Thursday was all right for a night of vintage punk culture.

 Vancouver based punk author Chris Walter was at Inferno, June 11 to promote his new book  “ Under The Cult The Real McKenzies Exposed.”

 The Winnipeg born Walter has written books about Canadian punk icons  SNFU, The Dayglo Abortions, Personality Crisis and several punk culture inspired novels.

 Bob Scallywag began the night with a  set of energetic acoustic punk music after which Walter did a reading from his new book and cut it short after being  interrupted.

 He made way For Hugh River/ Okotoks/ Calgary  female metal trip Perception of Pain who showed girls can rock as hard as the boys.

They played a decent set of punk mixed with metal but with more punk. Their new bassist  Zoë Grace-Ann added a basic but driving rhythm to Tanessa Von Meisel’s guitar and Colleen Spunk’s thundering drums.
 Spence and Von Von Meisel’s vocals were lost in a wall of sound.

 
 They sounded like a mix of Kittie, Joan Jett and the Plasmatics especially on their song “Hate for the World.”

There were no solos but lots of punk intensity. They will be back in Lethbridge at Inferno, June 25 with Toronto garage punk duo Artificial Dissemination.

 I hadn’t seen Lethbridge classic style metal band Lock N’ Load for a few years, so it was nice to see them back. They have been playing a lot more over the past month and have  been practicing.

 They had plenty of  Metallica style riffs and hot guitar solos with a driving bass and drums.

— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor

Danny Michel always draws a crowd when he plays Lethbridge — even in the middle of the week. So I wasn’t too surprised to barely be able to move at the Slice, June 10 as  his fans came out in force.

It was just the Toronto based songwriter, his guitar, effects and his huge grin entertaining the captivated crowd, most of them hanging on every word.

 He was well into his set by the time arrive, but I get there to hear an older song “Two Hearts” and a few of his more popular numbers including “What Colour Are You,” “Love Until You break Your heart,” ”Sad and Beautiful World” and Tennessee Tobacco, ” which drew several dancers to the front of the stage.

 He was friendly, warm, affable and chipper as always,  caressing his guitar, surreptitiously bending down to adjust and effect and start some seamless looping.

 As always he sounded a lot like Paul Simon’s sweet, comfortable brand of ’70s folk rock.
I was pleased to catch a few of my favourites like “Sad and Beautiful World” and “ crowd Favourite “Tennessee Tobacco.”

  The crowd cheered loudly at the end of the show. He returned to the stage saying “ I”m here, you don’t have to do that anymore.”

 He finished off the show by premiering a brand new song.
“ I hate the phrase ‘good old days.’ These are the good old days,” he said, before singing a song he “wrote a few days ago” echoing those sentiments.

 It was catchy enough to have most of the crowd humming along with it and vocalizing along with the bridge of the song.

A good crowd ready and willing to dance enjoyed an all ages show  at the Gate with Vancouver synth rock duo Dear Rouge and local pop band Stars from Streetlights, June 9.

 Whole I missed Stars From Streetlights, they had the all ages audience properly warmed up for husband and wife Duo Danielle and Drew McTaggart.

 They were backed by a  drummer as well as a keyboardist/ bassist.
 They played peppy, upbeat, synthesizer driven dance filled pop music.

As Danielle McTaggart alternated between playing her own synth, and bouncing all over the stage belting out her lyrics.

 She jumped into the middle of the audience, mic cord stretched across the  stage, and sang with her many fans.
I couldn’t hear much of her lyrics over the synths and drums, but they put on a hot, sweaty, energetic show for a crowd eager to dance and cheer in front of the stage.

They played mostly  original dance pop music filled with plenty of hooks, heaps of big beats and a whole lot of groove, but also gave Blondie’s  ’80s hit “ Call Me” the dance rock treatment.

 They played  the music from their major label debut CD “Black To Gold”  as well as dug back into their back catalogue to “ go old school” for a few older tunes for which they got the audience to “go old school and put your hands in the air.”

 University of Lethbridge based community radio station CKXU had a hot night of toe tapping rock on their hands at the Slice, June 6 for a Love and Records  encore presentation of Good For Grapes and The Wet Secrets.

 I don’t remember Vancouver‘s  Good For Grapes playing Love and Records, but they should.

They’ve stepped up their game since the last time their were here at least two years ago.

 they were great. They played original folk rock music with a trombone and cello decorated with spine tingling vocal harmonies.

 They were  awesome especially those  gorgeous multi-part vocal harmonies. One of many highlights was an unusual almost orchestral arrangement of the White Stripes’ “ Seven Nation Army.”

 The trombone  played the ear-worm of a main riff which was doubled by guitar and bass with a whole lot of other sounds piled on top of it.

 The trombone player switched to violin for another song.
 Edmonton bass and horns powered rock band the Wet Secrets were the runaway hit of last year’s Love and Records and have taken off since then, winning the latest PEAK Performance competition.

 So it was great to see them rocking the Slice again. They were resplendent in red and white band uniforms as they blew through a long, exciting,sweaty set of original music featuring horns and a the bass right up front. Drummer  Trevor Alexander  held the chaos together with solid rhythm.

Together they  played bass and horn and percussion powered pop music with a plethora of profanity  thrown in.

 They were as hot and sweaty  as the close to sold out  crowd dancing up the dust in front of the stage.
 They are always a whole lot of fun.

So they played a lot of new songs plus highlights from their most recent album “ Free Candy.” One of many highlights was  a three person, drum  and percussion jam on “Nightlife.” Other highlights were a couple of new songs including “Quelle Suprise” about making bad life choices.

 They were planning on taking a break, with “Sunshine” but because the crowd was dancing and cheering, they kept going.
So they carried on though  several older songs including “ Douche” about a guy lead singer Lyle Bell hated when he wrote it.

It featured  the brass section singing douche douche, douche as the background ground melody while lead bassist and vocalist Lyle Bell sang “You've been a Douche Bag lately.”

 Sounded like Five Alarm Funk without guitars and with a little more angst.

Bell’s bass held down the main riffs of the songs, but never overpowered the songs themselves as the horn section and other members added their colours and tones to the tunes.