FringePop Day 1

World Famous Riflemen, Les Mods, Fantasy

With rumours circulating about PonyUp forcing a member to have her teeth replaced or capped or replaced with crunky ODB-style gold ones, about PopMontreal's Communication Guru disappearing on a red-eye flight to Connecticut on Wednesday with a controversial and possibly anti-Semitic t-shirt, as well as about PopMontreal head Dan Seligman's recent conversion to either Leonard Cohen-style Zen Buddhism or joining a group of boots-n-braces skins, the PopMontreal-curated portion of the Fringe Festival began. Yes, I hate theatre-people, too.

There were a couple of issues with the FringePop portion of the Fringe Festival even prior to the bands taking the stage - firstly, the Condo Association representing the residents next door to the park had negotiated a 90db limit on sound (which, despite it being a rock show, is relatively fair - exposure to 90db results in hearing loss over a 7-8 hour period - after that, the period is cut in half with every increase of 5db) and secondly, none of the larger acts asked to initially perform at the opening of the Fringe panned out - Buck 65, formerly known as both Stinkin' Rich and Richard Tefry, either wasn't available or didn't like negotiating with theatre-hippies. (Other possibilities: The Dears, Wolf Parade) Thankfully the organizers don't appear to be Hour fans, and the fourth-rate Le NY Dolls coverband, Poxy, weren't offered the opening night slot.

I arrived late, having missed both the opening set by the World Famous Riflemen and Les Mods (they of the rapidly rising chart-position at the UQAM station) after attempting to negotiate myself through the heavily-perfumed swarms on lower St. Laurent. The lanky fellow with the moustache and longer hair who plays in this group and who I've spotted at Korova (occasionally) plays in this group, he described the group as "shit."

Impending Pendantry!

Adam and I drank a couple of plastic cups of St. Ambroise (OFFICIAL SPONSOR) beer, smoked cigarettes and hung out as Fantasy set up. Immediately repressed memories of wretched East Van house-parties came flowing back as Fantasy began playing, opening with a rather mundane by-the-book take on Olivia Newton John's "Physical." Devo, Human League, Eurythmics, Survivor, blecht. It's not just that there's something terribly wrong with irony and music being chained together and forced to fuck, it's that they've been fucking for far too long and the stench is beginning to set into my clothes. People seemed to enjoy them - the familiar list of 80's songs performed along with a cadre of aerobics buffs led by a slightly obnoxious (wooooooah, really?) woman in a leotard and leg-warmers. I may have enjoyed it more had I known these people, had the sight of my seemingly prosaic friends come alive and strutting around a stage, high-kicking and growling along to karoake, slightly tipsy warmed my heart and made me appreciate their good natured sense of humour. The soundguy, for his part, seemed to be playing along, and though I don't know if that was an ironic fanny pack or an ironic ponytail on his part, I know that by the reverb he put on the snare drum microphone, his heart was in the right place.

Before leaving the stage, Fantasy admonished us to visit their website and to keep an eye out for performances every Tuesday and Thursday during the month of July, because as is common knowledge, a bad joke, repeated again and again, eventually becomes hilarious. I'll be checking out the performers tonight, including self-proclaimed (and therefore, nancy-boy wussie Phil Collins-lovers) Postal Service fans, Statue Park. Shame!

I should note that there was an error on the scheduling in the post below, which has now been fixed.

Tonight
6pm Andrea Revel
7pm Statue Park
8pm ?Alice!