Feline feedback

I went over to 443 Kent St. on October 8, 2009, with a mixture of anticipation and fear. Anticipation because this was my first real opportunity to use the sync cord I finally got around to purchasing, and fear because being stuck in a small room with The Girlfriends always makes me think of the time Wolfgang bashed me on the knee with his guitar while he was tussling with Nigel. As for the openers Vincat, I was expecting some poppy psychedelica. As it turns out, the Victoria trio's music is much freakier, and features more feedback than their acoustic online videos would suggest.

Kristian North in a state of extreme freakiness.



Kristian and Crystal Dorval.



More Kristian, plus drummer Danny Costello.



Instrument-switching action!



Danny and some light-making dealie.



Crystal, the crowd and that pole.



No one knows what happens under the hair.



Singalong action!



Danny prepares to fist-bump.



Final, knob-twiddling action!



Unfortunately drummer Danny Costello left in December, putting the band in a state of indefinite hiatus.

• Show reminder: We Came As Romans, Not Even Death, Hunter City Madness and Michael Froh do it for the kids at Mavericks.

From the basement to the stars

It's always nice to see a band up close and personal, and you can't get much more up close than the basement at 443 Kent Street. I have a new toy, an SC-29 Nikon flash synchro cord like all the cool kids have, so last night's show seemed an ideal opportunity to try it out. Thus I went off to the house of Calum and Co. to witness Victoria's Vincat and local garage terrorists The Girlfriends. Which I did, after a discussion of silent film, Russian film and strange baby-eating German cults.

With Pop Montreal going on to the east, there's a number of bands great and small spreading the musical goodness to nearby cities like Ottawa. One such band is Vincat, whose psychedelic noise-pop has brought in a fair amount of praise. They even got a brief gushing mention in The Montreal Gazette's Pop Montreal writeup. The trio put on a great show in front of 20 or so folks.


Vincat at 443 Kent Street, October 8, 2009

There followed a hallway discussion of the relative merits of The Japandroids' recent Mavericks show (which The Coathangers apparently stole - don't judge them on their recorded work or Myspace stuff). Then it was back to the basement. The Girlfriends put on their usual raucous show, and even had a smoke machine this time. "I have asthma!" complained a freshly shorn Nigel, but it didn't stop them from ripping things up, doing headstands and in Wolfgang's case stripping down to his boxers and sticking a shoe down the front of them. As you can see their high-energy show has aged Wolfgang horribly.


The Girlfriends at 443 Kent Street, October 8, 2009

I bought a couple of Vincat albums on the strength of their show ... I'm listening to an earlier effort now, Inner Space. It's poppier but still really good. Remind me a bit of the JT3 mixed with Crazy Diamond-era Floyd.

• Show reminder: Today I Caught The Plague, Children of Eve, I Call This Safety and Assassinate The Following spread good cheer at Mavericks; Doll rocks the Live Lounge; Project Mantra and Transit 14 play Zaphod's; The Rainbow plays host to The Idlers; there's a pre-wedding show for some Allrights and Centretown Cripplers at the Montgomery Legion on Kent Street, with The White Wires rounding out the bill. Lucas Stagg and Paul MacLeod are at Irene's; K.C. and the Moonshine Band with opener Joel Kaiser and The Devil’s Own and the Elizabeth Riley Band play The Elmdale House.