis

This show will mark the first time Dan Boeckner’s (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs) new project Operators perform in Montreal. Go see what all the fuss is about and in the meantime, check out this review by Nameless Ponytail of their first release, EP1.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., $18 in advance via Blue Skies Turn Black or $20 at the door.

Atsuko Chiba + Set and Setting + Christ @ Casa del Popolo

Doors open at 8:30 p.m.; $8 before the end of the first band’s set, $10 after (I can get behind this; support opening bands!).

ArtsMusic

Kylesa brought their heavy, psychedelically hypnotizing sounds to Il Motore. The genre-defying band from Savannah, Georgia had most of the crowd completely transfixed, trance-like, during their set. The swirling, geometric projection lighting definitely added to the mind-bending atmosphere created by the band’s music.

It’s really difficult to accurately describe Kylesa’s sound. The heavy riffs and bass lines are reminiscent of metal and there’s a psychedelic 70s influence in there. Then there are these spacey, dark, electric undertones that feature most prominently on their latest release, Ultraviolet. Songs can go from slow and atmospheric to fast and heavy in seconds. The result is an extremely well crafted, intricately arranged piece of work that translates beautifully to the stage.

For a five-piece, Kylesa have a lot going on instrumentally. Guitarists Phillip Cope and Laura Pleasants share vocal duties. Cope also uses a synthesizer, a Theremin, and an original piece called the skateboard guitar. That last one is exactly what it sounds like: it’s a skateboard that a friend of Cope’s modified by adding pickups, tuners and strings.

Rounding things out on the low end of the frequency spectrum are bassist Chase Rudeseal and drummers Eric Hernandez and Carl McGinley. That’s right: Kylesa has two drummers that each play on their own full kits simultaneously.

The noise is absolutely brutal. Listening to Kylesa perform feels like shooting through outer space in a glass rocket ship.

kylesa2

Opening up for the band were the equally talented and deserving Lazer/Wulf, White Hills and Blood Ceremony.

Lazer/Wulf are an instrumental three-piece from Atlanta. They like to pull the most ridiculously hilarious faces while performing their brand of impossibly fast experimental thrash.

White Hills play what they like to call “fuzzed out motorik spacerock.” This is a pretty good description of their brand of psychedelic, stoner rock. Interestingly enough, although the band hails from New York City, they’ve built up more of a following overseas since their inception in the early 00s and have only started touring North America extensively within the last few years.

Blood Ceremony’s special brand of occult doom metal really makes you feel like you’ve traveled back in time. The sound is reminiscent of early Black Sabbath with just a hint of medieval folk: lead singer Alia O’Brien switches between playing the organ and the flute. The highly acclaimed Toronto band has previously toured with Swedish heavy metal band Ghost and stoner/sludge behemoth Electric Wizard.

The three openers, powerhouse bands in their own right, really ensured that you got a big bang for your buck. The resulting show was a very eclectic mix of sounds and a reminder that there are really exciting things happening in the heavy music genre.

*Photos by Bianca David. Check out our Kylesa @ Il Motore album on Facebook for more photos.