Beige

These Montreal shows will give’r to your liver

Blip-driven-punk, a booze, pizza & band bonanza and treats for alt guitar nerds this week PLUS Taverne Tour was the shit!

facebookThis isn’t my first rodeo. For the many, many moons, I’ve been hipping you L7’s to the happenin’ shows, not to mention being just dog-gawn giddy about gigs, and I can almost set my watch to the way things slow down to a trickle in February.

Throughout my hard-fought times in the gig trenches, this month has always been slim for shows. This week is certainly spooks when it comes to setting foot on our frozen tundra, especially with so many local bands recovering from last weekend’s Taverne Tour, which held the St-Denis/Mont-Royal Avenue area captive for three nights.

Speaking of which, kudos to the organizers, who packed up Matahari all three nights and had me wandering all over God’s green acre and soaking up pints in places that I didn’t even know existed.

More shows at le Terminal, SVP! I managed to catch the proggy sounds of Black Legarry there, and as awesome as B.L. was, I left all tingly from hanging out in this unassuming room. The little attic space with a capacity of about 100 people, excellent sight lines and crystal clear sound just begs for wall-blasting on a regular basis.

If you attended one of the free shows (or very affordable shows) during this second annual edition of Taverne Tour, you know this will become a yearly go-to.

As for this week, the pickins are slim, but where things lack in quantity….

Friday: For a night of disorienting dark wave and blip-driven punk, you can catch Black Marble, You, Police des Moeurs and Besatzung at le Ritz. This could turn into an unofficial meeting of the All Buttons In Gear page on Facebook. 179 Jean-Talon W., 9:30 p.m., $13/$15

This is a no-brainer. Turbo Haüs will be hosting their annual Nick Babeu Center for the Arts membership funding drive, which is a little stipulation so they can still keep on presenting shows as well as offering membership privileges with their Turbo Talks events, which welcome the music and arts community to directly contribute to the space. $20 gets you in with champagne and pizza for all, and get this: after that it’s all the beer you can drink! Still not convinced? Performing live is Femme Accident, Los and Toronto’s Pony. Warning: shopping at Ikea the following morning may result in a brain hemorrhage. 5011 Notre-Dame W., p.m., $

Beige
Beige

Saturday: Ever wondered what Dino Jr.’s J Mascis would sound like if he snorted a snootful of bathtub biker crank before plugging in his fuzz? Well you can check out Beige (yep, they are as good as their badass name) with ample support from Weird Star and Doggo at Casa. If you dig the ’90s-style fuzz crunch of locals Solids, you will definitely dig this. 4873 St-Laurent, 9 p.m., $6/$9

Wednesday: All guitar pedal nerds and ambient texture/songs heads are going to want to cross their arms and hike up their backpacks to the sweet melancholic and ‘verbed out sounds of singer-songwriter Hand Habits with John Andrews and the Yams and Fog Lake at la Vitrola. Turn on, tune in, bum out! 4602 St-Laurent, 9 p.m., $8/$10

Current Obsession: Meat Puppets, Up on the Sun

jonathan.cummins@gmail.com