Futensil + Fear Eat Soul + O-voids + Ultra Thin @ SQUALOR

so every week now in montreal some motherfucker decides to open a new venue..they've been sprouting up on both sides of the city in ever greater numbers since BLACK DOT was closed down. last week was my first experience with one of the newest spaces yet, the aptly named SQUALOR. im not too sure but theyve been around for a couple of months i figure.

i drove down to st-henri with a bunch of mooks, found some free parking on Notre-Dame street near Rose-De-Lima and proceeded to walk west looking for the typical conflagration of indie hipsters huddled outside a building smoking which would indicate the presence of a musical engagement. sure enough after a couple of blocks we came upon the singer of FUTENSIL having a cigarette along with a few other random mopes outside what looked like any other stretch of notre dame. some condos and a shitty antiques stores next door, nothing to indicate the DIY sex orgy taking place only meters away from us.

squalor is completely fucked. you walk into an apartment building, up a flight of steps, down a a dirty dilapidated corridor with holes in the gyprock and dirty cigarette butts everywhere, then down ANOTHER flight of steps, the environment becoming more toxic and foul with every inch. you bang your head on the low ceiling that has been padded with yellowed foam so as to protect the innocent children who call SQUALOR theyr home, and down a final slush adorned corridor where the sounds of human beings in the throes of rock music stupor reverberates like a wave of power. through the last door and youve crossed into the looking glass motherfuckers. dark and damp, a bare ass sub basement has been painted red and green, persian carpets cover one wall completely and there are fucking old mattresses stuffed into the ceiling in an effort to dampen the sound and thereby minimize the level of police involvement. in one corner there is a make shift bar selling beers and god damn packs of native cigarettes! they even sell fucking singles for 25c, better than a fucking depp.

the place was like something out of NYC 1982 or some shit, packed to the fucking gills with beautiful hipster girls in theyr best gig outfits and novelty glasses, ratty fucking boys with hairy faces and focus group haircuts, punxkxx rockxx kids from ndg who stood out like sore thumbs with theyr dirty boots and hoodies. And of course the prerequisite smattering of band members from various bands , shmoozing and boozing to theyr hearts content. there were even a few old people ( i think those were the o-voids OHHHH! ). no smoking allowed in the venue, and the place must have a capacity of like 150 people id say, there were at least 100 people packed in there for fridays gig, a very very good turn out considering 2 of the bands were having theyr first shows that nite, and the other two are not TOO well known in the city. blame it on chloe from aids wolf, who pimped out ultrathin in her blog a couple of weeks ago, officialy granting them MYSPACE HOT status.

part II with actual review of the gig up soon as im done smoking this spliff and going to tim hortons.