1974-1987 Montreal punk rock (and other related stuff) CONCERTOGRAPHY

[rick trembles]

I've noticed that happen a lot at gigs when someone from the crowd gets a chance at the mic.  It's funny how, given the opportunity to express themselves in front of a group of listeners, a lot of people's first instinct is to yell FUCK OFF!

even worse is when they simply scream at the top of their lungs no discernable words (which is exactly what I did when Corpusse shoved his mike in my face a few years ago cuz I wuz so drunk). at least make the scream rhyme with the previous line!

[rick trembles]

I remember also doing one for The 222s at the same venue & I called them "legendary" on the poster & Chris Barry took such offense to it, cuz I guess it made his band sound old, that he bitched about it live onstage!

[suck up]These days, YOU calling anyone ''legendary'' is good for bragging rights for at least 5 years!  [/suck up]*swallows*

that was legendary

[Chris Burns]

10/24 – DEVO (Cleveland) / El Casino

They played two shows, by the way, one earlier and one later.  I wasn't there, but I heard the two shows were exactly the same in terms of set list, choreography, between song banter, etc.  Just like some sort of slick Broadway show or Vegas revue.  The only discernable difference was during Praying Hands, where the lyric goes:  Well your left hand diddles now, while your right hand goes to work.  Apparently, Mark Mothersbaugh put his mic up to a fan in the audience at the second part of the lyric.  During the first show, the fan sang the right hand goes to work line.  During the second, the person yelled FUCK OFF!

How the HELL do you know all this shit? I was AT that show & I don't remember any of that crap! But I do know I still have one of the original signature DEVO yellow plastic work jackets with their logo on it from when they would routinely strip down into their other wardrobe onstage & toss their previous clothes into the audience. I dove & tussled for it. Thing's in my closet as we speak. Loved that Devo show so much our drummer in The Electric Vomit wore that trophy jacket when we played live once.

Lawrence Joseph told me about it.  He went to both shows.  I was a HUGE fan of the first Devo album (still am) and was sorry to have been too young to have attended.  I can't remember my fucking telephone number sometimes, but shit like that I never forget!

By the way, he told me that the ripping off of their outfits was also identical in both sets, as was the crawling around under the garbage bags covering the stage.

[rick trembles]

By the way, he told me that the ripping off of their outfits was also identical in both sets, as was the crawling around under the garbage bags covering the stage.

yeah that garbage bag stage floor was wacky, they looked like a buncha whack-a-moles burrowing under every once in a while & then popping their heads out. BTW the sound was ULTRA-TIGHT, AGGRESSIVE, HEAVY, LOUD, & DIRTY unlike like the record, tho I'm nuts about that first record too

[Chris Burns]

Here is another one for the list:

1982

October 15th :  American Devices + Impossible Impossible (reunion) + george a, Chris Burns, and Lawrence Joseph (pre-Terminal Sunglasses) with Chris Barry @ Scottish Hall

My first gig ever.  The band had no name (a few months later we had another singer-guitarist and were called Terminal Sunglasses).  I played bass on three or four songs.  Chris Barry sang and played saxophone.

I can also recall seeing Men Without Hats playing at Dawson College's old Selby campus, probably sometime in 81 or 82, as well as Comsat Angels at Cargo, around the same time.

[rick trembles]

george a, Chris Burns, and Lawrence Joseph with Chris Barry @ Scottish Hall... I played bass on three or four songs.  Chris Barry sang and played saxophone.

I'm trying real hard to envision what the hell that musta sounded like & it's making my ears hurt (the sax part esp.). Can you elaborate? Was Barry going thru a James Chance phase or something?

I remember Mimi Re/Tardif used to carry around a sax & hop onstage once in a while to blurt out god-awful noises but it was more like a prop or fashion accessory.

[rick trembles]

I can also recall seeing Men Without Hats playing at Dawson College's old Selby campus, probably sometime in 81 or 82.

was that all-guitar pre-synth? I remember when our ex bass player dave hill was in it circa 70's they used to have this beautiful haunting sick poster they'd paste up around town that was nothing but a photo of a dead baby in a tiny coffin with "men without hats" written above. I figured that was dave's influence. wish I woulda held onto one of those

[Chris Burns]

04/09 – TERMINAL SUNGLASSES + 7 other bands  / Concordia University / 2$ before 7pm / 3$ after 7pm

This kind of makes it seem like we were headlining, which we weren't.  It was a thing that CRSG radio organized with a whack of local bands.   They ended up doing it in subsequent years and it went by the title of Jungle Bash.

Some of the other bands I recall being on the bill were One Hand Clapping and American Devices.  I'm less sure, but I think also The Nils, The Paradots, and This Blue Piano.  I don't remember who else. 

Rick, got a poster for that one kickin' around somewhere?  I recall it said: Featuring DJ Spunk rather prominently on it.

[Chris Burns]

09/15 – THE NILS + THE CHROMOSOMES / Le Station (Pointe–Claire)

EJ Brulé also crashed his way into that gig, in between the two bands.  I think it may have been the last gig at that bar.  I remember Terminal Sunglasses were slated to play it a short while later, but it stopped having shows by then.

[rick trembles]

Rick, got a poster for that one kickin' around somewhere?

I have a huge shitload of local band MTL show posters from the 70s thru the early 80's & into the 90's. I put a few online but only the ones I thought were relevant to my site at the time. I've been meaning to scan the whole lot of them & post them somewhere. Guess I should finally set aside a couple of days & do it.

Here's some: http://www.snubdom.com/posters.htm

Below: last "d-vices" show before we changed it to "american devices" (1980)...

[scratchy45]

1979
11/08 –  IGGY POP (Detroit) / Auditorium Le Plateau / 7.50$

The Viletones opened.

1980
02/19 – GARY NUMAN (U.K.) / St–Denis Theatre 1

Nash The Slash opened.

Yup, ah wuz at both o' those, it's all coming back (so that's when I saw NtS...)

10/24 – DEVO (Cleveland) / El Casino

They played two shows, by the way, one earlier and one later.  I wasn't there, but I heard the two shows were exactly the same in terms of set list, choreography, between song banter, etc.  Just like some sort of slick Broadway show or Vegas revue.  The only discernable difference was during Praying Hands, where the lyric goes:  Well your left hand diddles now, while your right hand goes to work.  Apparently, Mark Mothersbaugh put his mic up to a fan in the audience at the second part of the lyric.  During the first show, the fan sang the right hand goes to work line.  During the second, the person yelled FUCK OFF!

I've noticed that happen a lot at gigs when someone from the crowd gets a chance at the mic.  It's funny how, given the opportunity to express themselves in front of a group of listeners, a lot of people's first instinct is to yell FUCK OFF!

I remember the two shows being the same too (heard the first one as I was lining up for the second) and it left me with the same Vegas-y feeling. Having witnessed David Jo & Syl Syl incarnating Rock And Roll in the same room a week before, it seemed kinda gimmicky by comparison.

Nobody here saw Lou at the Hotel Nelson? The idea of that blows my tiny mind, specially having been to other shows in that wee joint. I got to Mtl a few months too late!

I knew a guy who carried a chip about missing the Dolls show well into adult life. His folks had grounded him from going to the actual show; it was supposed to be broadcast subsequently on CHOM, but there was a power outage in his Waste Island hood the night of that!

[globule2]

I got to Mtl a few months too late!

And about a year late to stillepost - Rick T had stories about both the the Reed & Dolls gigs and coincidentally, recordings of both were torrented on Dime A Dozen shortly afterwards.
BTW, the NYDolls show was broadcast by CKOI's precursor, not CHOM.

[scratchy45]

OK, that makes more sense: had to believe that Chom would play the Dolls.

[scratchy45]

yah
it was at black lite possibly with DBC

...and that makes sense, 'cause Chinese Bumwads & Bourbon Lushmen were pretty much contemporaneous!
I came across a tape from that t'other day, with "DO NOT LISTEN" scrawled across it, so I listened... We played really late, and our other guitarist was pissed as a proverbial newt & horribly out-of-tune: through some freak of psycho-acoustics it sounds like he's at 440 & the rest of us are fukt! Then:  Now: 

[globule2]

The list currently starts in 1974, but if a '78 Reed show qualifies, shouldn't a late '60s Velvets show as well?
I see that Heylin starts with the VU:


I was actually searching on-line for a used copy of Heylin's book on the history of bootlegs when I saw the above. I was surprised to find that he published the following two books in short succession: Great White Wonders and Bootleg: the Secret History of the Other Recording Industry . Anybody know how do these differ, if at all?

[scratchy45]

The list currently starts in 1974, but if a '78 Reed show qualifies, shouldn't a late '60s Velvets show as well?

R U saying that the Velvets played here???

[globule2]

Yup.

[scratchy45]

........? (Don't be coy!)

[Komakino]

Any late 60's-early 70's Stooges gigs? Modern Lovers? I don't see any SSD gigs listed either.

[realerman]

and Hendrix opened for Cream at the Paul Sauvé arena
up on beaubien and pie ix
just across from my old high school ! rosemount
 I was way too young but my cousin Marcello went '68-'69?

[globule2]

........? (Don't be coy!)

I didn't have the details at my fingertips and did not want to guess. 
January 16-23, 1967 (likely)
and
April 19, 1968 (perhaps not)
were apparently the dates and a recording of the latter may exist.

That Hendrix show at Paul Sauve was also torrented last year.

[Chris Burns]

wow, I had no idea the Devices opened up for Jesus and Mary Chain. I didn't go to that but heard they were booed off the stage almost (not Devices, the Chain). They sucked real bad when I saw them a few years later, too, one of the worse live bands ever.

Jesus and Mary Chain were touring in support of their first LP (the only one I ever bought, or paid much attention to).  They had already built a reputation for turning their backs to the audience, making ear splitting feedback for twenty minutes and then leaving, which had caused more than one riot at previous gigs.  U.K. press was making much ballyhoo over them and calling them things like "the new Sex Pistols".  Spectrum was well aware of this and had it stipulated clearly in their contract that they would have to play at least 40 or 45 minutes, or thereabouts (at that point, I don't really think they had a hell of a lot more material than that anyways, and 40 minutes of what they were doing at that time is plenty, but I digress). 

I don't remember anyone booing.  I had been really excited about the "Never Understanding" EP and was just beginning to get into the LP but I recall it being very anticlimactic and getting rather bored.  Of course, it is often difficult to not feel a bit of let down after playing an opening set, no matter who is on stage.  I remember the Jesus and Mary Chain were in a particularly foul mood (apparently they were always pretty surly) because when they arrived for sound check in Montréal after having played New York the night before, they were disgusted to discover that someone had stuck a pig's head in one of their drum cases.  We did not share a dressing room and were told not to try and mingle.

I remember realising after about a half hour that nothing else was going to happen; that it wasn't going to live up to its hype and blow my mind or get everyone riled up to the point of starting a riot or anything and went back to the backstage area to sneak into their dressing room, figuring I might be able to steal some of their beer while they were on stage.  One of their roadies made sure I did not succeed, however, not wanting anyone to repeat the previous night's "prank" and slipping who knows what animal parts into their gear.

[globule2]

Do you have a date for that show, Chris?
I think I may have been there, but my memory is of four bands being on the bill (incl Mighty Lemon Drops and/or Teardrop Explodes).

[Chris Burns]

05/23 – THE RAMONES (New York) + LUCIEN FRANCOEUR / Auditorium Le Plateau / 8.75$

Ben voyons donc!
+ le prix qui fait rire.

Je n'étais pas là mais mon frère est aller et il connaissait Lucien Francoeur parce qu'il était professeur au cégep John Abbott College, où mon frère allait et où mon père était prof, aussi.  C'était le premier concert punk rock pour mon frère et il m'avait dit que les punks crachaient sur Lucien Francoeur et lui criaient des choses et Francoeur a réagit en les donnant des claques avec la base de son mic stand!  Ouch!

Lucien Francoeur a récemment reformer Aut'Chose avec des members de Voivod, Grimskunk et Groovy Aardvark.

[scratchy45]

I didn't know LF was a JAC prof; though it makes sense, 'cause our mutual acquaintance is (actually, I think he's retiring as we speak...)
What did your da teach, and what're his & your bro's names? I was there '78-'80: I remember there being a (student) Robert Burns who was in theatah, and thinking "har har, Robbie Burns." He didn't look a lot like you; kind of fair-hairedy, as I recall.

[Chris Burns]

I'm a little confused about some of the dates and listings on the list.  There are a bunch of shows listed as taking place at Club Montréal that are dated pre-1982.  I'm pretty sure Le Club Montréal only opened in 1982, and that PIL was it's inaugural show.  Was there another place called Club Montréal?

[Chris Burns]

george a, Chris Burns, and Lawrence Joseph with Chris Barry @ Scottish Hall... I played bass on three or four songs.  Chris Barry sang and played saxophone.

I'm trying real hard to envision what the hell that musta sounded like & it's making my ears hurt (the sax part esp.). Can you elaborate? Was Barry going thru a James Chance phase or something?

I remember Mimi Re/Tardif used to carry around a sax & hop onstage once in a while to blurt out god-awful noises but it was more like a prop or fashion accessory.

george a, Lawrence and I came out and played a Swell Maps medley and possibly a couple of other instrumental, jammy type of un-finished things.  Chris Barry then joined us and sang a bit, honked a bit, tussled his hair a lot, smoked, drank, and adopted the "I need to pee" stance all at the same time.  The song we did with him was "My Cat Got Run Over by a Bus", but I think it probably was a somewhat different version from what it later became.

I don't remember ever seeing Mimi play sax.  I do remember her singing in Decibel Hell, however.  RIP.

[Chris Burns]

I can also recall seeing Men Without Hats playing at Dawson College's old Selby campus, probably sometime in 81 or 82.

was that all-guitar pre-synth? I remember when our ex bass player dave hill was in it circa 70's they used to have this beautiful haunting sick poster they'd paste up around town that was nothing but a photo of a dead baby in a tiny coffin with "men without hats" written above. I figured that was dave's influence. wish I woulda held onto one of those

No, they were pretty much full into their synth-pop mode.  It was just after their first release, that "Folk of the 80's" EP.  There was bass and guitar and violin, but also plenty of synths and a drum machine.  They actually kept having technical problems all night and songs kept grinding to a halt.  I remember the drummer from The Blanks (Howie?) saying "You see?  Technology can't be relied on.  That's why you need a real human drummer!".

I heard that when they first started it was a different beast.  Apparently they did a lot of Velvet Underground covers.  Did you ever see them in those days?

One thing I remember being impressed by at that Dawson show was that they had managed to project a slide of their trademark Men Without Hats logo on to the wall of an adjacent building so you could see it lit up for blocks as you were heading to the show.  It was easy to know which way to go, as you just had to follow the beacon of light, three magi style!

[Chris Burns]

10/24 – DEVO (Cleveland) / El Casino

They played two shows, by the way, one earlier and one later.  I wasn't there, but I heard the two shows were exactly the same in terms of set list, choreography, between song banter, etc.  Just like some sort of slick Broadway show or Vegas revue.  The only discernable difference was during Praying Hands, where the lyric goes:  Well your left hand diddles now, while your right hand goes to work.  Apparently, Mark Mothersbaugh put his mic up to a fan in the audience at the second part of the lyric.  During the first show, the fan sang the right hand goes to work line.  During the second, the person yelled FUCK OFF!

I've noticed that happen a lot at gigs when someone from the crowd gets a chance at the mic.  It's funny how, given the opportunity to express themselves in front of a group of listeners, a lot of people's first instinct is to yell FUCK OFF!

I remember the two shows being the same too (heard the first one as I was lining up for the second) and it left me with the same Vegas-y feeling. Having witnessed David Jo & Syl Syl incarnating Rock And Roll in the same room a week before, it seemed kinda gimmicky by comparison.

Again, I wasn't at either of the Devo shows.  This was from Lawrence's description but my saying it was all staged as slick and tight as a Vegas style revue was not meant as derogatory.  I actually am rather impressed by it and so was Lawrence.

I never ever cared for any of David Johansen's solo material (and don't get me started on either Buster Poindexter or Syl Sylvain's solo shit)!

[rick trembles]

I heard that when they first started it was a different beast.  Apparently they did a lot of Velvet Underground covers.  Did you ever see them in those days? ...Men Without Hats

I have a very, very vague memory of seeing Ivan MWH onstage in the 70's at the Hotel Nelson when they were just guitars but their band didn't grab me so I just mingled around & distracted myself while they played. Did they play there? Same thing with Allan Lord, same venue, same vibe. There was something too sedate about them. I viewed them as more "new wave-ish" than anything else. More commercial. I was 16 what can I say, I wanted to see crazy subversive stuff. Speaking of Lucien Francoeur, didn't Allan Lord get involved with him at one point?

[Chris Burns]

OK, that makes more sense: had to believe that Chom would play the Dolls.

Actually, I wouldn't be so surprised if CHOM did play the New York Dolls.  CHOM has definitely been like a cancer to the airwaves for ages now but, believe it or not, there was a time when it was much more liberal and adventurous.  The first time I ever heard The Sex Pistols "Anarchy in the UK" was on CHOM. 

Again, that station has been sucking the big one for over three decades though.

[rick trembles]

I don't remember ever seeing Mimi play sax.  I do remember her singing in Decibel Hell, however.  RIP.

I have video of Decibel Hell when we opened for The Chromosomes. She's pretty funny in it. We covered Thor, Thunders, & The Mad. Badly. No sax. I'll try to YouTuberize it one day. She played sax for some offshoot w/members of Impossible Impossible.

[Chris Burns]

Do you have a date for that show, Chris?
I think I may have been there, but my memory is of four bands being on the bill (incl Mighty Lemon Drops and/or Teardrop Explodes).

Well, Frank has it as having taken place some time during 1985 which seems about right, both in terms of my memory of the gig and as probably being the year "Psychocandy" was released.  The bill was definitely just American Devices, The Gruesomes and The Jesus and Mary Chain though.

[rick trembles]

Jesus and Mary Chain... We did not share a dressing room and were told not to try and mingle.

Yeah they were pretty precious. I remember not being very impressed with them either after all the hype. But maybe it's also cuz I was still reeling & distracted from our opening set. To their credit tho, they (or someone from their crew) insisted on having only the "weird" bands from whatever town they were in open for them on that tour. That's how we got on the bill, cuz otherwise we never got many plum gigs back then. I was impressed with the list of openers in other cities too, bands I wanted to see more than them.

[Chris Burns]

........? (Don't be coy!)

I didn't have the details at my fingertips and did not want to guess. 
January 16-23, 1967 (likely)
and
April 19, 1968 (perhaps not)
 were apparently the dates and a recording of the latter may exist.

Thanks for the link to those VU songs!

[Maraska Slivovica]

05/23 – VOIVOD + CELTIC FROST + FAIR WARNING + DBC / Rising Sun / 13$ (I'm not quite sure this show really happened)

I asked Blacky, he doesn't remember Voivod ever playing with Fair Warning, and he said he never played at the Rising Sun, only the Spectrum.

[Maraska Slivovica]

Jesus and Mary Chain were touring in support of their first LP (the only one I ever bought, or paid much attention to).  They had already built a reputation for turning their backs to the audience, making ear splitting feedback for twenty minutes and then leaving, which had caused more than one riot at previous gigs.

I really liked that feedback though, as a concept, more than someone who shelled out money for a ticket. That first LP was one of my favourite records that year.

[Chris Burns]

I didn't know LF was a JAC prof; though it makes sense, 'cause our mutual acquaintance is (actually, I think he's retiring as we speak...)
What did your da teach, and what're his & your bro's names? I was there '78-'80: I remember there being a (student) Robert Burns who was in theatah, and thinking "har har, Robbie Burns." He didn't look a lot like you; kind of fair-hairedy, as I recall.

Is the acquaintance André Farkas?  Is there a reason why you are not referring to him by name?  Did I just do something wrong by mentioning him?

The brother who went to see the Ramones was Michael, the one who played bass for me in Slaphappy 5 and Crackpot.  However, my other brother is the Robert whose name you would have noticed.  In fact, he is Robert Jr., as my father is also Robert, although he always goes by Bob Burns.  He taught humanities but was actually a founding father of John Abbott (and a major instigator in the whole introduction of the CEGEP system in Québec, as a medium between high school and university that did not exist), was director general for a number of years in the beginning and probably hired many of the profs you had!  He has since retired but my brother Robert is now teaching theater there (he has hired me to play guitar for a couple of their productions).

To further illustrate the six degrees of someone or other, did you ever have Ernie Tucker as a prof and did you know that he is Rebecca's dad?  Also, Rebecca's younger cousin, Missy, used to play in the excellent local act The Sunday Sinners. 

[Crawdaddy Simon]

Did anyone ever see STANLEY FRANK circa "S'cool Days"? I'm not sure if he played around town back then.

[Chris Burns]

Jesus and Mary Chain were touring in support of their first LP (the only one I ever bought, or paid much attention to).  They had already built a reputation for turning their backs to the audience, making ear splitting feedback for twenty minutes and then leaving, which had caused more than one riot at previous gigs.

I really liked that feedback though, as a concept, more than someone who shelled out money for a ticket. That first LP was one of my favourite records that year.

Oh yeah, I was really into the record too and I'm sure it played a factor in the actual gig being anti-climactic.  I eventually got tired of the LP and sold it, however.  I kept the Never Understanding EP and a few of the singles, though.  I remember listening to them not long before losing them in the fire and thinking that Never Understanding especially still sounded pretty fucking great!