Whew. This Calgary based piece sure has
a lot of anger. Nothing special, just metal
influenced modern rock, but they played
hard.

Lone Wolf rating: 7/10

9:50pm @ Video In — All State Champion

Emo Rules! Too bad they had just finished
when | got there, at least that’s what my
notebook says.

10:00pm @ The Commodore — Sense
Field

Over Capacity. They didn’t let an A&R rep
in from Sony either so | didn’t feel that bad.
Plus Sense Field has been getting plenty of
airplay of late, so they should be coming
back this way pretty soon.

10:15pm @ The Sugar Refinery —
Jonathan, Inc.

Radiogram has been getting so much hype
of late, that it’s easy to forget that Jonathan
Anderson has a band of his own, but
Anderson’s beautifully melancholic rock
sure wowed the crowd at Shug.

Lone Wolf rating: 8/10

10:45pm @ The Royal —- LOCO

| met the boys of Winnipeg's LOCO the
night before while waiting for Las Vegas
Crypt Keeper at The Brickyard. Nice guys.
On stage at the Royal they seemed like any-
thing but; covered in day-glo body paint this
metal quintet scared the shit out of me with
their intense style and their unintelligible
lyrics.

Lone Wolf rating: 7/10

11:00pm @ The Penthouse - Holly
McNarland

Over Capacity. There were even cops
there.

11:10 @ The Pic — The Weekend

Over Capacity. This was no good. Sigh,
when in doubt go pound on the back door.
Big thanks to Dustin from Hot Hot Heat for
letting me in. London, ON natives, The
Weekend sure had the crowd getting down,
dirty and dancin’ to their keyboards and
crunchy guitars.

Lone Wolf rating: 9/10

Midnight @ The Pic — The Constantines

The Constantines came into the show with
a lot of hype, and while they put on a strong
set (from what | can recall), it just didn’t quite
live up to the billing that there live show was
up there with Trail of Dead and The White
Stripes.

Lone Wolf rating: 8/10

>» CULTURE

Saturday, May 11

After Friday night’s debauchery, Saturday
night was not going to be a night of bar hop-
ping and heavy drinking like the previous
two evenings, so perusing the NMW grid
Mint Night at Video In seemed like the best
choice for an evening of musical bliss. My
only question about my night at Video In is:
Where did all these genetic mutation tall
guys come from? Especially the one’s who
want to stand up front?

9:00pm — The Organ

Hey, | saw this group already. Now they’re
doing the sequel to the cool Molly Ringwald
movie.

Lone Wolf rating: 7/10

9:30pm — Tennessee Twin

Cindy Wolfe and her all-star crew played a
beautiful set of catchy country twang com-
plete with a duet with Big Hamm (from
Canned Hamm). Awh shucks.

Lone Wolf rating: 8/10

10:15pm — Operation Makeout

Wow, what a difference five months
makes. Back in January replacement
bassist Jesse, didn’t seem like that good of
a fit for the band. However, since touring for
a while and being in the studio working on
their upcoming release Operation Makeout
has only gotten tighter, with a more coher-
ent sound. | still think Jesse should let
Anna cover the vocal duties, but that’s
another story.

Lone Wolf rating: 7/10

Mark Kleiner Power Trio rockin’ out at Video-In

11:00pm — Duotang

Everybody’s favourite mod duo ripped it up
as the crowd got down as Duotang (w/ Rusty
from the Waking Eyes) blazed through a furi-
ous set of rock and roll that featured
‘Chameleon’ and ‘Top Drawer Winelist’.

Lone Wolf rating: 9/10

11:45pm — Young and Sexy

All the kids love Young and Sexy. Their
songs have sweet sounding pop-rock beau-
ty and songs such as ‘Sister Samurai’ sure
gave them the chance to rock out, but the
harmonies between lead singers Paul
Pittman and Lucy Brain just don’t quite
mesh all the time and the result is often not
quite as sweet as one would like.

Lone Wolf rating: 7/10

12:30am - Volumizer
Missed most of this as | was outside.

1:15am — Mark Kleiner Power Trio

| wonder if Mark Kleiner will ever become a
minister. He abandoned his former band
Jungle to follow his “calling”, only to come
back and make the recently released Love
to Night featuring Pete Mills from Flash
Bastard and Kurt Dahle from the New
Pornographers. Like the album, the perform-
ance was rawkin’ and fun, filled with show-
manship and too much of Mills trying to be
the rock star he’s not, but in the end
Kleiner's pop-rock sensibilities and sense of
a good time won out and ended this review-
er’s New Music West experience on a high
note. Lone wolf rating: 9/10

 

>>>otherpress18