There are just so many sick shows in Montreal this week

Although there is no festival worth talking about happening this week, there are plenty of killer gigs going down in our favourite watering holes. Trying to pick my top gig of the week was ridiculous as there wasn’t just one shining diamond in the rough, but four. Take your pick from two nights of blackened crust, modern psych that has all the young’uns doin’ the electric boogaloo, nwobhm doomsters and an electronic artist who is churning out some of the best psych happening right now AND one of my all-time favourite electronic rock bands that ruled the roost in the pre-grunge years.

Thursday: The ex “Fred Schneider” of the greatest B52’s tribute band the world has ever seen has got his own jam going on and that band is called the Pretzels. Although they’ve been playing around town quite a bit, you’re still invited to get in on the ground floor at Quai des Brumes with Chrogne and Oui. 4481 St-Denis, 10 p.m., $10

Friday: Local smart-aleck punker and local promoter JTA has always got something cooking and this week he brings in the punky synth-driven stomp and swish of Perestroika, who release a new k7 at la Plante with Police des Moeurs, Beep Test (who pull off two gigs this week) and Bosque Rojo. Secret location, 9 p.m., $10/$15 with tape

The definite gigger of the weekend and almost of the week (if not for the killer gig hanging on Tuesday) is U.K. nwobhm, psych/folk doomsters Pagan Altar, who will crush Sala with like-minded cape wearers Cauchemar and Palmistry. This will be heavy and trippy AF. 4848 St-Laurent, 9:30 p.m., $20/$22

Saturday: If you like your crust blasts blackened, you will want to check out the char from Sweden’s Swordwielder with the solid back-up ballast of Collapsed, Warkrusher, Illicit and guests at Katacombes. 1635 St-Laurent, 8 p.m., price not listed

If you were a member of the Sub Pop singles club, you can get your crowd surf back on for grunge-fuelled duo Demolition Derby, who will let the fuzz boxes do all of the talking with la Poesse and Ratchet Kill at l’Esco. 4461 St-Denis, 9 p.m., $10/PWYC

If you’re in need of some heavy music that can liquefy the fillings in yer teeth, you should make tracks to Casa to catch Oath Div 666 with Cell, Maxxpower and Detainee. 4873 St-Laurent, 9:30 p.m., $10

Monday: Flying Lotus! Don’t think this incredible artist deserves a place in the “rock” column because he doesn’t have a guitar hanging around his neck? Well fuck you Poindexter because Flying Lotus is everything modern psych should be sounding like. Opening up at Corona will be Brandon Coleman Spacetalker, Salami Rose Joe Louis and Pbdy. 2490 Notre-Dame W., 8 p.m., $50

But as much as I worship at the altar of Flying Lotus, even this stellar gigger doesn’t get my gig of the week. Not Pagan Altar or Flying Lotus? Who could it be? King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard? Close, as I love their freak-out hippy jams and am happy as fug the kids are actually listening to something decent but even this heavy hitter isn’t swinging a mighty as the gig happening on Tuesday. Playing to a disinterested room will be Stonefield and Orb (no, not that Orb) at l’Olympia. 1004 Ste-Catherine E., 8 p.m., $35/$40

Tuesday: If you still haven’t had your fill of dark wave synth, you can party like it’s 2017 when Madison, Wisconsin’s Cave Curse pull into l’Esco with the always punctual Mickey Dagger and Blooming Season. Keeping things dark and dour will be DJs Flaneur and Hussy. 4461 St-Denis, 9 p.m., $10/PWYC

The Music Blabber series hosted by local stud muffin Mark Goodwin hits its 13th edition and has a killer night lined up as Mr. Goodwin goes toe to toe with Sick Things duders Patrick Bennett and Cam Turin. Expect a lot of tunes, gabbing and laffs — lotsa lotsa laffs. This is all going down at Barfly, natch. 4062A St-Laurent, 9 p.m., PWYC

If you want some serious Bay Area thrash riffage, there are a coupla NYC bands that are more than happy to let their shredding do the talking: Illusion and Ekulu join forces with local miscreants Gazm at Casa. 4873 St-Laurent, 8:30 p.m., $10

“If the big pick isn’t Pagan Altar, Flying Lotus or King Gizzard, who the fug could it be”? Well, my inquisitive little friend let ,me tell you: the Young Gods. Old haggard fux who remember drinking rancid beer by the gallon at Foufounes in the late ’80s will know what I’m talking about when this Swiss band prove how incredibly ahead of the curve they were, at le Ritz. This mainly electronic band actually had the gall to sample Voivod and their 12-incher remix of “Longue Route” remains the heaviest slab ever to echo off of Foufounes’s walls. Think ol Johnson’s blowing smoke? Punch “Longue Route remix” into your search engine now and thank me later. Openers are Evoked Response and Sad. 179 Jean-Talon W., 9 p.m., $30/$35

Wednesday: If you were at the Swordwielder gigger on Saturday, you will definitely want to show up for the blackened crust of Phoenix’s Röntgen at la Sotterenea with Mueco and CPU Rave. Note the early start time on this one. 4873 St-Laurent, 9 p.m., price not listed

Current Obsession: Kandodo3, K3

jonathan.cummins@gmail.com