Port Juvee, Last Best (outside), 5:30 p.m.: Start your Saturday BIG experience by getting in a Manhattan state of mind by way of the Beltline. This Calgary act throbs and grooves somewhere between NYC punk and John Hughes new wave. Cool? Cool. Cool, cool, cool.
Samantha Savage Smith, The Palomino (upstairs), 8:15 p.m.: Another local fave. Her 2011 debut Tough Cookie remains one of the best albums produced in this city, and her sophomore album 2015’s Fine Lines pushed her farther out of her torch pop beginnings into something a little more experimental and cerebral. Hopefully she’ll be previewing some new material from a much anticipated followup.
Moonrunner83, Inner City, 9:45 p.m.: This retro Calgary synth artist works using only a palette of warm, fuzzy pastels and hazy night time metropolitan moods and memories. Exotic. Familiar. Unknowing. Danger. Romance. Regret. Betrayal. In other words, it’s a soundtrack in search of a Michael Mann film.
Terra Lightfoot, Last Best (inside), 10:30 p.m.: Like Canadian contemporaries Sarah Harmer and Kathleen Edwards, Lightfoot is an artist who lives in a category all her own. Pop, rock, country, a little blues, a dram of folk, a prickle of punk all mixed in with naked, charming, personal observations of a world that sounds much more warm, comforting, joyful and welcoming than it often is. It’s songs to celebrate to, even if it’s only the fact that it’s a night out in a room full of people.
Yonatan Gat, King Eddy, 12:15 a.m.: If you want to get way out there, go here, with him. Gat, the former guitarist for Tel Aviv garage rock act Monotonix works without a net but with a purpose, exploring the outer reaches of sonic time and space crafting psilocybin aural soundscapes that are soothing and gorgeous one minute, gnarly and punishing the next. It’s challenging music with many and mighty rewards awaiting.
(Terra Lightfoot photo courtesy Dustin Rabin.)
