Baseball punk Ladyhawk and Bug Incision
It’d be easy to say something brash like that Chris Dadge’s Bug Incision concern is the best in town for booking outsider/avant-garde shows on the regular but that’d be overly dismissive and potentially unfair to the handful of other promoters in town. That said Dadge has been away traversing the country with his band Lab Coast and the week he gets home there just so happens to be a great little avant-garde show taking place at Emmedia. The event which takes place on Thursday April 24 is headlined by thingNY an experimental music collective from New York City. The group will perform selections from This Takes Place Close By a theatrical work-in-progress that according to a press release “explores the eerie and the absurd through instrumental and sonic soundscapes song and whispered speech disjointed sentences and linguistic play.” The show will be rounded out by local free-rock trio Burro as well as a rare appearance from Midnighties Dadge’s duo with photographer Cody Oliver who’s picking up the guitar after a long hiatus.
If that all sounds a little too art-school for you you may want to spend Thursday night at the Hifi Club where Mad Decent mainstay and Major Lazer member Jillionaire will surely whip the crowd into a frenzy. Having attended the Mad Decent Block Party last year I promise you that it doesn’t require much thought — you just turn off your brain and express yourself in the bass explosions and glittery body parts.
Or you could head over to the Palomino on Thursday for the thinking person’s punk-folk of Winnipeg mainstay Greg MacPherson who will perform songs from his deep catalogue while booker Spencer Brown undoubtedly giggles with glee Ron Swanson-style. The show will also mark the release of a new 7-inch from Calgary act Lucid 44 .
If you’re looking for more rock music just sleep on a slab of meat in the Palomino’s freezer because they’ve got another packed bill on Friday night. In addition to locals The Great Evil and Napalmpom the show will be headlined by Vancouver’s baseball-obsessed pop-punks The Isotopes . And yes duh they’re obviously named after Springfield’s finest. Go ’Topes!
If you’re of the belief that rock music is for simpletons and philistines you’d be better off checking out the new out-there house music being explored at Habitat on Friday night. Via their new night Nu*Movement they’ll explore the outer reaches of dance music with performances from Matt Caine Isis Graham and Jhnn .
For some slightly more mainstream lightly electronic pop music Saturday night sees an appearance from golden-voiced British pop star Ellie Goulding at MacEwan Ballroom. Sadly the show is sold out and now that Goulding has broken up with Skrillex you won’t be able to text that weirdly haircutted EDM god for assistance. (Seriously there are so many people in Calgary who are inexplicably friends with Skrillex. You know who you are.)
On Sunday April 27 at Commonwealth Canrock legends Ladyhawk (who let’s be real have sounded like legends since the beginning) will make a Calgary stop on their cross-Canada 10th anniversary tour. The show features some amazing support including the endlessly affable indie pop of Manitoba’s Shotgun Jimmie and local dude (and Commonwealth employee) Astral Swans .
Mondays are naturally aggro days but the Monday that lands on April 28 will be filled with even more rage as a handful of angry-as-hell metal bands hit Tubby Dog. Ottawa grindcore vets Fuck the Facts will perform alongside sludge warriors The Weir and newcomers Feed Them Fucking Glass . Eat a fucking hot dog and tip your fucking wait staff gang.
Finally Wednesday April 30 will mark a special appearance from Destroyer at Festival Hall. The long-running Vancouver pop explorer will perform alongside local Laura Leif .
