| By now this is old news, but just in case you haven’t heard, The Night Gallery Cabaret has closed its doors for good. The legendary Calgary venue has played host to the best bands around, local and otherwise, and been home to some of the most memorable Calgary rock ’n’ roll moments of the last 10 years. My personal favourite Night Gallery memory is the farewell show for Slow Fresh Oil – the bass player broke a string and proceeded to storm offstage, yelling at his guitar player and drummer that the show was over. He then started smashing his guitar into little pieces as the rest of the band (who went on to form Whitey Houston without him) finished the show without him. That performance demonstrated both why they were great and why they had to stop playing together. And it was very funny. Rest in peace Night Gallery.
The Vans Warped tour is coming to Calgary, and some local bands have been asked to join the "radical" and "tubular" Calgary stop. Hip hop act Dragon Fli Empire will perform at Race City Speedway on July 14, and 5 Star Affair, Kilbourne and Bogart will each be performing on the Shira Girl stage (a stage dedicated to female-fronted or all-lady bands).
Hey, bands who aren’t metal bands! You should tell Fast Forward about the stuff that you’re up to. All I seem to write about is metal. What’s up with that? Inspected By 40 dropped us a line to let us know about their all-ages show on July 8 at the Bankview Community Hall. They’re working on a new album right now to follow up last year’s Cougar Bait – an album that featured a bare naked woman hanging off the cannon of a tank as part of the artwork. Hey, look at how much ink I’m devoting to a band that has an album called Cougar Bait!
All Calgarians know by now that the Calgary Stampede is on the way out, so most people are getting behind the new Calgary Slampede at The Underground on July 9. The event has been described by one of the participating bands, Johnny Incognito, as "an evening of loud music of all descriptions to lovingly say ‘(darn) you’ to the corporate shindigs and beer tub (ladies) throughout the more posh bars in town."
Other local bands scheduled to perform are The Amazing Larrys, and The Borderguards. Although it is meant to be an escape from the Stampede, I’m sure that Slampede will not be so rebelliously joyless as to deprive punk and metal fans of the two main staples of a July in Calgary – testicle binding and drunk guys.
This just in – everybody’s dad just started a band called Olde School here in Calgary. They’re a cover band apparently bent on world domination. Go ahead and check them out at www.oldeschoolrocks.com. You won’t be sorry (maybe).
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