Just got back from Victoriaville (a small city outside of Montreal, not a weird nickname for Victoria, BC) for the 24th annual Festival du Musique Actuelle. It was over the top.
I saw John Zorn play solo, including a set where he played a bowl of water with his mouthpiece.
I saw the Melvins tear apart a small arena, and covering bizarre tunes (for them) like Merle Haggard's "Okie from Musgokee" (which I can't help but think was a commentary on the tiny town).
Koenji Hyakkei played (Tatsuya Yoshida from Ruins' new band) and sounded like a fucked up Japanese version of Magma. Their first show outside of Japan. The alto sax player was out of sight.
I also garnered a lot of attention at the festival - not only for being awesome, but apparently I was a ringer for the trumpet player in Anthony Braxton's band. So people kept coming up to me telling me how great I was.
Carla Bozulich's performance of her whole album "Evangelista" was superb - she was jamming out with the Godspeed you black emperor! crew, and made me want to rush out and pick up instruments again.
The show of the festival might have been the massive ensemble that was Acid Mothers Gong. About 1/3 Acid Mothers Temple, 1/3 Gong, and 1/3 Koenji Hyakkei and others they just blew my top with 2 solid hours of unbeatably insane psychedelic rock.
The Magik Markers were like some kind of bizarro noise version of the White Stripes - a girl singing & shredding on the guitar, and a guy drummer. Like the White Stripes on PCP and punk.
Anthony Braxton played an amazing piece with a massive 12tet ensemble - in which I was playing trumpet (kidding!) - they played as long as the hourglass that he placed at the front of the stage went. Very nice.
The most fun show was undoubtably Eugene Chadbourne and Kevin Blechdom's banjo duet which featured banjo covers of Astronomy Domine, old style country tunes, Chadbourne breaking a zillion strings and singing a song on helium, as well as a duelin' banjos finale that lead to Kevin Blechdom raping her banjo and a subsequent gunfight between the two performers. No kidding.
And to top it all off noise legends Keiji Haino & Merzbow played their first set together outside of Japan and scoured all of our brains with sweet sweet noise.
What a weekend.
And I didn't even mention the performances of Ubu Roi (en francais) and the Cirque du Soleil last week. Maybe next time.
I saw John Zorn play solo, including a set where he played a bowl of water with his mouthpiece.
I saw the Melvins tear apart a small arena, and covering bizarre tunes (for them) like Merle Haggard's "Okie from Musgokee" (which I can't help but think was a commentary on the tiny town).
Koenji Hyakkei played (Tatsuya Yoshida from Ruins' new band) and sounded like a fucked up Japanese version of Magma. Their first show outside of Japan. The alto sax player was out of sight.
I also garnered a lot of attention at the festival - not only for being awesome, but apparently I was a ringer for the trumpet player in Anthony Braxton's band. So people kept coming up to me telling me how great I was.
Carla Bozulich's performance of her whole album "Evangelista" was superb - she was jamming out with the Godspeed you black emperor! crew, and made me want to rush out and pick up instruments again.
The show of the festival might have been the massive ensemble that was Acid Mothers Gong. About 1/3 Acid Mothers Temple, 1/3 Gong, and 1/3 Koenji Hyakkei and others they just blew my top with 2 solid hours of unbeatably insane psychedelic rock.
The Magik Markers were like some kind of bizarro noise version of the White Stripes - a girl singing & shredding on the guitar, and a guy drummer. Like the White Stripes on PCP and punk.
Anthony Braxton played an amazing piece with a massive 12tet ensemble - in which I was playing trumpet (kidding!) - they played as long as the hourglass that he placed at the front of the stage went. Very nice.
The most fun show was undoubtably Eugene Chadbourne and Kevin Blechdom's banjo duet which featured banjo covers of Astronomy Domine, old style country tunes, Chadbourne breaking a zillion strings and singing a song on helium, as well as a duelin' banjos finale that lead to Kevin Blechdom raping her banjo and a subsequent gunfight between the two performers. No kidding.
And to top it all off noise legends Keiji Haino & Merzbow played their first set together outside of Japan and scoured all of our brains with sweet sweet noise.
What a weekend.
And I didn't even mention the performances of Ubu Roi (en francais) and the Cirque du Soleil last week. Maybe next time.
VIEW 12 of 12 COMMENTS
hope:
thanks man, I hope all is well in the big city
faye:
So where do I go to see this patrick guy?!