God bless Montreal music promoters

God love the promoter. I am a card-carrying music nerd and could be considered a bit obsessive about the whole guitars, drums and singing/screaming thingy but even I would never throw my cap into the show promoter arena. It’s a thankless task to say the least, with your life and rent becoming a nightly gamble, and outside of seeing your favorite bands, the pay-off is hardly worth the effort – at least for me. Thank you to all of the fine people like stalwarts Greenland, Suoni, Extensive Enterprises, Blue Skies, the potty mouths at Turbo Haüs and a host of others that take on the gigs on a more part time basis. This week I would like to give a special shout-out to the young bucks Analogue Addiction, who celebrates their five-year anniversary.

Friday: If you were hoping to make tracks to le Ritz to catch Amen Dunes and Okay Kaya, you are fucked due to your tardiness as this gig is sold out. Not to worry — there are plenty of other gigs happening on the first night of the weekend:

If you would like to help celebrate AA’s first half-decade, head down to their favourite haunt, l’Esco, to catch Toronto’s Frigs, NYC’s Grim Streaker, Pottery and DJ Mathieu Beausejour holding down his weekly spot behind the wheels of steel. 4461 St-Denis, 9 p.m., $12/$15

Boot boys and street urchins can point their docs to Bistro de Paris for Italy’s F.A.V.L. with Lab Ratz, We Told You So and the Hacked. 4536 St-Denis, 9 p.m., $10

For a decidedly more rock ’n’ roll evening out, you can go to Barfly to swoon to the toonz of Rock ‘n’ Roll TV with the Match Up and Bambies. 4062A St-Laurent, 9 p.m., price unlisted

My big pick of the week, and one of the picks of the month, is happening at the uber-gritty Foufs with the “fun” metal riffs of Black Tusk with Whores, Venomenom and White Nails. If you are not digging the new progressive metal movements and just want some good ol’ metal like Mama used to make, this is the gig. 87 Ste-Catherine E., 7:30 p.m., $18/$20

If you like your punk rock ringing out with down-stroked superiority while possessing a great sense of melody, you will definitely want to be at Brasserie Beaubien to catch Priors with Ancient Shapes and Dates. 73 Beaubien E., 8 p.m., $10/PWYC

For something that will have you doing the whirling dervish without a care in the world, head to Sala to catch Orkestar Kriminal with opener Geoff Berner. 4848 St-Laurent, 8 p.m., $12/$15

Saturday: Although the funsters behind the BCASA have claimed they are playing their final show a couple of other times in the past, this time they swear it’s true. If you would like to help pound the nails in their coffin, you can check them out at Crobar with Cracked Lips. 9 p.m., $5/$10

If you like a bit more stubbed-toe angst in yer metal mix, you can check out the metalcore of Vein with King Nine, Typecaste and Sink at Sala. 4848 St-Laurent, 9 p.m., $15/$18

Sunday: Originally when I saw a band called the Wheal was coming to town, I of course thought they nabbed their moniker from Flipper’s devastatingly heavy opus The Wheel and was expecting slow atonal dirge-like slugging on their Bandcamp, but alas, no dice on the Flipper front. On the electro-punk front, though, they aren’t half bad. Playing with this band (that, I repeat, does not sound like Flipper at all) are post-punkers Radio Void and Dreg Queen at la Sotternea. 4848 St-Laurent, 9 p.m., price unlisted

Tuesday: The third edition of Music Blabber hosted by Mighty Ffud’s Mark Goodwin is happening at Barfly. If you haven’t been to Music Blabber, it’s exactly what you would think it is, but in a very intimate and relaxing manner. This week’s guest player and blabberer will be musician/artist Jackie Gallant. 4062A St-Laurent, 9 p.m., price unlisted

Current Obsession: Come to the Sunshine radio show on wfmu.org.
jonathan.cummins@gmail.com