Canadian Self Loathing
Our neighbors to the North star at the 4th Wall on Friday, 21 June 2024.
Local act Husbands closes out the four-stack bill.
Mark Erdody, a longtime local musician in the area, is going through a course of treatment and recovery from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Everything is expensive, especially medical bills. Help if you can.
With the US Presidential Election brouhaha incoming, it would be a fantastic time for America to learn a little bit about the art of self-deprecation, which was on display in the stage banter of two Canadian bands at the 4th Wall on Friday night.
By the way, did you see the first US Presidential debate on Thursday?
The fronters for the two Canadian bands competed with each other to declare their existential exhaustion with their hometowns, alternately Montreal and Toronto.
Can you imagine “America First!” jingoist lunatics indulging in a similar thought experiment? That maybe, possibly, perhaps, peut-être their country is not the greatest country on Earth, and is in need of a political course correction if it wants to embody Democratic ideals not just in fanatical rhetoric, but in actual policy and everyday life?
Dafnez
Dafnez kicked off the evening with a spare set of indie rock, performing as a two-piece, guitar and drums. Straight outta Montreal, so the ‘z’ in Dafnez is probably silent, and you’re supposed to put an accent mark on the ‘e’ in Montreal.
Extra points to the vocalist for rhyming ‘Montreal’ with ‘soul.’ That’s Eminem-level word mashing.
And how can you not love Montreal? A beautiful city with a lively music scene and some killer annual fests, including the famous jazz fest.
Hump Day News sat down with Maurin Auxemery, the current program director for the Montreal Jazz Fest for a Humpcast episode. He walked us through the schedule incoming late June through early July, and it sounded fucking extraordinary.
Plus, the majority of the fest is free and a lot of it is outdoors, turning the entire city into a kind of open air festival attracts around two million visitors each year.
TWO MILLION. Which, you know, might annoy the locals even more than the locals annoy themselves (per Dafnez). I tried to draw this little comedic aside out of Auxemery, but he didn’t bite. Too smart for that.
Roxy 2
Straight outta Baltimore. It’s Roxy 2! The four-piece crafted heavy pop with a traditional rock n roll quartet augmented by a sampler. Hazey, gazey, crunchy distortion. Shades of Main Era and Still Life Sounds.
The four-piece So Perfect from Toronto sported shades of a poppier This Body Is All I Have In This World. And they were quick to throw their town under the bus. Maybe as a gesture of sympathy and fellowship with Montreal’s Dafnez.
So Perfect
Does everyone get a little tired of their homebase? It could be just a general case of the grass always being greener on the other side. Maybe they should give Calgary a try? Go jam with the Sunglaciers.
The Boston version of this phenomenon has musicians in their 20s eyeing New York City as bigger, more badass destination if you want to leave the “small town” of Boston and try your luck in the big city. Sure, Boston has under a million in population, but that dials up to almost five million when you include Greater Boston.
The Midwest version of this phenomenon has all eyes on Chicago. It’s an interesting outlier case because, arguably, the East Coast and West Coast have a variety of mega metropoli to choose from, whereas in the Midwest seems like it’s Chicago or bust.
By the way, new adds to the 4th Wall experience: title cards announcing the bands “Coming Soon.” Like they were movies or something. Very on theme for the theatre-going atmosphere.
Husbands
Local act and gazey artcore emo lords Husbands closed. Plenty of room to roam for the lead guitarist, who really stretched out the feedback space during the set. It’s kind of a lost art, feedback. After becoming a bit of a cliche in the 90s alt rock scene (unless you were masters of the art like Sonic Youth), you started hearing it less. But just lately I’m starting to hear it more in clubs, a little feedback renaissance.
Finger-tapping guitar technique is making more of an appearance lately too, though not necessarily with Husbands. The technique was always associated with a sort of over-the-top, masturbatory guitar wrangling by dudes trying to pack too many notes into each measure with really expensive guitars. Wouldn’t have predicted its resurgence in more lo fi sounds and settings. But if musicians are getting back into it, why not?
Husbands trotted out a new song. Didn’t catch the title. Sounded heavy.
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