Well then! Another year, another festival. After the excellent (and free) breakfast thrown by Mint Records and Beatroute Magazine at Local 510 yesterday, everyone got a nice chance to get caught up on cleaning or yard work or sleep or noise rock (take your pick?) I opted for the first two, much to the dismay of my tiiiiired-out body.

After a delicious clover coffee at Kawa followed by a huge feed of sushi at Sushi Kawa (too many rivers!) I made my way to Dicken's to see Lethbridge's Myelin Sheaths, who have the best band name in the world. I'm completely serious here: sorry hip-starz, it's all down hill from here. Also, they have a catchy-ass song called the Mental Twist that has "local summer favourite" written all over it. Also, I didn't get too much of a chance to look around Dicken's, but it seems like a pretty sweet place for shows: Yay for new venues!

Fortunately, we managed to duck onto a C-train and cruise all the way across downtown to the Hifi club where I hoped to see BRAIDS of Montreal, a band formerly known as the Neighbourhood Council of Calgary. They were never my favourite band, but I always enjoyed their shows and I was curious to find out how their time in the world's best musician-gestating city was going. Well, apparently I wasn't alone because the venue was utterly packed! There was a huge line and, in spite of my best efforts to invoke "journalistic privilege," there was no way I was getting in. Oh well, next time?

So we went to Broken City and caught the tail end of a raucous set by Bayonets!!! who were followed by Friday night's secret headliners Obits. The venue was as packed as ever and I thought the band delivered a superb set of tight, straight-up rock. What could be better?

At that point, there were about five shows I wanted to hit, but I went with my gut and headed back to the Hifi for Malajube, a band that breathes new life into the melodic prog-pop of groups like Supertramp. I'd never seen them live, but their recent album Labyrinthes had struck me as the sort of material that would sound great played life and it was just that! I am pretty convinced that within 20 minutes I saw the two best guitar solos of the entire festival. Yes!

Finally, of course, I had to make one last stop at the Legion for Quintron & Miss Pussycat, if only because of this video:

Still, while the Drum Buddy was definitely in the house, it was hardly the high point of last night's show, that honour belonging to the illustrious performers themselves. Joined on stage at various intervals by a crazed-looking King Khan (who I'm not altogether sure was needed or wanted,) the duo blasted through a high-energy set that was a perfect way to close out the fest.

And that's about it! I did stop by an after-party at Artlife briefly, but that was around the time my knees started to give out so I figured it might be time to make a quiet exit. Likewise, there's a BBQ going on at Broken City right now (2-5 PM, I believe) but I think I might just go back to bed. Feel like I could sleep for a whole week.