Control Top Montreal concerts

Control Top

A boost for small festivals and a strain on small venues

The skinny on Not Your Babe and Velouria PLUS how vandals and careless punters are disrespecting the scene.

Holy fuck, sometimes people are just garbage.

Last week a trio of privileged ass hats started dismantling the walls at le Ritz, which is fucked but what has me stymied is nobody attempted to stop them or even alert the people working at the bar. The previous week, another duo of fuckwads stole artwork from l’Esco.

Not only that but a certain DIY venue that just recently opened their doors are now dealing with fuckwits who don’t know to smoke their ciggys away from the venue so as to not piss off neighbourhood residents, who will call the cops without a second thought. If you see people fucking up our venues, showing no respect for the people running the venue or just generally being a heat score, let them know they are not welcome.

In much better news, it’s another loaded week for Montreal concerts. The fourth edition of the Not Your Babe Fest starts tonight and runs over the next three days and nights. While there are certainly some great shows happening at night, this feminist-forward fest has also set up workshops that are as much part of the fest, if not more, than the music. If you think you’ll be going to all of the workshops and shows over the next three days, may I suggest you pony up for the complete pass and save yourself some sawbucks.

Thursday: For a night of noisey rock, squeeze into the Barfly for Toronto’s Your Grandad with Curling Irons and Jed Arbour. 4062A St-Laurent, 9 p.m., $10

For great minimal synth peppered with just the right amount of blips and bleeps, catch NYC’s X Harlow at la Sotterenea. Opening are Deception and world-class musical magician Mickey Dagger. 4873 St-Laurent, 9:30 p.m., $10

For a night of fairly mindless metal, squeeze into l’Esco to catch local metal legends BARF. Waitaminnit, this isn’t at Foufs? 4461 St-Denis, 9 p.m., $20

If you like pop with a twist, you’ll want to catch Destroyer’s recent dark turn at Théâtre Fairmount, with Nap Eyes. Read Cult MTL’s interview with this prolific Vancouver artist here. 5240 Parc, 8:30 p.m., $25/$30

The fourth edition of Not Your Babe Fest kicks off at Casa with a workshop about safe drug use. Afterwards you can rock the fug out with Mexico City’s Calamidad, Boston’s Pandemix, the Awkwerdz, Vile Hussy, Flat Teeth and Wsher/Dryr. 4873 St-Laurent, 5 p.m. workshop, 8 p.m. $21.14

Friday: Not Your Babe isn’t the only festival game in town this weekend. The second edition of Velouria is happening at la Sotterrenea. The fest kicks off with the kraut-rock psych of Room Control with the dark wave of Scene Noir and Su. 4873 St-Laurent, 9:30 p.m., $5

Not Your Babe Fest kicks it up at Sala with Mexico City’s Soga with Blemish, Person’s Unknown, Brusque Twins, Oiseau De Prois and NYC’s Ces Cadaveres. 4848 St-Laurent, 9 p.m., $28.30

Saturday: You’ll definitely want to start your day early with a couple of Not Your Babe Fest workshops at B-Ward. The first deals with destigmatizing sex work and the second focuses on radical mental health. Afterwards there will be a matinee show at 5 p.m. with Rudios, Gazm and more. Ask a punk, 1:30 p.m. for workshops, free/5 p.m. for matinee show, $10

Not Your Babe Fest closes out with a final show at Sala. See Barcelona’s Lux, Mexico City’s Rina, NYC’s Lora Muerte, Ottawa bands Spirit Cry and Bug Bites and Montreal’s Laura Krieg. 4848 St-Laurent, 9 p.m., $26.14

Tuesday: To add some punk drive to your Tuesday night, catch Philly’s Control Top at Casa. Opening are New Yawkers Weeping Icon and local spudz Nuage Flou. 4873 St-Laurent, 9 p.m., $15

Finally, fans of Daughters are going to want to show up to Turbo Haüs. Offshoot band Fucked and Bound are playing with the industrial wallop of Haunted Horses and Politess. 2040 St-Denis, 8 p.m., $10/$13

Current Obsession: The Viletones, A Taste of Honey

jonathan.cummins@gmail.com

See previous edition of Hammer of the Mods here.

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