Icons of post-punk, post-rock and giallo soundtracks are playing Montreal this month

Now that we’re finally (hopefully?) past our snowy slump for gigs, the wind is at our backs as we gear up for a well-deserved spring. Due to the sheer wealth of killer gigs to hip you to, and a limited amount of bandwidth to spill on it, I will put a sock in my intro this month and just plow through it.

April 11

After a bit of a dry spell for heaviosity in Montreal in the first week of April, we finally get moving when spooky-ooky black metal legends Belphegor let their furnace-fueled blast beats do all of the talking. Helping to make your blood run cold at this show — happening at the very un-black metal monikered venue Théâtre Beanfield — are openers Arkona and Vale of Pnath. 2490 Notre-Dame W., 7 p.m., $45–$57

April 13

If not for the absolute crusher happening at the end of the month, Mogwai’s return to Montreal would certainly be my big pick of the month. For my duckets, there is nothing less sexy than “post-rock,” but Mogwai manage to beat the odds and bring ballast to their cinematic scope while sneaking a bit of swagger into the mix. If you’ve never had the pleasure of Mogwai liquifying your teeth fillings live, you HAVE to see this show — on the sabbath, no less. Openers for this show, which is also at Théâtre Beanfield, are Brainiac (the Touch and Go Brainiac with a new singer?) and Ye Gods. 2490 Notre-Dame W., 7:30 p.m., $84–$179 at press time (almost sold out!)

April 17

If you like healthy doses of psych and prog in your metal, you’ll want to check out Elder at Théâtre Fairmount as they revisit their seminal 2015 record Lore in its entirety. Along for the nerd trip are Sacri Monti and Moon Destroys. Count how many pedal dorks are craning their necks over the monitor to look at their pedalboards. Fun times! But for seerz though, Lore is a barnstormer and could be considered a high water mark for these fellas, so this should prove to be a major rager……oh no! Now I’m the nerd! 5240 Parc, 7 p.m., $40.96

April 22

Okay, if not for the Mogwai gig and the show happening at the end of the month, surely Gang of Four’s final tour would be a shoo-in for gig of the month. Now 1979’s Entertainment is one of post-punk’s true masterpieces, and recently having Slint’s David Pajo filling in the slash and bash of dearly departed Andy Gill was rad, but things are getting a bit ropey at this juncture with only tub-smasher Hugo Burnham and sophistico singer Jon King left in the current line-up. Jon King will also be around signing his memoire To Hell With Poverty after the gig, a book I would loooove to crack the spine of. No openers, so settle in for an expanded set-list. 2490 Notre-Dame W., 8 p.m., $51

April 30

Okay, as promised, the big pick for gig of the month is conveniently situated at the end of the month, as to give my column some much needed suspense. Just when you thought stages were getting a bit overpopulated with horror-movie composers playing live to projections, Frizzi 2 Fulci is sure to blow yer puny mind to bits. Composer extraordinaire Fabio Frizzi will show you why he is the greatest giallo tunesmith when he joins forces with a small “rock” ensemble as he hits all the cues to Lucio Fulci’s spine tingler Zombie. The Rialto would’ve been nice but this is happening at Théâtre Fairmount. 5240 Parc, 8 p.m., $46.08, all ages

Current Obsession: Alexander Spence, AndOarAgain

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