I’ve already written about this. The only thing I have to add is that I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with on their next record. As mentioned, new singer Zoltán Téglás has a serious set of pipes on him and he could do some real damage on a Pennywise record.

4. GBH  - Foufounes Electriques, Montreal

They never disappoint. Played all the classics and a bunch from their new one.

3. Public Image Ltd – L’Olympia, Montreal

John Lydon said on his website that this was the best PiL show he ever played (Scroll about halfway down the page). What he managed to do with the current incarnation of PiL is fuse the different sounds they worked with over the years (disco, pop, commercial pop) and made it flow evenly from one song to the next.

Clocking in at three-hours, they covered all the best of their catalogue, from “Flowers of Romance” to “Death Disco” to “Rise” to “This is Not a Love Song” leaving no-one able to say PiL didn’t satisfy.

Here is them playing “Flowers of Romance” and other songs at this gig:

2. The New Pornographers – Higher Ground, Burlington VT

I didn’t take a vacation last summer and really needed to get out of town for a day or so, So when I saw the announcement that the New Pornographers were playing only a couple of hours away (on a Friday night, no less) there was no way I could not go as I missed them when they played in Montreal earlier in the summer.

While I was disappointed at first that Neko Case couldn’t make it, that was an extremely small part of what was an excellent show. Part of it was that South Burlington is a nice quiet town that reminds of some of the small towns on Vancouver Island.

The people at the show were really friendly and the New Pornos played a set that concentrated on their new record Together, yes, but also went back to “Body Says No” from 2000s Mass Romantic. Good vibes all around. I had an awesome time.

And proving that there is nothing you can’t find on YouTube, here is them playing “Crash Years” at this show:

1. Asexuals – Cabaret Juste Pour Rire, Montreal

I jokingly told some co-workers that I had waited 25 years to see this show. And in some ways that’s true. Sure, I have seen the Asexuals play a few times back in the day, even interviewed them a couple of times, but to me it was the “other” Asexuals, the more straightforward alternative rock band a la the Replacements then the speedy yet progressive hardcore band when John Kastner was singing.

The band concentrated on their first two records. Storming out as expected to the title track from Be What You Want, and then jumped right in to “Contra Rebel”. I was happy that I finally got to hear songs like “Where Were You?” and “Contemporary World” in their proper live setting.

Finishing their set with a cover of “Young Man in Transit” by the Nils was a nice touch. It seemed like a tribute to one of their contemporaries in the early Montreal hardcore scene, who will unfortunately never have their own moment the way the Asexuals did on that night.

Here is a video of them playing “Ego Trip” at this show.

Honorable Mentions: Ripcordz at the Katacombs, Grinderman at Metropolis, The Soft Pack at NXNE, NQ Arbuckle at the Horseshoe.

As many people who read this blog know, I moved to Montreal from Toronto this past spring.  As part of this change I noticed that I began going to shows that I would probably never would have in Toronto. Like Rancid, who played down at Metropolis, for example. I used to love Rancid but after And Out Came the Wolves, they became a little too ska for my tastes and I lost interest. I went to the first of two shows they played here probably because I was bored, not knowing very many people here and everything. But I enjoyed myself, and thought it was kinda funny that they played material mostly pulled from Let’s Go, and the aforementioned Wolves.

The first show I went to in Montreal was Les Breastfeeders at Le Divan Orange, which was a freakin blast. It’s a shame they aren’t well known in english Canada. They’d give all the other ’60s influenced rock n roll bands a run for their money.

Two other local shows that stood out for me was Bad Religion at Metropolis, which was, of course, awesome, and the Kelp Records showcase at Les 3 Minots during Pop Montreal. The big reason I went to this one was to see Camp Radio. I’m a fan of singer Chris Page’s solo work and his work with The Stand GT. See my article on Chris Page on the old Shred site here. A pleasant surprise was singer-songwriter Andrew Vincent. Although he had guitar troubles throughout his set, I was impressed by the quality of his songs and made a mental note to check his stuff out further. His voice reminds me of someone and it’s been driving me crazy who.

Just before I moved, I went with a friend to a criminally under-attended show with Seattle’s Cave Singers. “Helen” is one of the best songs I heard all year.

But when it comes down to it, there is nothing like a pure rock n roll show. The Drive By Truckers blew the roof of the Opera House back in March (I made a note of it here) and in September The Supersuckers destroyed the Horseshoe, playing the best set I’ve ever seen them play.

My neighbourhood in Montréal.

This year went by extremely fast for me. I simply can`t believe it is the end of the year and that I have been in Montreal almost eight months. I doesn`t seem like four months ago that I saw GBH at Foufounes or five since I dated that weird chick from St Léonard, or eight since I spent the month of May in a disoriented haze. It`s like someone flipped a switch and moved time into fast forward.

My French is coming along slowly. I`m still at the stage where I can understand what someone is saying to me but I don`t have the vocabulary to respond.

There are lots of things I like about Montréal and they include:

• Inexpensive public transit
• Schwartz’s Deli
• Foufounes
• Big cans of beer from the deppaneur. And that you can buy beer at the deppaneur
• The Lachine Canal and Atwater Market
• The architecture
• Pizza Steve (my favourite cheap slice, sorry, pointe, in Montreal)
• The awesomely weird stuff you can stumble into just by hanging out downtown on a Saturday night.

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Instead of writing a list of things I don`t like about Montreal (items 1 through 5 would be anti-Anglo assholes, particularly the ones who run the building I live in), I would say that most of the problems I`ve had mostly come from my difficulty in aligning myself with the energy of the city. There`s times where I feel like I`m standing outside a merry-go-round that won`t stop and I`m and trying to latch on as best I can.

A consolation is that I felt similarly when I moved to Victoria and it took almost a year to acclimate. I think that moving here in late spring had something to do with it. I tend to hibernate in the summer and come out in the winter so coming here when I am usually in withdrawal mode may have had something to do with that.

At any rate I chose the adventure I am on and I know it`s up to me to make the future I want for myself so I look forward to seeing how 2009 plays out.