BLIND GIRLS Canada tour day 3
July 28th, 2022
The Button Factory
Kitchener, ON
First up, these videos are pretty freaking sweet. The amount of light in such a large space with great sound and a legendary line-up is a recipe for screamo scrumptiousness. Lots of notes below with the band reviews and videos. A few quick notes.
1) $25 isn't expensive to see a band from Australia, a band from Philly, a band from the east coast, a band from Quebec, and one local band.
2) Jesse Alarcon makes bands sound extra awesome.
3) Odd Burger is the best vegan fast-food joint around.
BASQUE
Video got a different feel? Well that's cuz I noticed that I had forgotten my trusty video camera in another bag. So I went out to the car to get it. After I got it...I uhhhhh...put it back in the bag in the car. So once back inside Basque had just started their last song and all I had was my cellphone. Too much backstory? Ah well. So the band was even better than the night before, I could see them all, and Ali's mic was audible this time. Wait...there's more backstory.
After the Hamilton show one of the Basque members tested positive for covid and the remaining three house members had a conversation that pretty much ended in them doing an improv noise set and dropping off New Friends Fest. After Sammy from YEARNING heard this, the hero of the tour stepped up told the band to teach him the songs, despite their best efforts to explain that the weird flow and mathy bits would be too awkward to learn in such a short amount of time, he persisted. I walked past the practice room 20 minutes after Ali and him had started and I had a huge smile, so I went outside and told Nate and Jake that the set would be fine and they should probably okay New Friends Fest. They waited until after this show to confirm, but it was a no brainer, with the one exception that everyone was definitely bummed that Niko couldn't play the fest.
SONAGI
FFO: To Be Gentle, Closer
This Philly band showed up and the first person I met in the band was my old bud Eric Mauro. He told me that he had recently joined on second guitar and became even more stoked about the set. And when they started? Good lord what a sweet sound. Super lush, heavy when it needed to be, and just all-around I got made Level Plane Records vibes which is still something sorely lacking in today's screamo, in my opinion. I told bassist Mike this at New Friends Fest and we bonded instantly. The other members were super kind and their shirts were awesome. Def see this band, they are incredible.
YEARNING
FFO: Orchid, Piri Reis, Tristan Tzara
Full Set
This Quebec band blew the top off of the emo-violence community (assuming their is one) earlier this year with their debut EP and showed us immediately that they can pull it all off live like it was nothing. Despite having vocalist issues (aka their vocalist didn't make the tour) they picked up Nate from Basque to let out some throat-shredding screams and by golly did he deliver. I filmed the entire set and it was absolute bliss...and destruction.
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BLIND GIRLS
FFO: Nuvolascura, Mahria
Full Set
I thought this set was the bee's knees, folks. Great sound, awesome lighting, and five individuals just tearin' shit up. You can hear the crowd get noticeably more excited as the set progresses. Although after the first or second song you can hear some minds being blown with repeated phrases such as "What the fuck!?!?! What the fuck!?!?!". I also asked the band the night before if I could get in close and circle around them, to which they agreed, and I'm hella happy we did it cuz we captured some great shots!!!
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BOTFLY
FFO: Bleeding Kansas, My America Is Watching Tigers Die
I'd had Keegan on the podcast (linked here) and I've spun my nebula 12" a good six times, but I still wasn't prepared for the ear-bashing I'd receive, and thank them kindly for it. A heavy dose of noise rock and southern metal with the occasional (and excellent) clean singing and general Breather Resist and Botch-ed ness.
Thanks for posting this, it feels good to know that these vids exist. That was such a great night, thanks a ton to the bands, No Funeral and volunteers.
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