Show Overview: Kuato, Stalwarts Sons, Union of the Snake & The Theatens @ Gus' Pub
Overview by Dan Nightingale
The Thetans kicked off the night, sort of a Halifax style mash-up of Nick Cave and the 13th Floor Elevators, with plenty of spacey guitar noodling and pounding primitive drums. While front man Isaac Hansen and drummer Michelle Skelding form 3/4s of local party rockers NFP, it's the juxtaposition of the Fantod's Gary Peacock's wild wah-wah guitar shredding with the repetitive, staccato baselines that take The Thetans from earth bound rock to space exploring freak out band.
Union of the Snake took freak out music from high above the clouds down to dark, dirty, claustrophobic ruins. With thick, dirty bass, piles of amplifiers, and relentless drumming, the band took the audience 180* degrees into a nasty, post-punk, post-everything fever. Intense volume (over-heard post-set audience comment: “Well, that last band was a little loud, wasn't it?”) and guitarist Chad Peck's dizzying array of effects pedals delivering in your face tone with fuzzy leads, wavering rhythms, and layers of distortion. Unfortunately vocals were hard to make out, unsurprisingly for Gus' Pub, so look forward to a new split 7” coming out shortly.
Conversely, the other side of that split features Calgary's Stalwart Sons. Though this was their first time in Halifax, they enjoyed a healthy crowd, fortunate but unsurprising given the local bands and their musical style, heavily influenced by Halifax bands (as mentioned by lead singer Kevin Stebner). Their music was a combination of shouty post-hardcore with a Canadian indie style country/roots style ala the Constantines; a mashup that reminds of Montreal's The City Streets. It seems to be a growingly popular style, so please for the love of god let's not invent a new genre name for it and ruin everything.
With sharp guitar and stop on a dime turnarounds combined with intense vocal delivery, Stalwarts songs no doubt made a decent impression on Halifax (and vice versa), so hopefully we'll see their return sometime soon.
After a relatively quick setup, Kuato (sans light show) took the stage to perform some of their newest songs fresh of their EP recording frenzy. By my count they're about due for another one, or perhaps a full length someday soon? The band sounded as full and huge as always, despite a few minor technical difficulties, and they played a short but intense set to the the still eager crowd. I've all ready rambled on about the progression of instrumental music in Halifax, but needless to say these guys set the bar, from local pub band to true international class musicians. It'll be a real shame if these guys can't take the stage at a few festivals this year, or at least at the upcoming Halifax Pop Explosion this fall, so here's hoping.
Saturday June 11th 2011
@ Gus's Pub
KUATO - http://kuatoband.com/
STALWART SONS - http://stalwartsons.bandcamp.com/
UNION OF THE SNAKE - http://uots.tumblr.com/
THE THETANS - www.myspace.com/thethetans
The Thetans kicked off the night, sort of a Halifax style mash-up of Nick Cave and the 13th Floor Elevators, with plenty of spacey guitar noodling and pounding primitive drums. While front man Isaac Hansen and drummer Michelle Skelding form 3/4s of local party rockers NFP, it's the juxtaposition of the Fantod's Gary Peacock's wild wah-wah guitar shredding with the repetitive, staccato baselines that take The Thetans from earth bound rock to space exploring freak out band.
Union of the Snake took freak out music from high above the clouds down to dark, dirty, claustrophobic ruins. With thick, dirty bass, piles of amplifiers, and relentless drumming, the band took the audience 180* degrees into a nasty, post-punk, post-everything fever. Intense volume (over-heard post-set audience comment: “Well, that last band was a little loud, wasn't it?”) and guitarist Chad Peck's dizzying array of effects pedals delivering in your face tone with fuzzy leads, wavering rhythms, and layers of distortion. Unfortunately vocals were hard to make out, unsurprisingly for Gus' Pub, so look forward to a new split 7” coming out shortly.
Conversely, the other side of that split features Calgary's Stalwart Sons. Though this was their first time in Halifax, they enjoyed a healthy crowd, fortunate but unsurprising given the local bands and their musical style, heavily influenced by Halifax bands (as mentioned by lead singer Kevin Stebner). Their music was a combination of shouty post-hardcore with a Canadian indie style country/roots style ala the Constantines; a mashup that reminds of Montreal's The City Streets. It seems to be a growingly popular style, so please for the love of god let's not invent a new genre name for it and ruin everything.
With sharp guitar and stop on a dime turnarounds combined with intense vocal delivery, Stalwarts songs no doubt made a decent impression on Halifax (and vice versa), so hopefully we'll see their return sometime soon.
After a relatively quick setup, Kuato (sans light show) took the stage to perform some of their newest songs fresh of their EP recording frenzy. By my count they're about due for another one, or perhaps a full length someday soon? The band sounded as full and huge as always, despite a few minor technical difficulties, and they played a short but intense set to the the still eager crowd. I've all ready rambled on about the progression of instrumental music in Halifax, but needless to say these guys set the bar, from local pub band to true international class musicians. It'll be a real shame if these guys can't take the stage at a few festivals this year, or at least at the upcoming Halifax Pop Explosion this fall, so here's hoping.
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