Green Room's heart restarted
Brendan Murphy
bmurphy@hour.ca
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Elfin Saddle: Stay cold, pony people
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While being a useful local music columnist sometimes means discovering new and interesting venues, sometimes it simply means rediscovering ones you used to like. Case in this point: the Green Room (www.myspace.com/salonvert). One score minus several sevens of years ago, it was a weekly destination of mine for DJ-fuelled dancing, unnecessary shot-taking and high-octane jokery. Then, as things are wont to do, the popularity spread to the university youngies. I remember the night when I walked in, realized that that specific party was over for me, then walked back out for several years. But the Green Room has seen a bit of a rebirth of late. This past weekend, it hosted a magical appearance there from the mysterious and soon-to-be-semi-legendary Guy "take a sip of my" Beaujolais. The Saturday before, I was there for Family Jewelz, which was soundtracked by their pantheon-like spread of DJs (watch out for Slutsky - he's gangster), an everything-and-the-funky-kitchen-sink night that felt a bit like the Salon Vert of old.
It's probably necessary to draw out the old-young schism a bit, because there's nothing worse and more boring than an aging music guy complaining blankly about the kids these days. I've yet to see that one done well. And old smug scenesters are no better than the young ones - in fact, their snide, social craftiness grows all the more pitched as their parts sag and recede. And they are not pretty drunks. But let's be
honest, bars packed with youngsters can be cringe-worthy, probably even to some of the young. The sense of entitlement and heavily crafted and considered personas are exhausting. And usually wrong. Maybe it's not even an age thing, maybe it's just an I-own-this-city-while-I-finish-this-BA thing. (You know, there's a reason that you can't get Quebec residency if only in QC for school...).So this is a cattle call for old people of all ages to consider checking the Green Room out again. They've got a full schedule of stuff on the go, but for now, I'll leave the big-ups to Saturday night's Family Jewelz and Let's Get Rad Again with J. Cummins and $2 beer. Pimp out the walkers and call up the babysitters.
The most-anticipated shows coming up - Bonnie Prince Billy and Animal Collective - are both on May 15. But since they're both long sold out, the only reason anyone will bring them up will be to tell you that they have tickets and you don't, so let's keep moving.
At the Ukrainian Federation on the next night (May 16) is something to salve your missed-show wounds: a double Constellation Records album release from two of Montreal's increasingly poorly kept secrets: the Alden Penner and Brendan Reed-helmed Clues, followed by the neo-couplecore enthusiasts Elfin Saddle.
On the next night at the UK-Fed (this venue apparently owns this weekend), a very interesting collaboration is going down: Big-hat-about-town Li'l Andy and the 30-person Be Free Gospel Choir come together to play songs from an upcoming album that is said to be inspired by that dude who lives up in the clouds. The frenemies Socalled and Katie Moore will also be performing a series of duets.
Keeping on the collabo-tip, at Sala Rossa on May 18, the great new outfit Zeroes teams up with Montreal-based underground chamber music collective Warhol Dervish. How can that not be cool?
(Warning: Think About Life's new album, Family, out on May 26, is about to take over your summer.)
