Monday, December 8, 2008

UnPop 2008 Is Over!

UnPop Montréal. Year Four: 4 More Days Of No Sleep And Good Music. It ended in the wee hours the morning, ended well in a warm atmosphere amongst friends in a climate of love... until it was time to leave and off we went into minus-30 weather. Ah, the joys of winter!

So this year gathered less media attention, most probably because it was completed in a haste, barely a week ahead of the scheduled shows. The turnout was generally fine, overall. And the money required to put the shows on was a lot less than that of years past. All in all, a success story.

It kicked off on Thursday night at Cagibi. Sébastian Hell, Might, Reason To Hide and Anti-School-Year.

Then off to The Pound on Saturday for weird music, with Merles Guitar Band, Launie Anderssohn, The Montreal Nintendo Orkestar and Raw Madonna.

Saturday night, still at The Pound, Smoked Meat Fax Machine improvised a set of instrumental madness, ElevenEighty grooved the house on down, and The Nevers brought the crowd home to an era most of them hadn't even lived in, early-80's Manchester, England, with a sound reminiscent of a cross between Joy Division and The Cure, but realer in a way than Interpol. It's pretty fucking hard to believe these kids are so good.

Then it was back at Cagibi for a case of Patrick Hutchinson (of Swift Years, formerly of Bare Bones), Will Austin, Allan Lento and Elizabeth Bruce. A top-quality finish, but one of those that usually goes unnoticed for too long.

Individual show revires may follow on this blog, as they will be posted from somewhere else.

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